Perspectives on Consumer Choice: From Behavior to Action, from Action to Agency

330 Pages·2016·7.16 MB·English

by  Gordon R. Foxall (auth.)

GORDON R. FOXALL
PERSPECTIVES ON
CONSUMER CHOICE
From Behavior to Action,
from Action to Agency
Perspectives on Consumer Choice
Gordon R.   Foxall
Perspectives on
Consumer Choice
From Behavior to Action, from Action to Agency
Gordon   R. Foxall
Business Department
Cardiff University
Cardiff , United Kingdom
ISBN 978-1-137-50119-6 ISBN 978-1-137-50121-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-50121-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948384
© Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Maddie Holder and Liz Barlow at Palgrave Macmillan
for the opportunity to write this book and for their help in bringing it
to publication. I would also like to record my debt to Sally Osborne, my
secretary at Cardiff Business School, for her willing and able assistance.
I am grateful for discussions on the nature of behavioral economics,
economic psychology, and the philosophy of explanation to Professors
Erik Arntzen, Asle Fagerstrøm, Donald Hantula, Patrícia Luque, Vishnu
Menon, Peter Morgan, Jorge Oliveira-Castro, Valdimar Sigurdsson, and
Mirella Yani-de-Soriano.
I am especially grateful, as always, to my wife Jean for her reading
and discussing of various drafts, for help with the diagrams, and for her
unfailing good cheer and encouragement.
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Explaining Consumer Choice 9
3 Consumer Choice as Behavior 5 1
4 Beyond Behaviorism 8 7
5 Th e Ascription of Intentionality 1 25
6 Intentional Psychologies 1 47
7 Consumer Choice as Action 1 73
8 Consumer Choice as Decision: Micro- Cognitive
Psychology 2 11
9 Consumer Choice as Decision: Macro- Cognitive
Psychology 2 35
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viii Contents
10 Consumer Choice as Decision: Meso- Cognitive
Psychology 2 59
11 Consumer Choice as Agency 2 79
Bibliography 311
Index 317
List of Figures and Tables
Fig. 2.1 Intentional Behaviorism: Th e methodological sequence 21
Fig. 3.1 Summative Behavioral Perspective Model 53
Fig. 3.2 Patterns of reinforcement and operant classes of consumer
behavior 57
Fig. 3.3 Th e BPM contingency matrix 58
Fig. 3.4 Th e BPM emotional contingency matrix 64
Fig. 3.5 Th e BPM pride-shame continuum 65
Fig. 3.6 BPM savings contingency matrix 69
Fig. 3.7 Environment-impacting consumption: Operant classes and
marketing mix elements 72
Fig. 3.8 Th e BPM diff usion curve 75
Fig. 3.9 Th e BPM course of addiction matrix 79
Fig. 4.1 Consumer choice: Th e behavioral perspective 88
Fig. 7.1 Consumer choice: Th e action perspective 179
Fig. 7.2 Th e continuum of consumer choice: From self-control to
impulsivity 194
Fig. 7.3 Micro- and macro-cognitive psychologies 203
Fig. 8.1 Summative dual process depiction of metacognitive control 213
Fig. 8.2 Dimensions of diff erence between impulsive and executive
decision modes 216
Fig. 8.3 Metacognitive functions in relation to tripartite theory 226
Fig. 9.1 Symbolic portrayal of tracking 249
Fig. 9.2 Symbolic portrayal of pliance 253
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x List of Figures and Tables
Fig. 10.1 Bundling as a picoeconomic strategy 267
Fig. 10.2 Consumer choice: Th e decision perspective 275
Fig. 11.1 Action and settling 296
Fig. 11.2 Th e decision-action sequence 300
Fig. 11.3 Individual and collective settling and agency 304
Fig. 11.4 Consumer choice: Th e agential perspective 305
Fig. 11.5 Behavior, action, decision, and agency: Summary of
the perspectives 306
Table 4.1 Th e bounds of behaviorism, the imperatives of intentionality 117
List of Boxes
Box 2.1 Summary of the Contextual Stance 41
Box 7.1 Summary of the Intentional Stance 176
Box 7.2 Temporal Discounting and Preference Reversal 195
Box 10.1 Summary of the Cognitive Stance 275
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