Purchase decision making in India: A critical ethnographic study of the antecedents of marital power

The research reported here critically examines the underlying antecedents for marital power in purchase decision making. Taking the stance that spousal decision making is a culturally‐situated phenomenon, the research was conducted in India, a culture vastly different from the one in which the existing antecedents of power were established. Data were collected via participant observation and multiple, in‐depth ethnographic interviews and analyzed by a constant comparative method revealing insights into both the existing and emergent antecedents. This article reviews and integrates theories of marital power drawn from a diverse set of disciplines‐consumer behavior, sociology, psychology, and counseling psychology‐to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the antecedents of power in purchase decision making. Interpretive material from personal interviews with spouses is then used to illustrate the underlying causes of marital power in decision making. Four existing antecedentsresources, ideology, involvement, and least‐interest and six emergent antecedents‐aggressiveness, locus of control, confidence in spouse, compliance, caste, and joint family— are discussed.

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**Professor of Marketing, Mississippi State University, Box 9582, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA., Tel.: [phone]; Fax: [phone]; E‐mail: [email protected]