Learning outcomes

Regarding learning outcomes for students, the course mainly aims at the acquisition of knowledge, the application of a scientific approach and the reasoning as a socially responsible stakeholder. To a lesser extent, it also aims to enhance students’ communication skills as well as their personal and professional self-development.

Goals

The aim of this course is to broaden students' knowledge of concepts and processes related to the study of consumers and consumption, mainly borrowed from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and postmodern research. This course objective is to distance students from the classic paradigm of homo oeconomicus to get them to consider the consumer as much from its cognitive as emotional and behavioral aspects.

Content

The outset of the course offers an introduction to basic concepts, to the history and to the discipline’s dominant trends. The course is built around consumers’ decision-making processes. A global model is proposed in the first part that will be used as a framework for the other lectures. The second part of the course focuses on mental/cognitive and social processes that underlie decisions and behaviors (i.e., motivation, beliefs and attitudes, information processing, learning). The third part is concerned with individual differences in behavior, related to consumers’ personality, lifestyles, values, emotions etc. Finally, the last part of the course examines environmental factors that influence decisions and behaviors (culture, social classes, group influences etc.). While lecturing, we will take a particular care in examining the importance and implications of analyzing consumer behavior for marketing strategy and operations.

Assessment method

The evaluation of students will be made by means of a paper and a written examination.

  • Paper (20%): Students are asked to make groups of two and to produce a 5-10 minutes’ videography on an issue related to consumer behavior (e.g., paradoxes in postmodern consumption). Each video is presented and discussed during the last session of the course.
  • Final exam (80%): Final evaluation is made by means of a written examination covering all the topics and papers discussed in the classroom. Questions are developed to assess the two following aspects: (1) Students’ understanding of concepts and processes; (2) Students’ ability to apply those concepts and processes to real (business) life situations.

Sources, references and any support material

Course pack (slides) is available before the course on the webcampus platform.

The reference textbooks are

  • Arnould, E., Price, L., & Zinkham, G. (2004). Consumers. McGraw-Hill/Irwin (2nd ed.).
  • Blackwell R.D., Miniard P.W., & Engel, J.F. (2006). Consumer Behavior. Mason: Thomson South-Western (10th ed.).
  • Hoyer, W.D., MacInnis, D.J., & Pieters, R. (2013). Consumer Behavior. South-Western. Cengage Learning (6th international ed.)
  • Solomon, M. (2014). Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being (11th Edition). Prentice Hall.

Language of instruction

Français