Consumer Style Inventory Research Articles

The relationship between young consumers’ decision-making styles and propensity to shop clothing online with a smartphone

Consumer behavior in retail is changing due to the adoption of technologies such as the Internet and the smartphone. This study focuses on studying the relationship between young consumers’ decision-making styles and their propensity to shop clothing online with a smartphone. The Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) is used as base for a survey with young adult students. The results indicate that four out of eight CSI measurements, namely brand consciousness, fashion consciousness, impulsiveness and recreational shopping behavior, positively correlate with the respondents’ frequency to look at and/or buy clothing online with a smartphone. These findings are important for retailers that strive to increase economic earnings from mobile technology solutions. Managerial and practical implication are discussed, together with future research.

Young Syrian Consumer Styles

This paper aims to explore the decision-making styles of Syrian young adults, and to examine the cross-cultural applicability of the Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) to an Arab population. Its aim is to advance understanding of contemporary consumer behaviour in the Arab world. Participants in the study described were undergraduate students at Damascus University and the results confirmed a six-factor consumer decision-making style. Social motivation was found to be an important factor for consumption. Syrians were more likely to relate to a brand or product to the extent where a cognitive match existed between an individual's self-concept and a positive value-expressive attribute. In addition, brand names formed cognitive reflections of product quality rather than formal assessments of quality in products. The results of this study could help in generalising theories developed in western societies to Arab populations, as well as in the better understanding of Arab consumer decision-making styles. Practical implications for practitioners and international marketers are also proposed.

POTRET GAYA KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN MASYARAKAT KOTA PADANG DALAM MEMBELI MOBIL SEGMEN LOW MPV

<em>The main aim of this research was to identify Low MPV consumers’ decision making style in Padang by using Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI). According to the CSI, one can capture what decision-making styles low-MPV car use. Furthermore, this research also discusses the type of Low-MPV differences among consumers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the decision-making styles and Chi-Square Test to distinguish the differences between Low MPV type. The results shows that there are differences in purchasing decisions making style between Toyota Avanza, Suzuki Ertiga, Honda Mobilio and Daihatsu Xenia. Toyota Avanza consumers identified as perfectionist style and Suzuki Ertiga consumers as price conscious style while making a decission to buy</em><em>The main aim of this research was to identify Low MPV consumers’ decision making style in Padang by using Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI). According to the CSI, one can capture what decision-making styles low-MPV car use. Furthermore, this research also discusses the type of Low-MPV differences among consumers. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the decision-making styles and Chi-Square Test to distinguish the differences between Low MPV type. The results shows that there are differences in purchasing decisions making style between Toyota Avanza, Suzuki Ertiga, Honda Mobilio and Daihatsu Xenia. Toyota Avanza consumers identified as perfectionist style and Suzuki Ertiga consumers as price conscious style while making a decission to buy</em>

Consumer decision making styles in developed and developing markets: A cross-country comparison

There is limited empirical research investigating consumer decision-making styles in more than one country. This study contributes to the cross-cultural research in the area of consumer decision-making by comparing decision-making styles of consumers in two countries, India and Germany, which represent different socio-economic and cultural environment. It also investigates the applicability of Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) in the present Indian context and assesses the change in decision-making styles of Indian consumers over the last two decades of economic development. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaire from 558 Indian students and 185 German students. The results highlight that even though India's economy is undergoing fast structural transformation and getting more and more similar to developed economies, there are still differences in how consumers approach market places. In spite of the significant retail developments in India, the CSI still seems more appropriate for more developed countries like Germany than for countries like India. Additionally, some changes were observed in decision-making styles of young Indian consumers over the last two decades. Implications for managers and research are discussed.

Prescribed consumption and consumers' decision-making styles: a cross-cultural comparison between Europe and Asia

