Interdiscuplinary Study in Consumer Behaviour Essay Example for Free

Interdiscuplinary Study in Consumer Behaviour EssayWith the development of a consumer society, increasing consumer power in the market place, the growth in marketing, advertising, sophisticated consumers, ethical consumption etc, consumption is recognized as central to modern life. Thus it entails to go into a depth of the different approaches to consumer behaviour. M any(prenominal) world sciences give a variety of reasons to explain why a consumer behaves in a particular way in a given situation. Studies of consumption investigate how and why society and individuals consume goods and services, and how this affects society and human relationships. These are found in many social sciences such as economics, psychology, sociology, etc. The present consider tries to investigate these theories based on consumption and consumer behaviour and how far these are interlinked as well as different from one another. It is also aimed at canvass the relevance of these theories with the he lp of aboriginal data and research. The purpose of this moot is to find out whether there is some interlink between the various theories and approaches given by different economists, psychologists and sociologists.The hypothesis framed for the research is that Consumption is greatly influenced by the income factor. The data used in the study was mostly secondary in nature from the internet and reference to several books. The theories of consumption studied for this purpose are the demand theory, indifference curve analysis, revealed preference theory, Keynes consumption theory, permanent income hypothesis, relative income hypothesis, life-cycle hypothesis, Maslows Hierarchy of needs, the sociological theories of consumption given by G.Katona, Ruby Turner Norris and the theory of Conspicuous consumption given by Veblen. An attempt has been made to study consumer behaviour with the help of primary data collected from a sample of 40 people from 4 categories namely, students, housewi ves, employees and businessmen. They were asked to rank the different factors that influence their buying behaviour. The authoritative factors given in the questionnaire were taken from the consumption theories given in economics, sociology as well as psychology as given above.From the analysis of both primary as well as secondary data, it was found that majority of people give importance to their income level. However, it is also found that, besides income factor, people also animadvert about sociological and psychological factors while purchasing a commodity such as security, safety, fashion, advertising, comforts and prestige issues. As given in the sociological theories of G. Katona and Norris, it was seen after the primary data analysis that the economic theory of consumption lacks such social structural variables.Thus it is concluded that in the construction of any consumption function or theory for a particular product, for a particular class of products, or for consumptio n in general not either economic or sociological or psychological variable is to be regarded as the key determinant. Different combinations of all these three enter into different statements of consumption functions at different situations and time periods according to the necessity or urgency of the wants.