Explanatory and Predictive Models of Consumer Behavior

The chapter describes quantitative modelers and management scientists unfamiliar with marketing an appreciation of the way in which models of consumer behavior are developed and used. The chapter is also designed to provide a reference and teaching resource for marketing specialists. The future of consumer behavior modeling is bright; newer models are richer, more flexible, and more closely attuned to modern data sources. Yet many phenomena are poorly modeled at the moment. The chapter highlights the areas of modeling consumer purchase heuristics (and information-processing biases), modeling consumers' mental processes, matching models to market segments, and modeling choice for truly new or non-comparable alternatives as fruitful areas that deserve concerted attention in the future.