Family life cycle and the life course paradigm: A four-country comparative study of consumer expenditures

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Date

2020

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd

Access Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess

Abstract

Marketers and academics have long been trying to develop effective segmentation models such as several versions of the family life cycle (FLC), which predicts behavior based on stages people are expected to sequentially experience during their lives. However, stage-based factors have been found poor predictors of consumer behavior, and assumptions held by the FLC model fall short of reality. Despite limitations inherent in family life cycle models and recent developments in other disciplines that have resulted in the replacement of the term life cycle with the more continuous concept of the life course, marketers are yet to capitalize on such recent developments for improving FLC models. This study shows how the traditional FLC model can be improved by incorporating variables from the life course paradigm (LCP). Although the databases employed do not permit the development of refined FLC stages for testing various assumptions derived from the LCP, the paper provides a sensitizing framework for thinking how to improve efforts to study consumers at different FLC stages.

Description

Keywords

Family life cycle, life course, life events, consumer behavior, marketing

Journal or Series

Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science

WoS Q Value

N/A

Scopus Q Value

Q1

Volume

30

Issue

1

Citation