An examination of social collective decision-making

Decision-making by a social entity is a universal experience yet virtually overlooked in consumer research (Ward and Reingen, 1990). A recent call for research to consider affiliation and separation in a social group decision-making setting supports the assertion that this area is under-researched (see Tinson and Nuttall, 2011). Exploring group as opposed to individual decision-making is of particular interest as it provides an opportunity to understand both the social context and social interaction that occurs when making consumption decisions. Although there are a plethora of studies examining the phenomena of family decision-making (e.g. Beatty and Talpade, 1994; Palan and Wilkes, 1997; Lee and Collins, 2000; Chaplin and John, 2010), exploring group consumption and consumer behaviour in an alternate social environment (e.g. amongst colleagues or peers) will generate insight and provide marketing implications for social collective decision-making. Collective decisions made by social groups can be for low or high involvement products and may include, for example, friends deciding which film to see at the cinema, which night club or restaurant to go to, or which holiday to choose. The purpose of this paper, employing a qualitative approach, is to explore the decision-making of an adolescent collective, their social interactions (including conflict and conflict resolution) and to propose an original model based on influencing strategies for social collective decisions.