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A Review on Sproles & Kendall's Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) for Analyzing Decision Making Styles of Consumers
Abstract
The purchase of goods or services includes a number of factors that affect decision making. Kotler's model of purchase process incorporates five stages that are Need recognition, Information search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase decision and Post purchase behavior. Among these, the consumer purchase decision making is more complex and even more important for consumers today than it was in the past. Marketers often seek to learn how and why people shop, this insight helps them to produce and package their products accordingly and be competitive in global terms. To profile an individual's decision style, Sporles and Kendall in 1986 developed a Consumer Style Inventory (CSI), based on the consumer characteristic approach, which focuses on different cognitive dimensions of consumer decision making. They tested it on American female student groups, further retested it, and came out with eight characteristics. Since then, CSI has been extensively tested on consumers of different countries by different researchers. The objective of the paper is to review the different studies conducted since 1986 to 2010 so that further research can get some direction and can contribute significantly to academia and marketers as well. The studies are classified as those conducted in developed countries, countries with emerging economies and those drawing inputs from both. After reviewing the studies, it seems that five characteristics are indispensable to all consumers irrespective of country, gender, age, culture and religion. These are : High quality conscious consumer, Brand conscious price equals quality consumer, Recreational/Hedonistic consumer, Price conscious value for money consumer, and Confused by over choice consumer. Hence, it was concluded that Sproles and Kendall's inventory can be very well used as a basic model.
... A comprehensive review by R. Jain and A. Sharma (2013) of the literature accumulated since 1986 to 2010 regarding the psychometric properties and utility of CSI indicated 5 styles indispensable to all consumers irrespective of country, gender, age, culture and religion. These are: high-quality consciousness, brand consciousness, recreational shopping, price consciousness, and confused by overchoice. ...
... These are: high-quality consciousness, brand consciousness, recreational shopping, price consciousness, and confused by overchoice. Based on their review, R. Jain and A. Sharma (2013) concluded that Sproles and Kendall's CSI can be very well used as a basic model for analyzing decision-making styles of consumers. ...
This paper examines shopping styles of female consumers in the context of a developing country, namely Malaysia. The conceptual framework of shopping styles designed by G.B. Sproles and E.L. Kendall (1986) was applied to understand this lucrative market segment. The total of 468 usable questionnaires were obtained via online survey. Factor analysis revealed 7 distinct dimensions that were labelled: 1) confused by overchoice; 2) cautious consumers; 3) quality consciousness; 4) brand consciousness; 5) fashion consciousness; 6) recreational; 7) time-energy conserving.
... The Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) has been extensively tested and retested in a wide variety of countries and purchasing contexts. Many empirical studies have observed cross-cultural variations in decisions styles, leading to numerous adaptations or modifications of the CSI scale for use in specific countries (Jain & Sharma, 2013). Consumer decision styles are important for marketers because they describe behaviours that are relatively stable over time and for this reason, they are useful for market segmentation (Mishra, 2015). ...
Women are increasingly controlling the purchase decision of the household and hence marketers are interested in understanding women better. Women challenge the roles that were once defined for them; many women conform to those roles and many others deny conformance. Women can no more be generalized and segmented based on their gender only. This study explores the social role of women and its impact on their buying behaviour. Results prove that very strong correlation exists between social role and shopping styles.
... Parece-nos que a relação entre variáveis podia se tornar mais clara se a impulsividade e o prazer nas compras tinham sido avaliados com mais rigor. Com efeito, apesar do Consumer Style Inventory, de onde foram retiradas as escalas de impulso e prazer nas compras, ser um instrumento amplamente difundido (Azizi & Makkizadeh, 2012;Jain & Sharma, 2013;Khare, 2012;Nayeem, 2012;Sinkovics, Mink' Leelapanyalert & Yamin, 2010;Siu, Wang, Chang & Hui, 2001;Yie et al., 2010), ainda carece de melhorias e aperfeiçoamento para poder avaliar melhor os constructos impulsividade e prazer nas compras. No que diz respeito ao nosso primeiro objectivo, verificámos que as representações da compra dos adolescentes brasileiros dizem respeito principalmente aos produtos que eles desejam adquirir, às dimensões da actividade de compra, e ao ambiente onde a compra é realizada. ...
