EIRP Proceedings, Vol 7 (2012)

Abstract

Consumption is a key factor of the nowadays post-industrial society, while it is a real engine of production, diversity of offer and demand, and motive for innovation. On the other side, consumption can be harmful to the same society and to environment if it develops in an un-sustainable way. That is why, understanding the consumer behaviour is of great importance not only to satisfy his or her needs but also to find appropriate means to educate people and issue policies that can lead to sustainable consumption and development. The paper presents some models and theories regarding the consumer behaviour and proposes means to influence consumption characteristics and habits of people. The modelling approach is deterministic, using Expectancy-Value theory, taking into account not only explicit (rational) choices but also habits or incentives (non-rational choices), in a weighted quantitative model. The novelty of the approach consists in the way non-rational choices are taken into consideration for the existing model, and on how it is used in determining directions for sustainable consumption. The study is developed on public data regarding consumers of general goods in Romania.