Consumer behavior is regarded as a relatively new field of study with no historical body of research

of its own. The concepts were borrowed from other scientific disciplines, such as psychology,
sociology, social psychology, anthropology and economics. From a marketing perspective, consumer
behavior most probably became an important field of study with the development of the so-called
marketing concept. The marketing concept was formulated during the 1950s but marketers were not
using it (Schiff man and Kanuk, 1997)

Customer behavior has been always of enormous interest to marketers. “The knowledge of customer
behavior helps the marketer to appreciate how consumers think, be aware and select from alternatives
like products, brands and the like and how the consumers are influenced by their environment, the
reference groups, family, and salespersons and so on. Consumers buying behavior is influenced by
cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. Most of these factors are uncontrollable and
beyond the hands of marketers but they must be considered while trying to understand the complex
behavior of the consumers. Consumer is the study “of the processes involved when individuals or
groups select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs
and desires” (Solomon 1995).

Simon (1997) and; Shiffman and Kanuk (1997) described that these steps are no longer seen to be a
realistic account of human decision making as consumers rarely have adequate information,
motivation, or time to make such a perfect decision and are often acted upon by less rational
influences such as social relationships and values. