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Consumer Behavior over the Life Course pp 133–145Cite as

Contributions to Previous Efforts to Study Consumers over Their Life Span

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Abstract

The life course paradigm can address consumer issues in an innovative way. Nearly every form of consumer behavior that is influenced by previous life experiences or future expectations and is time- and context-dependent can be studied within the life course framework. Thus, consumer behaviors may be viewed as duration-dependent mental and overt activities or patterns, where development and change in such cognitions and behaviors represent events; they can be considered with respect to the length of time a consumer has been in a particular consumption state and the contexts in which he or she is embedded. Furthermore, because the various disciplinary approaches to life course research are complementary (Sherrod and Brim 1986), the life course paradigm could be used as an overarching conceptual framework to help integrate the various perspectives employed in previous studies and interpret findings to enhance understanding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    George P. Moschis

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Moschis, G.P. (2019). Contributions to Previous Efforts to Study Consumers over Their Life Span. In: Consumer Behavior over the Life Course. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05008-5_7

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