Resumo
A adolescência é um período de crise onde o consumo desempenha um papel importante na construção da identidade pessoal. Contudo, apesar da vasta investigação sobre o comportamento de consumo, poucos estudos foram realizados com adolescentes sobre a compra por impulso. Assim, os estudos conduzidos sobre a compra por impulso no Brasil e em Portugal são raros, e nenhum foi feito com o público adolescente.
A nossa investigação tem como objectivo estudar a compra por impulso nos adolescentes, e visa, nomeadamente, a: (1) Identificar as representações dos adolescentes sobre o acto de comprar; (2) Examinar a influência do sexo de pertença e do contexto socioeconómico em diferentes variáveis geralmente associadas à compra por impulso; (3) Identificar os factores que têm relação com o impulso nas compras; e (4) Testar um modelo explicativo para o impulso nas compras. É composta por dois estudos. O Estudo 1 foi realizado no Brasil com 272 alunos da escola privada (129 rapazes e 143 raparigas) e com 210 alunos da escola pública (84 rapazes e 126 raparigas). O Estudo 2 foi realizado em Portugal com 238 alunos de uma escola pública (117 rapazes e 121 raparigas). O contexto socioeconómico considerado no Brasil foi a classe social, e em Portugal, a percepção da crise económica.
Foram estudados seis grupos de variáveis: (I) características sociodemográficas e recursos financeiros (sexo, fratria, religião, rendimento familiar e mesada/salário); (II) práticas sociais e hábitos online (visitas a centros comerciais, acesso à internet, uso dos media sociais e compras online); (III) consciência financeira (posse de cartão de crédito, e atitudes em relação ao dinheiro); (IV) variáveis psicológicas (prazer nas compras, importância atribuída à marca, percepção da importância atribuída à marca pelos outros, circulação na loja, hábito de ver publicidade e satisfação com a vida); (V) variáveis de influência grupal (influência dos pares nas compras, tendência a gastar mais na presença de amigos, e identificação com o grupo de amigos), (VI) valores (bem-estar social, pessoal e profissional, hedonistas, materialistas e religiosos e materialismo nas compras).
Os resultados mostram que no Brasil as representações da compra se traduzem por classes de palavras relacionadas com os produtos ligados ao sexo de pertença dos adolescentes, ao ambiente de consumo, e aos aspectos afectivos e cognitivos da actividade de compra. O sexo e a escola de pertença influenciam a satisfação com a vida, a importância atribuída à marca, o prazer nas compras e o hábito de ver publicidade. Encontraram-se correlações positivas moderadas entre a compra por impulso e o prazer nas compras e o materialismo nas compras, e correlações fracas com a importância atribuída à marca e a tendência a gastar mais na presença de amigos. O materialismo nas compras desempenha um papel mediador entre o prazer nas compras e o impulso nas compras. Em Portugal, as representações traduzem-se por classes de palavras semelhantes e outras relacionadas com a crise económica. O sexo de pertença e a percepção da crise influenciam a tendência ao impulso nas compras, o prazer nas compras, a importância atribuída à marca, e os valores de bem-estar social, pessoal e profissional. A análise das correlações e o modelo de mediação corroboram os resultados encontrados no Estudo 1. Uma comparação entre os dois países mostra que os brasileiros são mais impulsivos na compra, atribuem mais importância à marca, e tendem a gastar mais na presença de amigos.
Résumé
L’adolescence est une période de crise où la consommation joue un rôle important dans la construction de l’identité personnelle. Cependant, malgré le vaste courant de recherche sur le comportement de consommation, peu d’études ont été menées avec des adolescents sur l’achat impulsif. Ainsi, les études conduites sur l’achat impulsif au Brésil et au Portugal sont rares et aucune n’a été réalisée avec un public adolescent.
