Consumer Styles Inventory

What it measures

The CSI is the foundational measure of consumer decision-making styles — stable cognitive and affective orientations consumers bring to shopping and purchasing decisions, representing habitual ways of approaching buying choices. Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed the CSI through factor analysis of a large consumer survey, identifying eight relatively independent style dimensions. Sproles and Sproles (1990) subsequently validated the CSI with adolescent consumers. The Perfectionistic/High Quality Conscious style reflects systematic concern with getting the very best quality product; Brand Conscious reflects the tendency to use price as a quality indicator and to buy well-known brands; Novelty/Fashion Conscious reflects excitement about new products and fashions; Recreational/Hedonistic reflects the view of shopping as fun and pleasurable; Price Conscious reflects careful concern with getting good value; Impulsive/Careless reflects unplanned, spontaneous purchasing with little concern for decision quality; Confused by Overchoice reflects difficulty making choices due to too many options and information overload; and Habitual/Brand Loyal reflects tendency to buy the same brands and stores repeatedly. The CSI has been replicated across dozens of countries, cultures, and consumer segments, making it the most internationally applied consumer decision-making style instrument. Cross-cultural replications consistently find four to six of the original eight factors; Perfectionistic, Brand Conscious, and Recreational styles are the most universally replicated across cultures.

Response format

5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree); eight subscales scored separately; subscales averaged; no composite total

Scale items

Perfectionistic/High Quality Conscious — PERF (6 items): systematic drive to find and purchase the very best quality product available. 5-point Likert (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Items averaged.

• I make a special effort to choose the very best quality products.
• When it comes to purchasing products, I try to get the very best or perfect choice.
• I make sure that I get the best quality for the money I spend.
• Getting the very best quality of products is very important to me.
• In general, I usually try to buy the best overall quality.
• Carefully watching how much I spend is part of how I buy things.

Brand Conscious/Price Equals Quality — BRAND (5 items): tendency to buy well-known brands and use price as a quality signal. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I prefer buying the best-selling brands.
• The well-known national brands are best for me.
• The more expensive brands are usually my choice.
• The higher the price of a product, the better its quality.
• Nice department and specialty stores offer the best products.

Novelty/Fashion Conscious — NOV (6 items): excitement about and interest in new products, fashions, and variety. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I keep my wardrobe up-to-date with the changing fashions.
• Fashionable, attractive styling is very important to me.
• To get variety, I shop at different stores and choose different brands.
• I usually have one or more outfits that are of the very latest style.
• I am interested in new and innovative products.
• I often try new or different products and brands.

Recreational/Hedonistic — REC (5 items): orientation toward shopping as an enjoyable and pleasurable leisure activity. 5-point Likert. Items marked (R) are reverse-keyed. Items averaged.

• Shopping is not a pleasant activity to me. (R)
• Going shopping is one of the enjoyable activities of my life.
• I enjoy shopping just for the fun of it.
• Shopping the stores wastes my time. (R)
• I enjoy browsing through stores, even if I don't plan to buy.

Price Conscious/Value for Money — PRICE (4 items): careful concern with getting good value and paying low prices. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I look carefully to find the best value for the money I spend.
• I buy as much as possible at sale prices.
• The lower price products are usually my choice.
• I look for the lowest prices on most items I purchase.

Impulsive/Careless — IMP (5 items): tendency toward unplanned, spontaneous purchasing with insufficient consideration of decision quality. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I should plan my shopping more carefully than I do.
• I am impulsive when purchasing things.
• Often I make careless purchases I later wish I had not.
• I take the time to shop carefully for the best buys. (R)
• I often make purchases I later regret.

Confused by Overchoice — CONF (5 items): experience of information overload and difficulty making optimal choices given too many options. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• The more I learn about products, the harder it seems to choose the best.
• All the information I get on different products confuses me.
• Sometimes it is hard to choose which stores to shop at because there are so many.
• The number of brands to choose from in stores makes me feel confused.
• It is hard to choose which products to buy because there are so many products available.

Habitual/Brand Loyal — HAB (4 items): tendency to repeat purchase the same brands and patronise the same stores. 5-point Likert. Items averaged.

• I have favourite brands I buy over and over.
• Once I find a product or brand I like, I stick with it.
• I go to the same stores each time I shop.
• I change brands often just for the sake of variety. (R)

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

The eight CSI subscales should be reported separately — the profile of style scores is the theoretically meaningful unit. Cross-cultural replications frequently do not recover all eight original factors; use exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis in each new cultural context to verify which dimensions emerge. The Impulsive/Careless subscale has the lowest and most variable reliability (alpha sometimes below 0.50); supplement with validated impulse buying scales for studies focusing on this dimension. The Confused by Overchoice dimension is particularly relevant in contemporary high-SKU retail environments and online marketplaces. The CSI was originally developed with US college students (Sproles & Kendall, 1986) and adolescents (Sproles & Sproles, 1990); validate with the target adult population before applying. For brevity in multi-scale surveys, researchers commonly use abbreviated versions retaining 3–4 items per subscale.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Sproles, G.B., & Kendall, E.L. (1986). A methodology for profiling consumers' decision-making styles. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 20(2), 267–279.

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