PurposeThe goal of this research is 1) to check if shopping prescription consciousness is a fundamental decision-making characteristic, 2) to know its weight and position into consumer decision-making styles (DMS), and 3) to compare results between France and China.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative survey using the Consumer Styles Inventory (Sproles and Kendall, 1986) is done with 308 French and 221 Chinese pet food buyers. Factorial, multivariance, clustering and discriminant analyses are run.FindingsFindings reveal that shopping prescription consciousness is a fundamental decision-making characteristic. Although this concept scores the same in both cultures, correlations between shopping prescription and other characteristics vary from a culture to another, showing a different prescription follower profile. In addition, opposite to our expectations prescription consciousness has a discriminant role on DMS in France but not in China. Finally, culture impacts overall DMS.Research limitations/implicationsThe Chinese sample is weak. This study must be replicated in more product categories and involve more countries. This paper attempts to enrich prescribed consumption knowledge in a cross-cultural context.Practical implicationsThis paper 1) enriches academic understanding of the decision delegation concept, in a cross-cultural context, and 2) encourages organizations involved in complex products to set up loyalty qualitative programs and prescriber networks to ease shopping decision and consequently increase sales.Originality/valueThis is the first time that decision delegation and prescription is studied according to decision-making styles in a cross-cultural context.

Apparel Shopping Styles of Young Adult Consumers in Bangalore

Apparels are one of the most frequently purchased product categories where young adults have the authority to make independent buying decisions, and they also become trendsetters and opinion leaders. Understanding this large segment appropriately is crucial for apparel manufacturers and marketers as they promise longevity of market and exert substantial influence on their parents, peers, as well as their own spending. The present study segmented young adult consumers based on their shopping styles towards purchase of apparels and explored the differences in the shopping styles across demographics such as gender, educational levels, and regional background. The respondents for the study were young adults who belonged to the age group of 18 - 25 years residing in Bangalore, India. The variables under study were eight shopping styles adapted from Sproles and Kendall Consumer Style Inventory- CSI (1986). The study revealed that all the eight shopping styles of the CSI were manifested among young adults in Bangalore; however, the predominant shopping style was the Perfectionist/ High Quality Conscious shopping style. Furthermore, significant differences in the shopping styles of young adults across gender, educational levels, and regional background were found.

Differences in consumer decision-making styles among selected south-east European countries

Fast changes in retailing and complex consumer decision-making processes have increased the need for additional investigation of differences and similarities in consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) in various countries. This paper tests the reliability and validity of Sproles and Kendall’s Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) instrument, identifies and compares CDMS in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia (FYR). Data obtained from surveys conducted among university students in observed countries (n = 1.206) were analysed by using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results provided support for six factors, which means that the original US eight-model cannot be fully applied in this region. Croatian consumers are the least brand-conscious and novelty-fashion conscious. Macedonian consumers are the most quality-conscious, brand-conscious, novelty-fashion conscious, recreational shopping conscious and brand-loyal, while Bosnian consumers are the most confused by overchoice. The traits of price consciousness and impulsiveness were not tested because of lack of reliability among items. The paper provides guidelines for marketers on how to position and more effectively advertise their products and services in analysed countries.

Impact of Consumer Decision-making Styles on Online Apparel Consumption in India

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.

Examining shopping mall consumer decision-making styles, satisfaction and purchase intention

Understanding consumer decision-making (CDM) styles is essential for market segmentation, positioning and crafting marketing strategies within a market. Few studies have examined the structural relationship among decision-making styles that consumers exhibit during mall shopping, level of satisfaction and purchase intention. The purpose of this study was to examine CDM styles as the antecedents and predictors of level of satisfaction and purchase intention. Based on the Consumer Styles Inventory, eight CDM styles that individual exhibit during shopping mall activities are proposed in terms of utilitarian and hedonic perspectives. We hypothesize these eight CDM styles as a set of predictors of customer satisfaction and purchase intention. A total of 327 valid paper-and-pencil questionnaires were collected from several shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Partial least squares (PLS) path modelling approach, a structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was performed to test the proposed structural relationships. The empirical assessment supports that hedonic shopping styles consumers that exhibit high level of habitual, brand consciousness, fashion consciosness, recreational conscious style have lower levels of satisfaction and purchase intention during mall shopping while novelty and fashion conscious style consumers have lower level of satisfaction but do not unveil lower purchase intention. Utilitarian shopping styles consumers that exhibit high level of price conscious, confused by overchoice and high-quality conscious style have higher levels of satisfaction while impulsive/careless shoppers do not; and while price conscious, impulsive/careless, confused by overchoice consumers have higher levels of purchase intention but the high-quality conscious consumers do not unveil higher purchase intention. Further, there is a positive relationship between satisfaction and purchase intention. The practical and managerial implications are discussed.

