Conscious and Non-conscious Decision Making in Consumer Choice:A Conceptual Model

Considerable research work has been done to show the importance of conscious decision making process in consumer choice. Few of the recent studies have revealed that consumer behavior can be influenced by mental processes that occur outside conscious awareness. This article reviews relevant literature to bring out the difference between conscious and nonconscious decision making. It provides a link between the choice-set, consumer knowledge, situational factors and the decision making processes. It highlights the relationship between satisfaction and decision making processes. The paper proposes a theoretical framework which can be empirically tested in an experimental setting.