Consumer involvement and marketing in Africa: some directions for future research

Despite an ongoing debate, authors agree that factors that determine consumers' involvement in any goal object are the characteristics of the object, the characteristics of the customer involved and the situational context of the decision. With this as the theoretical background, this paper advocates the need to study African-specific contextual factors to gain a thorough understanding of consumer involvement and successful marketing practice in this society. An extensive review of the extant literature was done to provide a relevant framework for exploring consumer involvement and African-related issues. The paper concludes that existing postulations on the subject matter could not robustly capture consumer involvement in Africa due to pertinent influences of cultural values and mores that do not apply elsewhere in the world. Hence, empirical studies to gauge the context-specific application of the subject in relation to Africa are suggested as imperative. This paper advocates a society-oriented consciousness for marketing activities in relation to consumer involvement with specific reference to Africa. Therefore, it cautions against undue generalization about the existing postulations on the subject, and provides directions for future research towards updating the literature.