Consumer Decision Making Styles of Young Adult Consumers in India

Abstract

The present study aims to identify decision making styles of young Indian consumers in the age range 18 to 21 years and to see if these styles are similar to those found in previous research studies. Consumer styles inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall's (1986) was administered to 206 undergraduate college students in Pune, India. Data was factor analysed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using Varimax rotation. The reliability of the factors was tested by computing Cronbach alpha coefficients. The original U.S eight factor model could not be confirmed completely, but support was found for six decision making styles namely recreational, brand conscious, novelty- fashion conscious,perfectionist-high quality conscious, Habitual brand-loyal consumer orientation and confused by over choice. Shopping avoidance-Time saver a new factor specific to this Indian sample was found. The implications of the study are discussed and explanations for similarities and differences in the findings are provided.