The literature review is divided into three main sections: the first section looks at the background into models of purchasing behaviour developed out of psychological research, such as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) proposed by Fishbein and Azjen (1975) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Azjen, 1991).

These psychological models began to adapted for use in business research in the late nineties and early 2000s with models developed by Kotler (2000) and Hawkins et al (2001). From simple early models, theories of purchasing behaviour have become more complex over the years, and have attempted to account for both rational and non-rational aspects of behaviour, as well as social and cognitive aspects of purchasing trends. Read more…