A broadened situational framework: transient versus enduring situational factors

The recognition of situational effects as being important to both an understanding and prediction of consumer behaviour is not a new idea, championed originally by Belk in the mid-seventies (1974, 1975), and remains strongly endorsed today (Foxall 1999). This work is often cited and presented in textbooks as being universally accepted (e.g., Solomon 1998, Engel et al 1997), but exactly what is meant by 'situational factors' and how can researchers operationalise the concept to make it useful are issues still subject to debate. This paper looks at the most widely cited taxonomy of situational factors, concluding that there is a large amount of diversity both between factors and within groups. This diversity can be described in terms of the relative levels of transience of each of the situational factors identified. Recognising this variation in transience may allow situational factors to be more easily and effectively incorporated into consumer adoption research.