Avaliação do instrumento Consumer Styles Inventory no contexto português

: os estilos de tomada de decisão dos consumidores

Abstract

The interest in the markets and how individuals behave as consumers of products and services has increased. Thus consumer psychology seeks to understand why and how individuals and groups engage in activities of consumption and how these affect them. It focuses on cognitive processes and behaviors that occur when individuals purchase or use products and services. Being an interdisciplinary field, it combines theories and methods of research areas such as Psychology, Marketing, Advertising, Economics, Sociology and Anthropology becoming important to study consumer behavior, specifically the decision making styles, because they play an important a role in consumer’s life. These styles can be measured by Consumers Styles Inventory (CSI), an instrument developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) to identify the decision making styles, assessing eight consumer decision styles: Perfectionism, High-Quality Conscious Consumer; Brand Conscious, “Price Equals Quality” Consumer; Novelty-Fashion Conscious Consumer; Recreational, Hedonistic Consumer; Price Conscious, “Value for Money” Consumer; Impulsive, Careless Consumer; Confused by Overchoice Consumer; Habitual, Brand-Loyal Consumer; Thus, the study seeks to adapt Consumers Styles Inventory within the Portuguese context, based on a sample of 229 participants aged between 16 and 79. Six of the eight factors proposed in the original study were confirmed, explaining 56,540% of the variance. The analysis of these styles provides professionals interested in the study of consumer behavior guidelines and patterns of consumers at the time of purchase and can help consumers understand their buying style and allow them to make better decisions. From an organizational point of view the obtained information about these styles can assist in market segmentation, helping on identifying and profiling distinct consumers. These styles of consumption may also be used, particularly by multinational organizations in the design of advertising messages and the type of communication used in different countries / cultures.

Date of Award	24 Feb 2014
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria de Fátima Rodrigues Leitão Lobo de Araújo (Supervisor)