Australian consumers’ automobile decision-making styles and an application of consumer styles inventory (CSI)

The investigation of consumer decision-making styles has a long tradition in marketing and consumer behaviour research. The most commonly used measure of consumer decision making styles is Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) Consumer Styles Inventory (CSI). A major limitation of the CSI is that it measures general shopping orientation, with studies focusing on non-specific product types or low involvement purchases. However, not enough research has been done on consumer decision-making styles for high involvement purchases. This research investigates the decision-making styles, and compares high involvement consumers’ decisionmaking styles with Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) model. Based on a sample of 202 respondents from Australian automobile consumers, exploratory factor analysis was conducted on Sproles and Kendall’s (1986) CSI adapted for automobile purchases. Results showed that only two factors (brand and habitual) of the original model were retained and some other factors such as investigation process; dealers, enjoyment; value within budget and innovation consciousness factor were also confirmed for high involvement decision-making styles. As such the validity of the CSI in the context of high involvement purchases can be known.