posted on 2024-11-18, 14:55authored byInaugural addresses
Inaugural lecture--Department of Industrial Economics, Rand Afrikaans University, 10 November 1970@@This inaugural lecture deals with the problem of consumption and consumer behaviour as fields of study and research.
The unprecedented leeway present-day consumers have in the choice of the goods and services they consume is outlined, and the need for a better knowledge of consumer behaviour is stressed. The speaker surveys the transition from a production to a marketing orientated economy in developed countries and concurrent change in management thinking. He surveys the nature of consumption and the factors determining and changing consumer behaviour. He reviews some of the existing literature and theories on the problem. He concludes that there does not as yet exist a generally accepted theory of consumer behaviour capable of explaining specific patterns of consumer needs, choice patterns and sonsumer behaviour in general. He also states that no general theory of marketing can be developed without a sound theory of consumer behaviour. The main reason for this situation should be sought in the lack of interdisciplinary co-peration between academic persons and marketing practitioners. Persons engaged in the study of consumption and consumer behaviour are usually either economists, business economists or behavioural scientists in the narrower sense, who are capable of approaching this problem only from within the strict boundaries of their own subject field. In conclusion the speaker pleads for greater interdisciplinary co-operation and for better use of the knowledge of the behavioural sciences in the training of business economists and more particularly marketing researchers and marketing managers.
History
Date of creation
2009-02-23
Date submitted to repository
1970-11-10
Copyright information
University of Johannesburg
Original repository
Vital
Language Translation
On the concept of consumption in marketing management