Ashley Roland Lye

Decision waves: consumer decisions in today's complex world

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the dominant consumer decision theory models and understand why that theory has received little empirical validation. A “decision waves” theory is proposed – an alternative, multi‐phase approach to decision making using image theory. An approach to validating empirically the multi‐phase theory is outlined.Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper examines the foundations of modern consumer decision theory and argues for a more representative model of actual consumer decisions.Findings – Decision waves provide a theoretical approach to represent more accurately consumer decision making and improve understanding in this foundational component of marketing. Decision waves do not change detailed empirical findings: however, they do change the macro perspective of how those findings are assembled for marketing.Research limitations/implications – An empirical test of decision waves theory is ongoing.Practical implications – The concepts outlined in thi...

Brand Extensions: Prestige Brand Effects

Competition and consumer brand attitudes make introducing a new brand risky and very expensive, increasing the attractiveness of brand extensions. Brand extension research has established that original brand quality perceptions, product category fit, consumer perceptions of the product category complementarity and substitutability, plus the transferability of design and manufacturing capability significantly influence extension attitude formation. However, these studies fail to differentiate between brand types and have aggregated out category effects. Using a national survey we show that brand type (prestige, functional) and extension category are important variables in consumer brand extension attitude formation. Perceived quality influences functional brands more than prestige brands as prestige brand attitudes assume quality. Functional brands experience less dilution than prestige brands, implying less risk and greater expandability than argued by previous authors.

Search and performance in International exchange

The bulk of research in international exchange has adopted an exporter perspective. In contrast, the work reported here incorporates the importer side of the dyad. The research used an extensive multiple case study design involving 36 exporter‐importer dyads operating across four countries. The main search criteria used by importers are identified along with those areas where the perception and performance of exporters were most at variance with those being used by the importers. Field research also pointed to a marked age‐related cyclical effect in dyad performance. In addition, the best performing dyads were those in which close relationships were maintained among the people on either side, an aspect that could have been more carefully managed by some of the exporters.

Importer perspectives on international exchange relationships

Analysis of the international marketing literature confirms a dominant focus on relationships between variables or constructs internal to the exporter and exporter-based measures of performance. This concentration on the exporter/seller has been at the expense of the importer/customer. The authors report on a new exploratory study that contrasts the importer and exporter perspectives on three key aspects of their international relationship: its stage of development, relationship strength, and how relationship performance is measured. The findings provide some new insights into the development of international exchange relationships and the differences in how importers and exporters perceive the same dyad relationship. The paper concludes by outlining the implications for exporters and an agenda for future research.

Investigating Strategy Use for a Single Choice Decision

This study investigates consumer decision behaviour by specifically analysing if and when consumers use more than one strategy, and possibly only parts of those strategies, in situations that only involve one decision. A computer process tracing method was used to analyse 262 single decisions. Consumers seldom use a single literature-based strategy for a single decision and many strategies used were not literature-based.