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When making purchasing decisions, consumers go on a “consumer decision journey” comprised of four stages: consider a selection of brands; evaluate by seeking input from peers, reviewers, and others; buy; and enjoy, advocate, bond. This journey replaces the famous funnel metaphor.

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The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys

• Review Paper
• Published: 20 September 2018
• Volume 47 , pages 532–550, ( 2019 )

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• Rebecca Hamilton   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1515-4590 1 ,
• Debora Thompson 1 ,
• Sterling Bone 2 ,
• Lan Nguyen Chaplin 3 ,
• Vladas Griskevicius 4 ,
• Kelly Goldsmith 5 ,
• Ronald Hill 6 ,
• Deborah Roedder John 4 ,
• Chiraag Mittal 7 ,
• Thomas O’Guinn 8 ,
• Paul Piff 9 ,
• Caroline Roux 10 ,
• Anuj Shah 11 &
• Meng Zhu 12  

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Research in marketing often begins with two assumptions: that consumers are able to choose among desirable products, and that they have sufficient resources to buy them. However, many consumer decision journeys are constrained by a scarcity of products and/or a scarcity of resources. We review research in marketing, psychology, economics and sociology to construct an integrative framework outlining how these different types of scarcity individually and jointly influence consumers at various stages of their decision journeys. We outline avenues for future research and discuss implications for developing consumer-based marketing strategies.

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Although we discuss materialism in the context of evaluation of alternatives, we note that materialism is an individual difference variable that may influence all stages of the decision journey. For instance, materialism can influence the options that people are more likely to consider, the way they process information, the choices they make, and their feelings and actions during the consumption stage.

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Authors and affiliations.

Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

Rebecca Hamilton & Debora Thompson

Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

Sterling Bone

University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

Lan Nguyen Chaplin

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Vladas Griskevicius & Deborah Roedder John

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Kelly Goldsmith

American University, Washington, DC, USA

Ronald Hill

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

Chiraag Mittal

University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States

Thomas O’Guinn

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Concordia University, Montréal, QC, Canada

Caroline Roux

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

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Correspondence to Rebecca Hamilton .

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Hamilton, R., Thompson, D., Bone, S. et al. The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 47 , 532–550 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0604-7

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Received : 18 July 2017

Accepted : 10 September 2018

Published : 20 September 2018

Issue Date : 15 May 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0604-7

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