Online consumer decision-making styles for enhanced understanding of Macau online consumer behavior

The purpose of this paper is to understand online consumer behavior better by analyzing online consumers' decision-making styles. In this research, an online consumer style inventory, which is suitable for online businesses to measure online consumers' decision-making styles, has been developed in Macau. The current studies of online consumer behavior have not considered the weights of the variables that can affect online consumer behavior. This paper measures online consumers' decision-making styles in Macau based on the weights of the corresponding inventory items.

Australian consumers' decision-making styles for everyday products

Investigated are the decision-making styles of Australian consumers for everyday products. Specifically, the applicability of Sproles and Kendall's Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI) is examined in relation to the purchase of everyday products. Based on a sample of 214 respondents who had recently purchased a confectionery product, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the CSI. Six decision-making styles are retained from the original CSI (‘perfectionist, high quality’, ‘confused by over-choice’, ‘impulsive’, ‘habitual/brand loyal’, ‘novelty/fashion’, and ‘recreation conscious’) and one new decision-making style is developed (‘rational, price conscious’). Marketing and managerial implications are discussed.

How Do Diners Make Decisions Among Casual Dining Restaurants? An Exploratory Study of College Students

Casual dining is a unique sector in the foodservice industry, and consumer decisions in this market are of great interest to marketers. Adopting the well-established Consumer Styles Inventory, this study explores the decision-making styles of college-age diners—an important and emerging growth segment. With survey data collected from a self-administered survey, it identifies five decision-making styles adopted by college students: hedonistic, habitual, price conscious, confused by overchoice, and brand conscious. The discussion highlights some notable managerial implications, as well as some limitations and directions for research.

Indian consumer style inventory and its role in predicting Indian mall patronage intention

The emergence of organised retail formats like malls in India has metamorphosed the retail scenario and transformed the consumers' shopping patterns. Consumer style inventory (CSI) has been successfully adapted for understanding consumers across various cultures. The scale has established efficacy in predicting consumer behaviour across various consumer domains. This study aims at adapting the CSI to Indian consumer market to understand the consumer shopping orientations. Further, this paper intends to study the relationship between consumer shopping orientations and the intention to mall patronage. The research employs exploratory factor analysis to see the applicability of the scales to Indian market. Step–wise regression analysis is performed to examine the role of CSI in predicting the mall patronage intention. It is envisaged that the results would provide valuable insights into the Indian consumers' shopping orientation and would serve as important inputs for mall marketing strategies.

Identification of Consumer Decision-making Styles of Youth in Shopping Malls

Purpose The main purpose of this research article is to identify decision-making styles of Indian youth using consumer style inventory. Design/methodology/approach A survey was done on Indian youth to understand decision-making styles in shopping malls. A total sample of 223 youth was taken from two different universities of Punjab. Findings One of the key finding that consumer scale inventory (CSI) is not confirmed to Indian youth who like to go to shopping malls for recreation, and best value deals. Youth are mostly impulsive in nature. The research also revealed that they get confused by over choice hence they seek opinion before buying anything in shopping malls either by family members, friends or salesman. CSI scale has reliability and validity issues. Young India is more loyal towards brands and less loyal towards store. Practical implication This research will not only contribute in a theoretical literature but it will help stores in the shopping malls in many ways: (a) to customise their assortment according to the need of the consumer, (b) to position and advertise as per their targeted segment, (c) to make them understand what type of consumers are coming to their stores, (d) to understand the buying pattern of the young shoppers in the malls and (e) to frame strategies to improve the operational efficiency of their store.

A confirmatory factor analysis of consumer styles inventory: Evidence from Greece

This paper tests the veracity of consumer decision-making styles inventory by exploring its factor structure. The overarching aim is to evaluate the generalizability of the consumer styles inventory (CSI) based on the original construct by Sproles and Kendall (1986). Using data from Greek university student and non-student samples, the paper offers purified and highly correlated dimensions of CSI that measures shopping orientations more robustly than the original model. The purified CSI scale is reliable, internally valid and practically useful especially at a time when many consumer markets/sectors are facing severe competitive pressures, volatile economic climates and shakeout. The purified CSI is likely to provide a useful guide for market segmentation and targeting purposes. Empirically, the paper extends knowledge of how CSI might be evaluated in order to improve its diagnostic stability. In this way, the findings contribute refreshing insights into CSI as a guide to measure shopping orientations.

