Executive and consumer decision processes

Wilson, Elizabeth J; Woodside, Arch G. (2001) The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing: Executive and consumer decision processes: increasing useful sense making by identifying similarities and departures.

This article goes over marketing executives and consumers engaging in a combination of automatic and strategic thinking and doing processes when they become aware of problems and/or opportunities. Similarities and departures in these processes among these people happen through all stages of their decisions. The article explains the. Similarities and departures in the. Stream of thinking and behaviors of executives and consumers. 

For example, both types of people here apply simplifying categorizing rules for defining decision contexts; for repetitive decision-making contexts, categorization rules are more often formalized in writing by executives but not by consumers. So, whether or. not executives and consumers show similarities or differences in their decision making is useful to consider. Critical distinction in their conversations, thought processes and behaviors support the view that every decision process is unique.

Using "direct research" to examine similarities and differences in the decision processes of executives and consumers helps fulfill the irresistible need for understanding. 

After the research, some of the similarities were;

*Both executives and consumers apply very limited search strategies to frame decision contexts, to find solutions, and to create rules for deciding.

*Both executives and consumers create and implement heuristic thinking for both identifying candidate solutions and making final choice decisions .

* Automatic mental processes, rather than strategic thinking.

* For major decisions, looping of thoughts back-and-forth to memory, and thinking about external stimuli occurs frequently during decision making: for example, in "new task" problems by executives or "extensive problem-solving" situations experienced by consumers. 

* Both executives and consumers frequently consult and seek approval of others before making a final decision

Differences are: 

* Formal, written, rules for searching for suppliers and evaluating vendor proposals are created for many categories of decisions within organizations but rarely by consumers.

* Formal performance audits by external audit professionals occur annually for purchasing and in many marketing organizations, but rarely are such audits done for consumer decisions.

* For many categories of decisions, documentation of deliberations and decision outcomes is more extensive in business organizations compared to consumer households.