The consumer situation: An integrative model for research in marketing∗

Abstract

The paper is concerned until the growth of knowledge in consumer research and its implications for our conceptions of consumer behaviour and marketing management. It argues that, despite its success in initiating the modern era of consumer research, cognitive psychology's very pre‐eminence is now a barrier to intellectual development in the field. Scientific progress requires the juxtaposing of alternative theoretical stances with cognitive consumer psychology to encourage an interplay of competing explanations. The paper begins this process by developing a model of purchase and consumption based on a critical reappraisal of behaviour analysis, a psychological paradigm which is antithetical at almost all points to cognitivism. This original model provides a unique interpretation of the major classes of consumer behaviour: maintenance, accumulation, pleasure and accomplishment. The paper considers the implications of the model for our understanding of consumer choice and marketing management. It concludes by describing the research that is now required to substantiate and develop the model further, and its unique comprehension of the nature of managerial marketing.