BUYING OR JUST BROWSING - THE DURATION OF PURCHASE DELIBERATION

Newman and Staelin (1971) point to a lack of research addressing the i mportant questions of ''How long are buyers' in process' on their purc hasing decisions?'' and ''What factors are related to differences in d ecision time?'' Unfortunately, very little attention has been paid to this important research area during the more than two decades followin g Newman and Staelin's work. Accordingly, the authors develop a theory of the evolution of choice decisions for consumer durable products. T his theory addresses information acquisition behavior and the duration of the purchase deliberation process itself. From this general theory , hypotheses pertaining to the duration of the deliberation process ar e tested using new car purchase survey data.