Notre recherche a pour objectif d’étudier l’achat impulsif chez les adolescents et vise notamment à: (1) Identifier les représentations des adolescents sur l’acte d’acheter; (2) Examiner l’influence du sexe d’appartenance et du contexte socio-économique sur différentes variables généralement associées à l’achat impulsif; (3) Identifier les facteurs qui sont en relation avec l’achat d’impulsion; et (4) Tester un modèle explicatif de l’achat impulsif. Elle est composée par deux études. L’Étude 1 a été réalisée au Brésil avec 272 élèves d’une école privée (129 garçons et 143 filles) et 210 élèves d’une école publique (84 garçons et 126 filles). L’Étude 2 a été réalisée au Portugal avec 238 élèves d’une école publique (117 garçons et 121 filles). Le contexte socio-économique considéré au Brésil a été la classe sociale et au Portugal la perception de la crise économique.
Nous avons étudié six groupes de variables: (I) caractéristiques sociodémographiques et ressources financières (sexe, fratrie, religion, revenu familial et argent de poche/salaire); (II) pratiques sociales et habitudes online (visites aux centres commerciaux, accès à internet, usage des media sociaux et achats online); (III) conscience financière (possession d’un carton de crédit et attitudes en relation à l’argent); (IV) variables psychologiques (plaisir d’acheter, importance attribuée à la marque, perception de l’importance attribuée à la marque par les autres, circulation dans le magasin, habitude de regarder la publicité et satisfaction dans la vie); (V) variables d’influence groupale (influence des pairs sur les achats, tendance à dépenser davantage en présence d’amis, et identification avec le groupe d’amis); (VI) valeurs (bien-être social, personnel et professionnel, valeurs hédonistes, matérialistes et religieuses et matérialisme dans les achats).
Les résultats montrent qu’au Brésil les représentations de l’achat se traduisent par des classes de mots en relation avec des produits liés au sexe d’appartenance des adolescents, l’ambiance de la consommation, et les aspects affectifs et cognitifs de l’activité d’achat. Le sexe et l’école d’appartenance influencent la satisfaction dans la vie, l’importance attribuée à la marque, le plaisir d’acheter et l’habitude de regarder la publicité. Il existe des corrélations positives modérées entre l’achat impulsif et le plaisir d’acheter ainsi que le matérialisme dans les achats, et des corrélations faibles avec l’importance attribuée à la marque et la tendance à dépenser davantage en présence d’amis. Le matérialisme dans les achats joue un rôle médiateur entre le plaisir à acheter et l’achat impulsif. Au Portugal, les représentations se traduisent par des classes mots similaires et d’autres associées avec la crise économique. Le sexe d’appartenance et la perception de la crise influencent la tendance à l’achat impulsif, le plaisir d’acheter, l’importance attribuée à la marque et les valeurs de bien-être social, personnel et professionnel. L’analyse des corrélations et le modèle de médiation corroborent les résultats obtenus dans l’Étude 1. Une comparaison entre les deux pays montre que les brésiliens sont plus impulsifs dans leurs achats, attribuent plus d’importance à la marque et tendent à dépenser plus en présence d’amis.
Abstract
Adolescence is a period of crisis where consumption plays an important role in the construction of personal identity. However, despite extensive research on consumer behavior, few studies have been conducted with adolescents about impulse buying. Thus, studies conducted on impulse buying in Brazil and Portugal are rare, and none has been done with teenagers.
Our research aims at studying impulse buying in adolescents and is designed namely to: (1) Identify adolescents' representations about the act of buying, (2) Examine the influence of sex belongingness and socio-economic context on different variables generally associated with impulse buying; (3) Identify the factors that are related to impulse buying, and (4) Test an explanatory model for impulse buying. It consists of two studies. Study 1 was conducted in Brazil with 272 private school pupils (129 boys and 143 girls) and 210 public school pupils (84 boys and 126 girls). Study 2 was conducted in Portugal with 238 pupils from a public school (117 boys and 121 girls). The socio-economic context considered in Brazil was social class, and in Portugal, the perception of the economic crisis.
