The Consumer as Homo Sapiens: On the Practical Relevance of Research On Consumer Behavior

Abstract

For economics, Nobel laureate Richard H. Thaler has called for understanding humans more as homo sapiens and less as homo economicus in order to bring research closer to reality. This essay applies his critique to the study of consumer behavior and its relevance in corporate practice. The author criticizes that the findings of consumer behavior research are often too abstract and too strongly related to a specific context to derive direct practical recommendations for action from a company's perspective. The causes identified are the use of sometimes oversimplified models and the collection of too narrow samples. In order to align business research with regard to consumer behavior more closely to practice, the use of more comprehensive models and larger samples, greater standardization and a stronger focus on meta-analyses are suggested to bring together findings from different contexts more effectively and make them comparable.