ABSTRACT
This book is about decision making. Most of our daily decisions are made in the consumer domain, which makes consumer behavior a particularly worthwhile object for research on decision making. At least in industrialized and affluent societies, consumers are faced with an abundance of possible product choices. Any visit to the mall, any glance at a mail order catalogue, or any search on the Web will document the enormous amount and variety of alternatives in most product categories. Given the multitude of choices, marketers need to understand how consumers make their product and purchase decisions. Research in consumer behavior has proposed various models, which may differ in details but, by and large, share the same steps in the decision process (e.g., Engel, Blackwell, & Miniard, 1990). Not surprisingly, these models, although specific to consumer choice, are also quite similar to the more general models of decision making referred to throughout this book.