We studied six groups of variables: (I) socio-demographic data and financial resources (sex, siblings, religion, family income and pocket money/salary), (II) social practices and online habits (visits of shopping centers, internet access, use of social media and online shopping), (III) financial awareness (possession of a credit card, and attitudes toward money), (IV) psychological variables (pleasure in buying, importance attributed to the brand, perception of the importance attributed to the brand by others, in-store browsing, habit of viewing advertising and life satisfaction), (V) variables of group influence (peer influence on purchases, tendency to spend more in the presence of friends, and identification with the group of friends), (VI) values (social, personal and professional well-being, hedonistic, materialistic and religious as well as materialism in purchases).
Results show that in Brazil the representations of purchase are translated into classes of words related to products linked to adolescents’ sex belongingness, the environment of consumption, and the cognitive and affective aspects of purchasing. Sex and school belongingness influence life satisfaction, the importance attributed to the brand, the pleasure in buying and habits of viewing advertising. We found moderate positive correlations between impulse buying and pleasure in buying and materialism in purchases, and weak correlations with the importance attributed to the brand and the tendency to spend more in the presence of friends. Materialism in purchases plays a mediating role between pleasure in buying and impulse buying. In Portugal, the representations translate into similar classes of words and other classes related to the economic crisis. Sex belongingness and the perception of crisis influence the tendency to impulse buying, pleasure in buying, the importance attributed to the brand, and values of social, personal and professional well-being. The correlation analysis and the mediation model corroborate the results found in Study 1. A comparison between the two countries shows that Brazilians are more impulsive in buying, attribute more importance to the brand, and tend to spend more in the presence of friends.
... Parece-nos que a relação entre variáveis podia se tornar mais clara se a impulsividade e o prazer nas compras tivessem sido avaliados com mais rigor. Com efeito, apesar do Consumer Style Inventory, de onde foram retiradas as escalas de impulso e prazer nas compras, ser um instrumento amplamente difundido (Azizi & Makkizadeh, 2012;Jain & Sharma, 2013), ainda carece de melhorias e aperfeiçoamento para poder avaliar melhor os constructos de impulsividade e prazer nas compras. ...
Muitas pesquisas foram realizadas sobre a compra por impulso, mas raros são os estudos com o público adolescente. O objetivo deste estudo foi testar um modelo de mediação do materialismo entre o prazer nas compras e a compra por impulso com adolescentes brasileiros (n = 482) e portugueses (n = 238), utilizando a técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais. Apesar de alguns problemas com o ajustamento do modelo de medida, o modelo apresentou bons índices de ajustamento para ambas as amostras, obtendo validade externa. Os resultados sugerem que os valores materialistas mediam a relação entre o prazer oriundo da atividade de compra e a compra por impulso, evidenciando a relação existente entre variáveis que foram estudadas separadamente em estudos prévios sobre a compra por impulso. Eles também constituem uma abordagem à problemática no Brasil e em Portugal em particular, e com o público adolescente, em geral. ABSTRACT The Role of Materialism as a Mediator between Shopping Pleasure and Impulse Buying Much research has been carried out on impulse buying but studies with young people are scarce. The objective of this study was to assess whether the relationship between the pleasure to shop and impulse buying was mediated by materialism. It was conducted with Brazilian (n = 482) and Portuguese (n = 238) adolescents, employing structural equations modeling. In spite of a few adjustment problems with the measurement model, the goodness of fit of the mediation model was good with both samples, providing external validity. Results suggest that materialistic values mediate the relationship between the pleasure deriving from the activity of buying and impulse buying, highlighting the relationship that exists between variables that were separately tested in previous studies on impulse buying. They also constitute an approach to this issue in Brazil and Portugal in particular, and with the adolescent public, in general.
