Demographic and Life Style Determinants of Household Consumption Patterns

Abstract

The authors propose a model of household consumption based on existing literature and provide empirical evidence substantiating the typology. The basic empirical issue focuses on the role of life style patterns and socio-economic demographic factors that affect household consumption patterns. Using a life style survey of adult females in the U.S., underlying life style patterns were identified and combined with socioeconomic variables to discriminate among consumption groups. Analyses revealed significant differences among those groups in terms of both life styles and socioeconomic status. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdolreza Eshghi

Dr. William C. Lesch, Ph.D, 1983-University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is an Associate Professor at Illinois State University, Normal, Il. He has published in the International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Health and Social Policy, Journal of Professional Marketing Education, and AMA, Southern Marketing, and Academy Proceedings. He has held a concurrent appointment at the the Norwegian School of Marketing in Oslo. He consults in the areas of marketing research, advertising and media planning, and international marketing. Consumer lifestyles and public policy have been focal to his research.

William Lesch

Dr. Abdolreza Eshghi is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urban-Champaign. He has co-edited five readings books for South-Western Publishing Company’s Global Business Perspectives Series, published numerous articles in International Marketing Review, Proceedings of the American Marketing Association for Consumer Research, and Academy of Marketing Science. He has been appointed Chair of the Marketing Department at Bentley College, effective January 1, 1994.