This concise introduction presents a rigorous analysis of consumer choice from the perspective of consumer behavior analysis. Gordon Foxall provides a deeper understanding of what consumers actually buy and the nature of the utility that shapes and maintains patterns of consumption.

The Routledge Companion to Consumer Behavior Analysis provides a unique and eclectic combination of behavioral, cognitive and environmental perspectives to illuminate the real-world complexities of consumer choice in a marketing-oriented economy. Edited by a leading authority in the field, the contributing authors have created a unique anthology for understanding consumer preference by bringing together the very latest research and thinking in consumer behavior analysis. This comprehensive and innovative volume ranges over a broad multi-disciplinary perspective from economic psychology, behavioral psychology and experimental economics, but its chief focus is on the critical evaluation of consumer choice in the natural settings of affluent, marketing-oriented economies. By focussing on human economic and social choices, which involve social exchange, it explores and reveals the enormous potential of consumer behavior analysis to illuminate the role of modern marketing-oriented business organizations in shaping and responding to consumer choice. This will be of particular interest to academics, researchers and advanced students in marketing, consumer behavior, behavior analysis, social psychology, behavioral economics and behavioral psychology.

Consumption is the primary economic activity in our post-industrial society. We are consumers, not producers. Consumer behavior analysis is leading heterodox marketing scholarship and innovative applied behavioral work, with much to offer both constituencies. This volume shows how consumer behavior analysis fits within a larger-scale approach to marketing, consumer psychology, behavior analysis and organizational behavior management. Describing both theoretical analyses and empirical studies including laboratory experiments in e-commerce, in-store experiments in grocery shopping, and an analysis of the counterfeit goods market, this book is a working example of translational research. It contains tools and studies to help understand contemporary consumer behavior, particularly for those in marketing. Scholars will appreciate the theory and real-world applications evident in each chapter when considering their own research direction. All students of marketing theory, behavior analysis and consumer choice will find this collection a thought-provoking tool for further understanding of a new behavioral approach to marketing strategy, consumer decisions and marketing firms. This book comprises articles originally published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.

Answering the key question of whether there is an obligation for States to define and enact sound climate policies in order to avoid the impacts of global warming, this timely book provides expert analysis on recent global climate cases, assessing not only the plaintiffs’ claims but also the legal reasoning put forward by the courts.

The marketing firm is that business organisation which responds to the imperatives of consumer-orientation. Its style of management is marked by its adherence to the criteria of goal separation, participation in marketing transactions, entrepreneurial sovereignty and reciprocal entrepreneurial management, all of which are explored in this pioneering book. It assumes the proposition, uncontroversial enough to marketing academics and students, that contemporary firms can survive and prosper – achieve their financial goal, be it the maximization of profit or sales or growth – only if they respond appropriately to those imperatives: specifically, the forces that promote consumer discretion and consumer sophistication. Surprisingly, however, theories of the firm, based on economics, strategic management or behavioural science, show scant recognition of this observation which is abundantly clear from the most elementary treatment of marketing management. Renowned scholar Gordon R. Foxall argues that this proposition should form the starting point of a theory of the firm and explores its implications for marketing theory in the light of the findings of consumer behaviour analysis and research on the marketing firm. Hence, while pursuing a competence theory of the marketing firm based on the idealised implications of the imperatives of consumer-orientation, the book rests its conception on a groundwork of empirical evidence on consumer behaviour and corporate action.

This book presents and discusses seven contemporary theoretical approaches to behavior analysis that build upon the foundations laid by B.F. Skinner’s radical behaviorism and renew its legacy. These contemporary approaches show that behaviorism is not a monolithic or static intellectual tradition, but a dynamic movement, which changes and adapts in face of new questions, issues, and perspectives. The death of behaviorism has been proclaimed since its early days – a “premature” assessment, to say the least – but this volume shows that behaviorism is alive and kicking, even thirty years after its main proponent passed away. This volume contains seven sections, each one dedicated to a particular variation of contemporary behaviorism: Howard Rachlin’s teleological behaviorism, William Baum’s molar behaviorism and multiscale behavior analysis, John Staddon’s theoretical behaviorism, John Donahoe’s biological behaviorism, Gordon Foxall’s intentional behaviorism, Steven Hayes’ contextual behaviorism or contextual behavioral science, and Emilio Ribes-Iñesta’s field-theory behaviorism. Each section contains three chapters: the first one written by the original proponent of each of these forms of behaviorism, the second one written by a commentator, and the third one written by the proponent, replying to the commentator. Contemporary Behaviorisms in Debate will be a valuable tool to behavior analysts and psychologists in general by providing an introduction to contemporary forms of behaviorism and promoting debates about the main philosophical issues faced by the field of behavior analysis today— issues that can directly influence future epistemological variations in the selection process of “behaviorisms.” By doing so the book is directed not only to the present, but, more importantly, toward the future of the field.