for
buyers and
sellers
engaged
in
e-commerce but
they
would
have
little
chance
to
engage
independently with
buyers and
sellers
or
to
offer
their
own
products in the
electronic
marketplace.
(Wenninger
2000)
2.3
Characteristics, model
and
research
of
consumer behavior
Consumer characteristics affect the consumer behavior that will influence the decision
process in evaluating, acquiring, buying, using or disposing the products. As written by
Kotler
(1997, p171)
that “the
field of consumer behavior
studies
about
how
individuals,
groups,
and
organizations select, buy,
use and
dispose of goods, services,
ideas,
or
experiences
to satisfy
their
needs and
desires”.
2.3.1
Characteristics influencing
consumer behavior
The study of consumer characteristic is related to the factors that influence consumer
behavior. There are four major factors that influence the consumer behavior, that is,
Cultural factors, Social factors, Personal factors, and Psychological factors (Kotle®
1997,
p172-188).
Cultural
factors
give the marketer an understanding of the role-played by the
buyers, which is related to their culture (the basic one), their subculture such as
nationalities, religions, and geographic regions, and the last, their social classes. Social
factors strongly influence consumer responses; they consist of reference from small
groups, family and social roles, and status. Personal
factors are
other factors, which
influence buyer’s decision; they include age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic
situation, lifestyle, personality – it refers to the specific psychological characteristic and
self-concept. There are four major Psychological factors:
motivation, perception,
learning, beliefs and attitudes. Motive adequately pushes the person to look for
satisfaction. Perception appears through the process of selection and interpretation of
information or meaningful picture. A belief is a result of explanatory thought about
something. An attitude describes a person’s tendencies in the direction of an object or
idea. These factors are usually used as variables of characteristics in researching
consumer behavior.
2.3.2
Models
of
consumer behavior
A model is useful to simplify the understanding of reality. It includes only the aspects of
interest and ignores the other aspects that don’t make sense to the situation. It is
developed for a variety of purposes and serves as the structure of systematic and logical
thinking.
Studying consumer behavior is quite complex; therefore, it needs a model to ease the
work. The complexity is caused by many variables involved and the variables have
tendency to interact (Loudon and Bitta
1984, p29).
Kotler introduced a model of buying
behavior as follows:
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