Consumer decision-making within a specific product category can take many forms. This study investigates the individual-specific transferal processes in new product adoption through cognitive, affective, and conative stages. We propose a general and flexible Bayesian multivariate regression model and fit the model to survey data on dedicated E-book reader adoption. The results show that—among six possible transition paths—all paths are feasible for the decision-making process, except for the conative → cognitive → affective path. In terms of market share, those who follow the hierarchy of effect process describing the cognitive → affective → conative process has the biggest market share and those following affective → conative → cognitive path has the smallest share. The contribution of this research is twofold. From a theoretical perspective, this study developed an estimable model for capturing heterogeneity in consumers’ decision-making process. Practically, the study empirically shows that a variety of decision-making paths exist, using survey data on the Korean E-book reader market. In the substantive domain, capturing the heterogeneity of consumer decision-making could provide marketers with insights to help profile consumers and with a basis for customer segmentation.
Marketers are unanimously acknowledging the importance of women in the purchase ecosystem. Women are the single big group that is shaping the world of consumption. Despite a long-standing tradition to view gender as a unitary theoretical construct, there is an increasing approbation afforded to gender identity as a multifarious construct. Over and above physiological characteristics, gender identity is a psychological and a social construct. More than simply a biological classification, gender identity has been explored as portentous moderators of consumers' cognitive and emotive states and buying behaviors. Many parameters of shopping behaviour has been investigated in the past, this study has chosen shopping styles as a representation of buying behaviour.
Footwear helps the modern day consumer make his or her unique lifestyle statement. The objective of the paper is to explore the young adult consumer’s information source, choice criteria and decision-making style followed in purchasing footwear in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. Data was collected from six hundred consumers in the age group of 21-35 years from Jaipur city with the help of a questionnaire. The Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) was used by the earlier researchers as a base tool for exploring decision-making styles. The present paper reveals that young adults prefer to choose specific criteria while purchasing footwear. This paper recommends the retail companies to circulate the relevant information through the popular sources of information selected by young adults, consider the products attributes which effect a young adult’s decision-making styles for growth of the apparel industry.
The Internet has become a popular channel during the last decade for shopping and is adding value to the retailing world. India’s e-commerce market is also growing in all product categories. Consumer spending at apparel websites is rising, and it is presenting a tough revenue war in this segment, which had traditionally been dominated by physical stores. Previous researchers have applied the consumer style inventory (CSI) by Sproles and Kendall (1986) for assessing the consumer decision-making styles. But there is a paucity of studies on analyzing the impact of CSI on online apparel purchase. Profiling consumer decision-making styles in an online context has importance to marketers, consumer affairs specialists and advertisers to determine the behavioural patterns and is also important for the market segmentation. The present research aims to examine the influence of consumer decision-making styles on the possibility to engage in online shopping of apparels. This study clarifies the relationship between each decision style category and online shopping consumption in Indian context with empirical evidence to enrich the literature.
The present study was designed to examine the impact of customer price sensitivity on customer satisfaction in the mobile telecom sector. The major antecedent that develops customer satisfaction was considered as Perceived Service Quality and.therefore, an attempt was made to develop and validate a scale for measuring Perceived Service Quality in the mobile telecom context. Variance-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationships among different constructs considered in the study. The various constructs used in the study were conceptualized as reflective or formative based on theoretical considerations. The study found that the dimensions such as Network Quality, Human Interaction Quality, Product Mix, Infrastructure related aspects, and Image influenced service quality perceptions of the customers in the mobile telecom context. The Price Sensitiveness of the customers explained the possible fluctuations in business volumes due to price changes. This study could identify the impact of Price Sensitivity as a psychographic variable that moderated customers' satisfaction significantly in the mobile telecom context. The mobile telecom sector, being a market for frequent innovations in service offers and pricing schemes, should seriously look into customer price sensitivity to control customer defections.
