The dissertation is devoted to the generalization and development of theoretical provisions, to the development of methodological approaches and practical recommendations for the management of consumer behavior in trading enterprise.
In the first chapter, the morphological analysis of the term “consumer behavior” by genus, subject, object of consumer behavior and by the actions conducted by subject towards the object is performed, allowing to provide the author’s definition of consumer behavior as a set of physical, psychological, emotional, cognitive and social processes including need recognition, information search, selection, purchase, use, service, evaluation, disposal of goods, services, ideas, time, events, experiences, or any other entities, and further information sharing, performed by individuals, groups, or organizations in order to meet their needs and wants in context of internal and external factors driving such processes and their impacts on consumer and environment. Analysis of existing definitions of consumer behavior management has shown that there is no definition that describes this category comprehensively. So the author’s definition of consumer behavior management is formulated in the dissertation: a subsystem of marketing management that embodies principles, methods, instruments and practices of interacting with customers in all the stages of their consumer behavior in order to both achieve a company’s strategic and tactical marketing goals and satisfy customer needs in a socially responsible way. Basing on the integration of marketing principles and the principles of consumer behavior, the list of principles of consumer behavior management is formulated in the dissertation, namely: consumer orientation, flexibility and creativity, cross-disciplinary scientific approach, complexity, long-term orientation, social entrepreneurship. Those principles were integrated into the developed model of consumer behavior management in trading enterprise which aggregates stages and factors of consumer behavior, instruments of consumer behavior management and requires integration of social entrepreneurship elements to the marketing strategy.
In the second chapter of the dissertation, the empirical research of key factors impacting consumer behavior in trading enterprises was conducted. In order to limit the number of factors and define those causing the strongest impact on consumer behavior in trading enterprises, the experts were interviewed.
In the dissertation, the subdivision of factors in 3 groups for the interviewing purposes was substantiated, and such groups of factors were defined: internal factors, external factors and behavioral responses of consumer. Basing on the list of factors, selected by experts, the questionnaire for evaluation of consumer behavior factors was developed. Taking into account the structure of consumer expenses and the structure of retail trade in Ukraine, it was concluded that the optimal format for points of sales in terms of our research is non-specialized retail stores.
In the third chapter of the dissertation, the method of factor analysis is applied to the results of consumers’ interviewing, in order to define the relationships within every group of factors of consumer behavior and to join them into integral factors. On the next step, the correlation matrix for the integral factors of consumer behavior was developed, allowing to define intergroup relationships and to develop conclusions and recommendations on consumer behavior management by trading enterprises. The scientific and practical approach to choosing of instruments of consumer behavior management was developed. The set of hypotheses on the positive effect of list of instruments on consumer behavior in trading enterprises was formulated, namely: music sound, preliminary advertisement of the known product, colouring the product’s price label, fair reference of personal positive experience regarding the product, personal experience of using the product, and of charity performed by the shop. Generalizing the results of researches being conducted, the methodical approach to consumer behavior management in trading enterprise was developed. Along with the key components of the developed consumer behavior management model, it contains the stages of choosing the instruments of consumer behavior management and the methodical provisions to evaluate the economic effect of implementation the instruments of consumer behavior management.
The practical value of the research results is confirmed by their implementation into the activities of Hazar LLC has successfully implemented the approach to managing consumer behavior (reference № 86 from 27.08.2021); Kharkiv-Invest LLC (reference № 35/21 from 27.08.2021). In the educational process of Simon Kuznets KNUE in the course of teaching of the discipline “Marketing and Sales Management” for masters in specialty 073 "Management" (reference № 28/86-21-99 from 27.08.2021).
