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Marketing Letters

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01.09.2012

The timing and context of consumer decisions

Insights from the life course paradigm

verfasst von: Euehun Lee, Anil Mathur, Choong Kwai Fatt, George P. Moschis

Erschienen in: Marketing Letters | Ausgabe 3/2012

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Abstract

Researchers have long recognized the importance of studying consumption activities over time, but they have had inadequate theories and methods for studying consumers over the course of their lives. This paper suggests that the life course paradigm that has been widely used in social sciences could be employed to overcome some limitations of previous consumer research. To illustrate its application, two consumption activities are used—one first-time and another repeat choice. Hypotheses are developed based on the most popular life course theoretical perspectives, and data from a national longitudinal study are used to test them. The results show that consumers are influenced by prior life experiences and future expectations, and they suggest the value of studying consumer behavior in time and context using the life course paradigm. Finally, the paper discusses implications for theory development and future research using this innovative approach.

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Both longitudinal and retrospective measures are appropriate in life course studies. Although measures taken over time intervals tend to be more reliable, especially those assessing psychological states (Henry et al. 1994), recent methodological advances in the development of sophisticated data gathering instruments, such as the event history calendar and the structure of autobiographical memory (e.g., Axim et al. 1999; Belli 1998), have increased the accuracy of retrospective measures and contributed to life course research.

Financial insruments were grouped into three general categories, based on their investment objectives: ‘safe investments that could produce lower than average income (like money market funds, CDs),’ ‘average-risk investments producing an average level of income (like balanced mutual funds, Ginnie Maes),’ and ‘risky investments that could produce much higher than average income (like stocks and options).’

EHA analyzes transition likelihood only during the specified or observed risk period of the study. Transitions that have occurred prior to or after the observed the risk period are treated as left-censored and right-censored cases, respectively. Thus, for example, those respondents who had already become members at an age/time prior to the beginning of the 5-year observation period, as well as after the same period, were treated as censored cases.

Our data seem to support this view. Further analyses showed that though age had a significant positive relationship with ASAS (r = .30, p < .001) and a significant negative correlation with CINV (−.119, p < .03), such relationships are not totally consistent with those of explanatory variables in the EHA models (Table 2).

Unobserved heterogeneity leads to not only selection bias in the effects of certain covariates but also bias in the duration effect (Yamaguchi 1991). In order to control for the effects of uncontrolled heterogeneity with respect to gender, STRATA option was used in Cox PL estimation in SPSS. This method treated males and females as two strata and computed different baseline survival functions for the two groups. Parameter estimates are pooled across strata and are reported for overall assessment of the model.

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Titel: The timing and context of consumer decisions
Insights from the life course paradigm
verfasst von: Euehun Lee
Anil Mathur
Choong Kwai Fatt
George P. Moschis
Publikationsdatum: 01.09.2012
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Marketing Letters / Ausgabe 3/2012
Print ISSN: 0923-0645
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-059X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-012-9182-5

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