Explaining Buyer Behavior Central Concepts and Philosophy of Science Issues [Hardcover]

This volume provides the fundamentals needed to understand the various explanatory systems and methodologies used in the behavior sciences and to evaluate their findings, in particular the literature and findings on buyer behavior. In clear prose, the author discusses the key issues in modern philosophy, psychology, and sociology and their relevance for the student of marketing and buyer behavior. O'Shaughnessy exploits insights from many disciplines as to the many ways to derive understanding of behavioral phenomena, making it accessible not only to academics and students of marketing, but to professionals as well.

1. Marketing Management and the Behavioral Sciences
2. Explanation
3. Causal Explanation
4. Causal Temporal Modes of Explanation
5. Teleological Explanation: Goal Ascription, Reasons, and the Rationality Principle
6. Teleological Explanation: Function Ascription
7. Explanatory Systems of Psychology
8. Explanatory Systems of Sociology
9. Emotion: A Multidisciplinary Approach
10. Understanding Consumer Actions Using Social Science Sensitizing Concepts
11. Philosophical Controversies Underlying Explanatory Systems and Methodologies
12. Research Methodology
13. Choosing Explanatory Theory: Recent Controversies in the Philosophy of Science
Discussion Questions
Name Index
Subject Index

Serious readers will find viable and useful fundamentals for understanding and appraising models and other less-structured explanations of buyer behavior....Ideally, all students of marketing, as well as marketing managers, should possess thorough grounding in philosophy and the behavioral sciences; however, frequently time constraints restrict our keeping abreast of developments in those fields as they pertain to marketing. A careful reading of [this book] can do much to close the gap and to serve as a guide for further investigation. --Choice

This is one of those rare contributions to the marketil“Ô