The effect of accountability type on the consumer decision-making process

• Autor(a) principal: Garção, Ana Carolina Martins
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/31146
• topic: Accountability; Decision-making process; Consumer behavior; Need for justification; Decision-making biases; Overconfidence; Conformity; Responsabilidade; Processo de tomada de decisão; Comportamento do consumidor; Necessidade de justificação; Tomadas de decisão enviesadas; Excesso de confiança; Conformidade; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Accountability is a crucial element of organizational and social life. The concept specifies who must respond to whom and for what, dealing with agents’ expectations of having to justify their behaviors and actions to an accountable audience. As accountability type can influence the decision-making process in distinctive ways, the purpose of this study is to investigate how process and outcome accountability can affect the consumer decision-making process. Furthermore, this dissertation also explores the reasons behind the necessity of having to justify behaviors and possible decision-making biases arising from responsibility. To address the Research Questions, an experimental design was implemented through an online survey: participants were exposed to a purchase simulation and asked about their feelings towards that acquisition. Overall, 272 complete and valid answers were analyzed for the effects of satisfaction, accountability, justification activity, and confidence towards decision-making. Conclusions show that although there is a beneficial relationship between process accountability and decision satisfaction, this favorable effect cannot be generalized for all factors influencing purchases and deserves more in-depth and detailed analysis. Further, outcome accountability might be advantageous in certain circumstances. Limitations and future research suggestions are determined and explained at the end of this study.