Research on Purchase Intention Models of Seamless Underwear Consumers

nvestigation on 298 seamless underwear consumers using consumer styles inventory (CSI) was carried out to measure the purchase intention of seamless underwear consumers. Eight factor models reflecting seamless underwear consumers shopping decision style, including perfectionist and hi-quality, price and value, novelty and fashion, confusion for over choice, recreational and hedonistic, habitual and brand–loyalty, impulsive and careless, brand-conscious, were proposed on the base of exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Cluster analysis was employed to divide seamless underwear consumers into four categories, namely fashion-brand type, perfectionism type, value-orientation type, trendy-enjoyment type. This research established a foundation for seamless underwear enterprise in formulating brand marketing strategy efficiently.

Consumer style inventory and intent to social shop online for apparel using social networking sites

Purpose – The purpose of this paper are to examine: first, whether the consumer style inventory (CSI) consumer decision-making styles were related to opinion seeking using electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites (SNSs) and attitudes toward online social shopping using SNSs; and second, whether opinion seeking in SNSs and attitudes mediated the links between decision-making styles and intent to social shop online for apparel using SNSs. Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual foundation was based on Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell's model. In total, 304 college students who are SNS users provided usable responses. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed model and research hypotheses. Findings – Among the CSI consumer decision-making styles, novelty/fashion consciousness decision-making style was the most important antecedent of opinion seeking using eWOM. The brand consciousness decision-making style was the most important antecedent of favorable attitudes. Novelty/fashion consciousness, brand consciousness, and price consciousness decision-making styles had indirect effects on intent to social shop online for apparel using SNS, mediated by both opinion seeking and favorable attitudes. Originality/value – This study contributes to further theoretical understanding of the types of consumers that are drawn to eWOM and their online social shopping behaviors for apparel using SNSs. By identifying individual consumer characteristics, this study can provide retailers with an initial profile of consumers who shop apparel using SNSs. Retailers can use this information to further develop the design of their social shopping sites using SNSs to meet the needs of their customers.

The Effect of Women’s Decision Making Styles on Sustainable Consumption Behaviours

Economic activity is based on the continued availability of sufficient material and energy resources and on environment that is sufficiently clean and attractive. On the one hand fast increasing population and on the other hand a growing number of over consumption has caused environmental problems. All of these problems require new solutions for humanity. In this study we carried out to investigate women’s decision- making styles effects on sustainable consumption behavior. Participants in the study consist of women who live in Safranbolu/Turkey. A total of 320 female (with an approximate % 80 participation rate) are participated on a voluntary. Data were collected through a demographical information form, Consumer Style Inventory (CSI) and Sustainable Consumption Behaviors Scale (SCBs), to determine the factors affecting of women on sustainable consumption behaviors. The results demonstrated that female’s age ranged from 19 to 83 in age (M= 38.9, SD=9.8). The average income has been found 1.869,1 TL (=898,6 $; 1 dollar is equivalent to about 2.08 TL – May, 2014). The result of regression analysis revealed that demographic characteristic such as education, monthly family income and working status, decision-making style (factors Perfectionistic High-Quality Conscious, Habitual Brand-Loyal Consumer and Financial Time-Energy Conserving) of women are important predictors of sustainable consumption behaviors (p DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p288

Consumer Decision Making Styles of Young Adult Consumers in India

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.

The Effect of Acculturation on Ethnic Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles: An Empirical Analysis of Hispanic Consumers

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effect of acculturation on ethnic consumers’ decision-making styles (CDMS) and posits that the extent of acculturation is manifested in their approaches to shopping. Specifically, it explores how the two dimensions of acculturation, ethnic identification and host culture identification, are associated with eight CDMS measured by Sproles and Kendall's (1986) Consumer Style Inventory. It also investigates the differences among four acculturation modes: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization with respect to CDMS. Results from a sample of 318 U.S. Hispanic consumers indicate that ethnic identification and host culture identification predict different shopping orientations. Of the four acculturation modes, the separation group scored significantly higher than the other three groups with respect to brand consciousness, confusion due to overchoice, and habitual orientations. Results are explained in the context of consumers’ extent of confidence or uncertainty when navigating the host marketplace. Implications are discussed for segmentation, marketing, brand communication, as well as consumer policy making to effectively address the needs of ethnic consumers.