CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

FAMILY DECISION-MAKING THEORY: AN OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

ABSTRACT
The journal discusses the research and studies related to consumer behavior in the
specific context of family decision making. The purpose of the article to gain an
update the current status and environment of research in family decision making and
to propose any suggestion in future research.
The decision-making in the context consumer behavior related to process of purchase
transaction of services and goods in the family environment. The transactions related
to integrated activity of several family members which of them got their own roles to
execute the process. The purpose of the studies also to review the family decision
making based on traditional theories as recently there is an emerging children role
within consumer behavior. The article consists of the different segment that will be
discussed. The segment is:
1. The traditional theories of family decision-making discussion.
2. Children roles in family decision-making discussion.
3. Suggestions.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
RELEVANCE OF THE COURSE CONTENT
The content of the article is important and relevance in the context consumer behavior
because each family member has influence in making decision in consumptions.
Therefore it is important to get understand and latest update on consumptions trends
and habit of each family member as this information will show critical person in
family is will make decision over family consumptions.
As each members of family has their own role in influencing purchase of goods and
services. Therefore its critical to analyses the degree of influence of each family
members in making decision to purchase goods and services. The current studies also
show there is changes in roles of members that had occur.
The current studies also relevant as this will help marketing people in creating
strategies in deciding which important area in family members that is need to be
targeted.

PRESENTATION.
As stated by the author the article focuses on current status and environment of
research over decision making in family in the context consumer behavior. Based on
the articles presentations there is review that related to traditional family decision
making theory and influence of children in decision making however no review
related to others members of family had been discuss. Even though children is
currently the most emerging roles in family decision making however its important to
get latest update on the others members as well especially husbands and wife who is
more critical in making decision.
The writers presentations also lack of statistics details that will show the current and
latest statistical data that related to family purchases and consumptions. Even though
there is data related to the value of direct children influence and percentage of
children requests to the mother that yielded. This data is meaningless as no past data
available to show changes and movements to identify the current family decision
making trends and habit. Therefore details statistics data is important as it will show
the changes and trends that had taken place from past to current state. Without this
data the writer review might be inaccurate and incomplete.
The important information that is neglected by the writers is the definition of certain
jargon words that had been used in this article. Although writers had clearly define the
influencers within family, roles of each family members, type of families and also
dimensions of parent-child communication however no clear definition of consumer
behavior had been stated. The writers also did not state the range of age each family
members to identify which family members group they belong to.

The presentation by the writer had included drawback in the research that had taken
place. This is good as the review had provided the completeness of information.
Example can be seen in segment traditional family decision making theory where the
writer stated that the studies based on the nature of role behavior which show result
no husband and wife joint decision within family even though the studies also show
joint decision making within family is high and prevalence.
On the writers abstract there is purpose of the article that had been clear stated which
is to gain an update the current status and environment of research in family decision
making and to propose suggestion for future research. However there is no goal had
been stated on the abstract even though there is goal stated in other segment of article,
in example the writer state the goal for the research on family decision making roles is
to identify the roles of each family member in family decision making and finding
uniformity throughout the families. This goal clearly specific related to only certain
segments not as a whole article. Therefore the reader may know the purpose of the
writer in the research generally but they maybe would not know what writer trying to
achieve from the research as a whole.
Other point that had not been included in the article review is other variables that can
influence family decision making. The writer only stated two variables that will had
influence in family decision making which is conflict resolution and the involvement
of wife influence. This is not enough as there is other critical variable that had major
impact on the family decision which is family life cycle where married life
lengthiness also had impact on family decisions making. (Khattak & Raza. 2013)
Another criticism on writer presentation is the individuals size in the family decision
making. It can be see clearly that the writer individual here is husband, wife and

children. However the writer had not go more specifically to identify the size of
family. It could be in the family there is no children at all or only contain husband and
children or wife and children or there is more than one child in the family. This will
clearly had impact on the childrens degree of influence. Negative effect can be seen if
there is only one child in the family however this will also signal the increase in
childrens influence (Susan. 1983)
Writer also had not shown the effect of culture in the family decision making as writer
is coming from western side of the world. The literature might be biased and based on
the western culture side and cannot be used as reference on the other side of the
world. Indian country has largest child populations in the world and Indian social
structure is totally different from western world in terms composition of family,
behavior, norms and value (Sunita. 2013) unlike western markets, Indian children had
influence in family decision making only on certain kinds of products.

