Deciphering Decision Making Style of Indian Youth: Evidences from Post Graduate Students from Lucknow City, India

Abstract

Purpose: How a consumer approaches and decides on the products/services he wants to purchase, how he arrives at his final decision, how he compares different available alternatives, which factors influence his approach and what guides his decision making process etc. are some questions bothering the marketers for many years. Consumers have been characterized as quality seekers, novelty fashion seekers, comparison shoppers, information seekers and habitual or brand loyal consumers. (Bettman 1979, Jacoby and Chestnut 1978, Maynes 1976; Miller 1981, Sproles 1986; Thorelli et al 1975).

A consumer decision making style has cognitive and affective characteristics and is defined as a mental orientation characterizing consumer's approach to making choices. Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) to measure consumer decision making styles. The CSI has been investigated across cultures such as New Zealand, South Korea, Greece, India and China (Durvasula, Lysonski and Andrews 1993, Fan and Xiao 1998; Hafstrom, Chae and Chung 1992; Lysonski, Durvasula, and Zotos 1996). Some researchers (Lysonski et al 1996) have commented that the CSI is appropriate for application to developed countries only.

This paper applies CSI in Indian context. It has been used in Lucknow city and the paper makes an attempt to identify the decision making style amongst youth. Further the paper discusses the managerial and research implications of the same.

Findings: Factor analysis was used to check the reliability and validity of the items taken. Five decision making styles namely a) Perfectionism or High Quality Consciousness, b) Brand Consciousness. C) Novelty Fashion Consciousness d) Recreational, Hedonistic Shopping Consciousness consumer and e) Confusion from over-choice were found to be significant amongst the sample taken. While the reliability coefficient of 3 styles was found to be much lower than the acceptable range. These styles were a) Price and Value for Money Shopping Consciousness, b) Impulsiveness and c) Habitual, brand loyal orientation towards consumption.

Research limitation: The research was limited to Lucknow city of Uttar Pradesh and covering youths enrolled in Post Graduate programs only. So the findings of the research may not be true representative for entire country and the various segments therein.

Research implications: The paper makes an attempt to identify the common decision making styles used by youth. The result is mixed while 5 decision making styles were found to be reliable but the average variance explained in most of the factors is not very encouraging thus implying more efforts are required in fine tuning the items of the decision making style to get a true picture of decision making styles especially amongst youth.

Hence, more research efforts are required to better understand the nuances, process and variables affecting decision making.

Originality/value:  Lot of work has been done to study the decision making style of customers. Still few studies have been done in Indian context and this paper makes an attempt to apply CSI in Indian context amongst youth (Post Graduate students) which are not only significant in terms of demographic figures but have the potential to define the way marketing will be done in upcoming years.