Decision making style and store patronage behaviour of Chennai shoppers

The study of consumers helps firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies by understanding issues such as how the psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between different alternatives (e.g., brands, products, and retailers), how consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the consumer; and How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer (Lars Perner, 2010). Therefore, there is a growing need to evaluate the drivers of retail store choice behaviour in the Indian context. This paper aimed at finding out whether there is any difference in the retail patronage behaviour of Chennai shoppers in the context of their decision making style. The study was descriptive in nature; there are two questionnaires ware used to collect data about store patronage behaviour and Decision Making Style. For Store Patronage Behaviour a self-administered questionnaire was developed on the basis of review of the literature, measuring eleven constructs consisting of fifty seven statements pertaining to retail store choice patronage behaviour. For Decision Making Style the researcher used the Standard Scale developed by S.G. Scott and R.A. Bruce. The Scale classifies the respondents as either rational or intuitive or flexible. The data has been collected from 522 respondents. Percentage analysis, Measures of central tendency and Kruskal Wallis Test were used to analyze the data and the important findings were discussed in the paper.