Agent-based modeling of consumer decision making process based on power distance and personality

Simulating consumer decision making processes involves different disciplines such as: sociology, social psychology, marketing, and computer science. In this paper, we propose an agent-based conceptual and computational model of consumer decision-making based on culture, personality and human needs. It serves as a model for individual behavior in models that investigate system-level resulting behavior. Theoretical concepts operationalized in the model are the Power Distance dimension of Hofstede's model of national culture; Extroversion, Agreeableness and Openness of Costa and McCrae's five-factor model of personality, and social status and social responsibility needs. These factors are used to formulate the utility function, process and update the agent state, need recognition and action estimation modules of the consumer decision process. The model was validated against data on culture, personality, wealth and car purchasing from eleven European countries. It produces believable results for the differences of consumer purchasing across eleven European countries. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.