Economics, Psychology, and the Literature of the Subdiscipline of Consumer Behavior

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the subdiscipline of marketing known as "consumer behavior" and its literature which grew during the 1950s and 1960s and at an increasing rate during the 1970s. In spite of marketing's roots in economics, it cam to rely more heavily on psychology as a source for conceptual borrowing. It is suggested that this may have resulted from greater congruity between marketing scholars and psychologists with respect to research purposes and philosophies of science.