Belief-value structures as determinants of consumer behaviour: A study of housing preferences and choices
✍ Scribed by Erik Lindberg; Tommy Gärling; Henry Montgomery
- Publisher
- Springer
- Year
- 1989
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 972 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0168-7034
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The role of consumers' belief-value structures was investigated in the context of residential preferences and simulated residential choices by means of'a questionnaire answered by 36 adult Swedish respondents. Three models with different assumptions concerning how beliefs about the attainment of life values affect consumer behaviour were used for predicting preferences for and choices among hypothetical housing alternatives. A model assuming that the evaluation of a given alternative is determined by a weighted sum of the evaluations of the life values which it is believed to lead to, without specifying how individual attributes contribute to this value-fulfillment, was found to be the most successful one in predicting both preference ratings and choices. The results further suggested that whereas the age of the respondents and the format of the information about attributes may have an effect on belief-value structures, the ability to use such structures in order to predict preferences and choices may not be much affected by these factors. The present approach was compared with the laddering technique, and it was suggested that the two methods may be fruitfully combined in the study of consumer attitudes and behaviour.