An exploratory field study was conducted to examine internal and external factors that influence adolescents' consumer behavior when serving as the family purchasing agents. Demographic, lifestyle, and marketing activities were examined to determine the influences that affect whether the adolescent will purchase the preferred family brands or other brands. Participating adolescents were sent by their parents to the grocery store on two separate occasions to purchase four preselected grocery items. The brands purchased were recorded and compared to the preferred brand names provided by the parents. While no statistical significance was found, occasional trends were observed. The analysis indicated that adolescents who experience a pluralistic family communication style will purchase products other than the preferred household brands. Adolescents who are exposed to television and radio tend to deviate more from the preferred family brands more often than do adolescents with less media exposure. Adolescents who work are more likely to go to the grocery store more often for their families than do nonworking adolescents. Also, adolescents seem to possess a price sensitivity to both high and low-involvement grocery items.

The first objective of this research was to identify whether Asian-Americans having higher than average levels of income and education represent an appropriate target market for four food product categories. Second, the impact of national origin membership, demographic variables, and level of acculturation on food consumption was determined. In addition, perceptions related to sensory and nutritional factors and the cultural acceptability of the products were identified and interpreted to determine if the variables differed among specific groups of Asian-American consumers.

This dissertation deals with the decision-to-move process of elderly persons—from a marketer's perspective. The central problem addressed is the lack of empirical knowledge concerning the factors and influences associated with the information search process of elderly persons in making a residential move decision. The purpose was to investigate and understand the key factors and influences which are viewed as important by elderly individuals in their search for and use of information.

The problem examined in this study was the nature of compulsive purchasing behavior. Three proposed models depicting this behavior as a learned adaptive response to anxiety and/or depression, an addiction, and a personality disorder were introduced and discussed in Chapter I. Background information concerning the areas examined in the models was presented in Chapter II. The research methodology was discussed in Chapter III and the findings of the research presented in Chapter IV. A summary, conclusions, implications, and recommendations were presented in Chapter V.

Because of the high and rapidly increasing cost of health care, wellness has become a significant issue for both health care practitioners and the general public. This research examines the issue of wellness and seeks to develop a model that identifies the factors that are most significant in explaining why people engage in wellness activities. A questionnaire was mailed to a sample (n = 499) randomly selected from the general population of the United States. Predictor variables are the demographic variables of age, income, education and gender together with the cognitive variables of self-actualization, benefits of wellness behavior, health locus of control and threat to health. Dependent variables are the health-seeking behaviors of exercise, stress management, nutrition, health responsibility and social support. Canonical correlation, t-tests, regression and analysis of variance are used to analyze the data. Chapter one presents two existing health models. The first presents prevention or threat to health and the second proposes self-actualization as motivating wellness behavior. The research model combines the two models. Chapter two presents relevant studies in the literature regarding use of multivariate models in consumer behavior, dimensions of wellness and empirical findings of wellness-related research. Chapter three presents the research hypotheses, research design …