Different methods and approaches have been developed to understand consumers' decision-making styles. One of these is the Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) (Sproles and Kendall, 1986). In this research, consumers' decision-making styles are analyzed with the CSI approach. The CSI deals with the mental orientation of consumers in making decisions and, therefore, focuses on the cognitive and effective orientations in consumer decision-making and identifies eight mental characteristics of consumer decision-making. How gender affects consumers' decision-making styles is analyzed in this study. Males and females living in Erzurum, Turkey, constitute the population of the study. According to the results, male and female consumers have different decision-making styles.
The relationship between consumers’ decision-making styles and their choice between domestic and imported brand clothing is investigated using a sample of Chinese consumers. The multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis results indicate that seven decision-making styles together with other consumer behavioural characteristics can be used to distinguish and profile consumers who prefer to buy domestic, imported or both types of clothing. Empirical findings reveal that consumers who prefer to buy imported brand clothing tend to have a unique lifestyle and shopping orientation that differ from those who prefer domestic brand clothing. Conceptual contributions and managerial implications are discussed.
Decision-making styles are important to marketing because they determine consumer behaviour, are relatively stable over time and thus are relevant for market segmentation. The need to test the generalisability of Sproles and Kendall's consumer styles inventory (CSI) in different countries and an attempt to extend the original work led the authors to test the structure of decision-making styles of German shoppers and its use in segmenting consumers. From a sample of 455 German consumers, a seven-dimensional structure of decision-making styles was found using principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Cluster analysis identified six meaningful and distinct decision-making groups. These decision-making groups can be viewed as basic segments that can be used in conjunction with traditional market segmentation approaches. Implications for marketing research and practitioners are discussed.Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing (2001) 10, 117-131; doi:10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740039
This study has attempted to conceptualize the distinct factors that may be said to characterize an adolescent's consumer decision-making style from the perspective of consumer socialization. Eight consumer decision-making styles were proposed to be associated with the influence of socialization agents and antecedent variables (e.g., social structural and developmental variables). Influence of socialization agents was also proposed to be associated with antecedent variables. Survey data (N = 1954) collected from 29 high schools in a southwestern state were examined with the use of a series of stepwise multiple regression analyses. Influence of socialization agents—peers, parents, printed media, TV commercials, and consumer education—clearly played an important role in influencing adolescent consumer decision-making styles. Antecedent variables, especially social structural variables such as gender, ethnicity, main reason for working, and the amount of parental allowance, demonstrated significant correlations with consumer decision-making styles. Antecedent variables, however, were in general found to be only distantly related to the influence of socialization agents. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Most studies that have developed and validated models and instruments in consumer affairs research have used U.S. samples. As a result, their cross-cultural generalizability remains unknown. This study reports a cross-cultural examination of a scale for profiling consumers' decision-making styles using a New Zealand sample. Examination of the scale's psychometric properties (i.e., dimensionality and reliability) offers general support for the scale's applicability to a different culture. Some differences were detected, however. The paper concludes with a discussion of these differences and the implications of the findings.
The Malays are closely associated with the religion of Islam which constitutes a key element in Malay ethnic identity and its culture. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the Malays’ decision-making styles pertaining to shopping behavior. This study also examines the relationships between Malays’ cultural value orientations and their decision-making styles. The Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) was used to measure the Malays decision-making styles. The research findings indicated that religious factor alone is notsufficient to influence the Malays’ decision-making styles. The findings also showed that there are three decision-making styles related to Malay ethnic: perfectionistic, confused by over choice and impulsive purchase. Significant relationship was also found between religiosity and ethnicity and the shopping behavior of the Malays. The findings also revealed that Malay consumers are quite incompetent in handling product and market information, resulting in information overload and confusion. Therefore, the results of this study suggestedthat formal consumer education should be introduced in secondary schools in developing knowledgeable and efficient young consumers.