CONSUMER CHOICE BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS IN CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY

Abstract

We studied the category of «uncertainty» in the context of consumer choice of individual. It was determined that that the quality and quantity of information that consumers received and processed during decision-making played the most important role, affecting the degree of uncertainty. At the same time the quality of information plays a more important role than the quantity of information. We analyzed every stage of the individual decisions making process on the acquisition of goods and the role of uncertainty on each stage. We considered the decision-making process in conditions of uncertainty in everyday (routine) and special purchases, separated all stages of these types of purchases and defined values ​​of uncertainty influence on all types of purchases. It was determined that an individual can get into conditions of uncertainty in two types of purchases: everyday purchase, when the decision is used quickly, automatically and uncontrollably, and special (not everyday purchases), when the individual uses specific processes to make a decision, which requires additional attention and effort. Practical situations when the consumer can get into conditions of uncertainty were considered. We analyzed alternative variants of using the consumer choice and investigated the continuum of consumer behavior. We determined the conditions, when consumer behavior could correspond to «routine behavior», «limited problem solving» or « problem solving» in the continuum of consumer behavior. The modern six-stage model of the decision-making process сщтішіеі the quality of character for environmentally conscious consumers and the impact of uncertainty at each stage of decision-making in these models, especially at the stage of use and utilization, were analyzed. We identified that the study of the degree of uncertainty about the final result of decision-making is an unsolved problem in modern science and outlined the prospects of the behavioral aspects of consumer choice study in conditions of uncertainty.