QN. With examples, argue on consumer behavior and household economic fertility. the theory is rerelant to our society especially the third world countries?
DEFINITION OF THE KEY CONCEPT
Theory is a statement or statement of how and why specific facts are related (Macionis, 1997:15).
Zerihun Doda (2005), defined theory as a set of interconnected hypotheses that offer general explanations for natural or social phenomena.
Generally, Theory is the statement that explain a certain phenomena and that statement have its outcome to our society.
Shankar Rao, (2006), quoted some definition of society from different scholars as follow:-
A
society is a collection of individual united by certain relation or
model of behavior that make them off from others who do not inter into
these relation or who differ from them in behavior (Morris Ginsberg,)
A
society refers not to a group of people, but to the complex pattern of
interaction, that arise among and between them (Lapiere)
Michael Hughes and Kloehler (2005), define society as a group who live a some territory and share a common culture.
Macionis J. J. and Plummer K. (2008), defined society as the people who interrupt and defined space and share culture.
Generally,
society can be defined as a group of people living together within a
territory under a leader and perfume various activities together with
culture.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
The
theory of consumer behavior attempts to put into consideration or cover
consumers of goods and services and how they generally behave before,
during or after the buying process and as such some common terms to
explain the whole process, (http://kenyaentrepreneur.hubpages.com/hub/Consumer-Behavior-Theory).
Consumer Behavior is how consumers allocate their money incomes among goods and services,(http://welkerswikinomics.wetpaint.com/page/Theory+of+Consumer+Behavior).
Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics.
It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both
individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual
consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general,
There are three steps to understand consumer behavior. These are:-
First
step is to examine consumer preferences (easier said than done). For
practical purposes this just means what a consumer would theoretical
prefer absent price, secondly, face budget constraints that restrict the
quantities of goods on services that can be consumed, and lastly to put
consumer preferences and budget constraints together to determine
choices. This assuming that people maximize their satisfaction by
combining a set of goods and services, (Rafael Gomez, 2003). Generally
consumer behavior attempt to base on Rational behavior, preferences,
budget constraint, price and income.
The Rational behavior of consumers is that ;
Money is no doubt what consumers use to buy goods and services they
need and in reality it’s scarce in nature and a person may not have
enough of it at any given time. Due to this scarcity of money consumers
tend to be rational in their purchasing decisions.
A
consumer would spend his money on the best possible place or product
that guarantees him utility or a sense of satisfaction. The rational
behavior of consumer also means that buyers only purchase goods and
services only when needed rather than wasting money on things that have
no immediate use as of now. The consumer or buyer will do all he can, to
get the most out of the little money he has in possession in such a way
that he feels satisfied about what his money has purchased for him.
In
a market there is demand as well as supply. Excess demand for goods
means a reduction of goods and services available in the market and
hence an increase in the price levels. The opposite is also true if the
demand is low. The consumers have little income or money in possession
and hence should only make their purchase decisions on the strength of
their wallets. In this case the consumer’s demand for the more expensive
products tends to be lower and this may lead to fall in prices as a
measure to counter the low levels of demand. When prices fall consumers
are willing to purchase the products.
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC FERTILITY
The
household economic fertility looks at demand as a function of income,
prices, and tastes. From the perspective of the home production
framework, the positive relationship between life expectancy and
economic well-being suggests that survival is a normal commodity,
example as incomes rise, people have a higher demand for (and
realization of) survival, (http://www.econ.psu.edu/~dshapiro/463ib.htm).
Economic
theories of fertility assume that parents have the number of children
they do because they desire approximately that number, given the cost of
birth control. This demand for children at a household level is
affected by many socio-economic factors such as the level of human
capital of family members, family income and assists and the experience
on the child mortality, (http://voices.yahoo.com/theories-fertility-491702.html?cat=72).
The
economic model of the household has three central features as follows;
firstly, the household welfare function, describing how the household
decision makers value the outcome the allocation of household resources,
secondly, the household technology, describing how income
allocations-goods and time –affect outcomes valued by the house hold
such as health, earnings potential, and clean house. And lastly, the
household budget constraint, describing the total resources of time and
goods the household can command, (Beatrice Lorge Rogers and Nina P.
Schlossman, 1983).
Therefore,
the relationship between between household or individual inputs, person
specific characteristics, and the human capital for each family member
is by the production function.
The
theory proposes that fertility decisions in all societies are
economically rational responses to familial wealth flows. In society
with net upward wealth flows, the economically rational decision is to
have as many surviving children as possible (within the constraints
imposed by biology), because each additional child adds positively old
age, and social and political wellbeing.
In
societies with net downward wealth flows, the economically rational
decision is to have no children or the minimum number allowed by a
psychological desponsition that derives from children and parenting. The
worldwide transition from high to low fertility is the result of a
change in family structures from upward to downward wealth flows,
(Caldwell, 1980).
HOW THE THEORY RELEVANT IN OUR CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY ESPECIALLY THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES.
The following are how the theories are relevant in our contemporary societies especially The Third World Countries:-
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
The most obvious is for marketing strategy,
example for making better marketing campaigns. For example, by
understanding that consumers are more receptive to food advertising when
they are hungry, we learn to schedule snack advertisements late in the
afternoon. By understanding that new products are usually initially
adopted by a few consumers and only spread later, and then only
gradually, to the rest of the population, we learn that firstly,
companies that introduce new products must be well financed so that they
can stay afloat until their products become a commercial success and
secondly, it is important to please initial customers, since they will
in turn influence many subsequent customers’ brand choices, (http://www.consumerpsychologist.com).
Consumer
theory is applicable in our society in three contexts such as price,
budget, prices of services or goods and consumer preferences. Also it
affected with demand and supply. Consumer refers to the quantity of
goods and services that consumer are willing and able to buy at a given
prices at a specific period of time. For
example when a commodity is high, the price is low and also if the
commodities are low the price is high. This is what happening in our
society, when the price of substitute’s goods “A” (for example coffee)
is high a buyer may change kind of substitutes goods need to buy may
change to use goods “B” (example is tea).
Also
consumer behavior is applicable in budget as follows; when a person or a
certain family have low income or high income, this people usually base
on their budget so as to
protect the use of money for a specific reasons. Some time because of
family needs, a person may decide to have few numbers of children so as
to control their budget.
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIC FERTILITY
The
household economic fertility is applicable in our society in the
following ways; within a family a parent may decide to have any number
of children, but these people they invest on children as a source of
income for the future. The family planning reaching a point to have
children, and thereafter growing of these children, when they involve on
economic activities they tend to increase income of the family. In
Africa some people they still believing that, to have many children help
to have source of labour within a family which led to increase
production. Therefore, the theory seeing as applicable in our society
through that ways.
CONCLUSION
All
these two theories base on population and how the society being
affected by economics and needs of the society as whole. The societies
is affecting by budgeting, price and preferences. On the consumer
behavior a person may affected by the preferences of goods or services
where a person may decide to by on not a certain services or goods. Also
in economic household people may be affected the number of people they
need so as to increase the income of the children either throw labor or
security during old age.
REFERENCES
Macionis, J. J. and Plummer, K. (2008), Sociology “A Global Introduction”, 4th Edition,
London, Pearson Education Limited.
Zerihun Doda (2005), Introduction To Social Cultural Anthropology, Debub University,
EPHT (Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative) Press
Shankar Rao, C. N. (2006),Sociology; a principle of sociology with an introduction to
Social thought, 6th edition, Indian University, Rejend Raindra Press.
powered by CHIWAMBO AUSI R. TEOFILO KISANJI UNIVERSITY, MAY 2012
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