Origins and Theories of Consumer Behavior: A Review of the Literature
Abstract
Understanding consumer behavior is a discipline that seeks to understand how individuals interact with available products and services. Researchers have developed theories to explain how consumers make decisions and respond to stimuli such as products, services and advertisements. Most theories focus on how consumers evaluate the options and risks associated with their choices. This article is a review of the literature to explore the origins and theories of consumer behavior, as well as to trace the historical development of the discipline and outline the range of definitions that have been attributed to it over time. The results of this study make it possible to define consumer behavior as the set of mental and physical activities that an individual may undertake, either as a step in a varied process, or as an independent act, during the phase of thinking about, seeking, obtaining, consuming or evaluating an idea, an experience, a product or a service in a physical or virtual environment. This attempted definition emphasizes the importance of thinking and research in consumer decision-making, as well as the complexity of the environment in which the consumer operates. Ultimately, this literature review highlights the importance of understanding consumer behavior for companies and brands to better understand consumer preferences and meet their needs and expectations.
Keywords: Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Research
JEL Classification: M31
Paper type: Theoretical Research
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2023 Driss ALAMI, Said EL GUENNOUNI

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.