Is spousal decision making a culturally situated phenomenon?

The research reported here examines the underlying personality antecedents for marital power in purchase decision making. Taking the stance that spous al decision making is a culturally situated phenomenon, the research was co nducted in India, a culture vastly different from the one in which the exis ting antecedents of power were established. Data were collected via partici pant observation and multiple, in-depth ethnographic interviews and analyze d by a constant comparative method. Contrary to popular impression, this ar ticle finds that Indian wives wield considerable decision-making power. Fur ther, the findings reported here argue that that a spouse's personality tra its will largely dictate his or her relative influence in decision making. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.