Family decision making and coalition patterns

Abstract

Although conflict resolution in family decision‐making processes has been a key topic in consumer behaviour research, very few studies have considered the impact of children on decision outcomes. Observation is used in this study to determine the relative influence of family members and the dominant decision‐making strategies that are used. Observational data are derived from videotaped recordings of family interactions during a simulated decision‐making situation. The paper begins with an overview of the decision‐making strategies used during the conflict resolution stage, discusses how the formation of coalitions influences the decision, and considers the role of gender and gender composition of children in family decision making. This is followed by the results, which indicate how these factors influence the family decision‐making process for nuclear families with two adolescent children.