ANALYSIS OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES

The articles had several weaknesses and strength that had been identified. The first
strength of articles, there is clear explanations of each family member roles. From the
article, gatekeeper had been identifies as initiator or executor. Gatekeeper is the
person who gives a kick starter; make an assessment whether there is need to
purchase, criteria and alternative brands and also in charge of information gathering
process. Influencers had roles to provide comment and input which had impact on the
decision for evaluation purpose. The other role is decision maker who reserves the
right to make ultimate decision. Buyer is obviously known as purchaser of the
product. The last roles is user who also obviously known as consumer of the product.
Although the article had strength in giving explanation however the article had
weaknesses also where not providing or make suggestion who was the person (i.e.
husband, wife, and children) in each roles. From the article and current state it can
been seen that the identification is subjective as the gatekeeper, influencers, decision
maker, buyer and user can be husband or wife or children as all of them had their own
purchasing power and it also depend on situation and services or product purchase.
This is way different from old times which in traditional family decision making the
roles of decision maker would be on husband and the purchaser would be husband
and wife. However the situation had change right now as wife also had earning money
for the family. Under joint decision patterns the drawbacks can also been seen where
no simultaneous investigation the concepts of joint decision patterns in specific area
of theoretical framework. The studies also focus only on high involvement and low
frequency purchase of products.

The review also had strength in where three area of conflict had been identified which
is (1) who should in charge for purchase decision (2) how the decision will be execute
and (3) who should applying the decision. The root cause of the conflict also had been
clearly stated which is (1) the basis or motives for purchasing an item and (2) the
assessment of alternative brands. The other writer had stated that purchasing motives
represents the major sources of the conflicts. Therefore there is no basis why the
purchasing motives had been stated as major sources of the conflicts.
The review also had been strengthen where the writer had includes the several way of
conflict resolution that can be utilize in to solve family conflict. Writer had stated two
group of conflict resolution; the first group is problem solving, bargaining, persuasion
and politics. The other group contains seven conflict resolutions that are based on
empirical testing. The conflict resolution based on empirical testing will provide
authentication support to the current unlike the first group which is only based on
theoretical framework (Khattak & Raza. 2013). As there is no clear point which group
of conflict resolution that had been followed by writer therefore neither agreement nor
disagreement with writer can achieved here.
Moving to the second segments of the article that related to childrens influence in
decision making, this segment is zooming and focusing into children influence over
family decision making as there are fewer researches in the field over this area.
Writer strength here can be seen where there is family criteria and types had been
address by the writer. Its clear that the demographics of family had impact in
(Tamara. 1990.) shaping children influence. Four types had been identified which is:
Authoritarian which mean the parents had implement tight control on the children and
without being question by their children for any decision had been done. Second type

is neglectful where parents are not close to their children therefore resulting less
control on their children. Third type is democratic where parents take into
consideration childrens rights and listen to their opinion also provide some autonomy
to their children, but this should be mature behavior and discipline. The last type is
permissive where parents giving as much freedom as they can without effecting
children safety. The literature also had made clear point of the degree of childs
influences based the types. Writer had stated that direct control on family decision
making can be seen in neglectful and permissive families however children can only
use high degree of their influence in family decision under democratic and permissive
family type. The least influence on the family decision can be seen on authoritarian
family type.
Children ages also had variables impact on children influences and this had been
identified in the literature review. Therefore this will strengthen writer review. The
writer stated that childrens influence on family decision making seem increase
consistent with childrens age. There is conclusion that parents more likely to yield to
childrens purchasing request when children getting older and fewer request to the
parents had been made by the children when they getting older due to degree of
independence and decrease in shopping frequency with parents. The outcome also due
to high childrens cognitive ability of the old children compared to the younger
children. This is due to degree of experience in the older children with products and
learning roles of consumer. (Tamara. 1990.). An agreement with writer here can be
achieved because it is logically understanding by all person that when a person getting
older they will gain more experience and more independence.
Childrens gender. The literature had review the literature related to childrens age
however there is no review in literature or point related to childrens gender, whether
4

