Understanding the cognitive reasons why household members participate in household decision-making

Purpose This paper aims to understand why for which products and services individuals engage in household decision-making of the shared households they are part of. Identifying why individuals influence the underlying decision-making is important to best understand and influence household consumer decisions efficiently. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a quantitative study with 523 individuals living in shared households, using the reasoned action approach (RAA) to target different types of products and services. Findings The results show that perceived behavioural control has the highest explanatory power overall, but the results differ between products and services. Research limitations/implications The authors contribute to household decision-making theory by highlighting the helpful role of the RAA and providing empirical evidence from any type of household constellation. The findings allow us to understand better who is driving group decision-making on a household level and why this occurs. Practical implications Companies can use the results to understand better whom to target to position their products and services with different strategies for product design and marketing better. Social implications Governmental institutions can use the results to better understand whom to target to efficiently address households via influential individuals, e.g. for healthy product campaigns. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide insights into the cognitive reasons for heterogeneous household members’ participation in household decision-making within a cultural setting of future-oriented performance individualists.