The Economics of Consumer Knowledge
Journal of Consumer Research · 2001 · Volume 27 · Issue 4
Abstract
While approaches to measuring the state of a consumer's knowledge are well developed, much less is known about the relationship between knowledge and consumer choice and information search. The purpose of this article is to explore these relationships by treating consumer knowledge as human capital, which affects the full price of consumption and search activities. Using this framework, models are presented to explain life cycle consumption patterns, lifestyles, brand loyalty, choice of features, and search behavior. This economic perspective is compared and contrasted to other consumer research on these topics, including recent qualitative research that examines consumption behavior.
Keywords
choice (brand or product level), economic theories and analysis, information search/acquisition, lifestyle and psychographics, preferences
Enable JavaScript for citation tools and additional paper interactions.