Dimensions of Marital Roles in Consumer Decision-making

This study is a partial replication of an earlier study by Davis who studied the dimensions of marital roles in consumer decision-making in the planned purchase of two major consumer goods – automobiles and furniture. The original study was conducted in the late 1960s in Chicago whereas this study examines husband-wife roles in consumer family decisions in the Indian context (for the same products – automobiles and furniture). Despite significant differences in the timing of the two studies and also in the cultural and social contexts in India and the US, this study finds the pattern of relative influence of husband and wife in important purchase decisions to be essentially similar to that of Davis.