they are boys or girls. The review would be incomplete and inaccurate as different
gender of children had different way of thinking and reactions. Although writer had
review in childrens, this is subjective and general without stating their gender. The
childrens gender had impact that variations and dependence on category of product,
impact of the childs gender will vary depending on the product category; girls will
have less influences than boys in technical products such as motorcycles, cars and
computer gadgets (Anne & Lars. 2008). Therefore disagreement with writer will
occur here as the childrens is not taken into consideration by the writer as different
gender can give different outcome of influence and decision making.
Children interaction and negotiation is another issue that had been discussed by the
writer. The writer had bring the issue in this literature review probably due to not
much research had been done in this area. In the literature the writer agree that the
mother is the one who ultimately make final decision in the family. This is based on
the writer basis that most buying is done by mothers and she is also most influencer
person in shaping childrens consumer socialization and in traditional family decision
making its well known that parents is the ultimate decision maker in the family and
children is the most influencer person. However the writer review only related to
mother-child and had not included the party that could be husband, sales people and
others. The decision making strategies and negotiations might be change if the third
party roles take into considerations, therefore there is need for analysis in broader
view (Susan. 1983). Therefore a disagreement with writer cannot be avoided as third
party like husband or even grandfather or other sibling can become an interferer
during the process of negotiation.
Change of wife roles. In the article there is review by the writer that wife roles had
been changed recently and the cause of the changes due to wife had enter into work
5

environment and become finance source beside husband. There are also changes
where husband is not anymore the main source of income feeder within family. This
show that the structure of decision can change over period of time and had impact on
familys behavior and roles (Julie & Suraj. 1999). Therefore an agreement with writer
can be achieve as future is unpredictable and many thing can change the time passed.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Khattak & Raza. 2013. Dynamics of family buying decision and mediation of
conflict resolution. African Journal of Business Management 17.
2. Susan. 1983. Examining family decision-making processes by Susan P.
Douglas. Advances in Consumer Research 10.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6159.
3. Sunita. 2013. CHILDREN INFLUENCE IN THE PROCESS OF FAMILY
PURCHASE DECISION FOR HIGH, LOW AND CHILD CENTRIC
PRODUCTS. International Refereed Research Journal (uztailak).
http://www.researchersworld.com/vol4/issue3/vol4_issue3_2/Paper_03.pdf.
4. Tamara. 1990. Childrens influence in purchase decisions: A review and critique by
Tamara F. Mangleburg. Advances in Consumer Research 17.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7108.
5. Anne & Lars. 2008. Childrens influence on family decision making.Innovative
Marketing 4.
http://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/im/2008/im_en_2008_04_Martensen.pdf
.
6. Julie & Suraj. 1999. Shifting roles in family decision making by Julie Ruth and Suraj
R. Commuri. Advances in Consumer Research Volume 25.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/8142/volumes/v25/NA-25.
Citations, Quotes & Annotations
Anne & Lars. 2008. Childrens influence on family decision making.Innovative Marketing 4.
http://businessperspectives.org/journals_free/im/2008/im_en_2008_04_Martensen.pdf.
(2008)
Khattak & Raza. 2013. Dynamics of family buying decision and mediation of conflict
resolution. African Journal of Business Management 17
Julie & Suraj. 1999. Shifting roles in family decision making by Julie Ruth and Suraj R.
Commuri. Advances in Consumer Research Volume 25.
http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/8142/volumes/v25/NA-25.
(1999)

Sunita. 2013. CHILDREN INFLUENCE IN THE PROCESS OF FAMILY PURCHASE DECISION FOR
HIGH, LOW AND CHILD CENTRIC PRODUCTS. International Refereed Research
Journal (uztailak). http://www.researchersworld.com/vol4/issue3/vol4_issue3_2/Paper_03.pdf.
(2013)
Susan. 1983. Examining family decision-making processes by Susan P. Douglas. Advances in
Consumer Research 10. http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?
Id=6159.
(1983)
Tamara. 1990. Childrens influence in purchase decisions: A review and critique by Tamara F.
Mangleburg. Advances in Consumer Research 17. http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/viewconference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7108.
(1990)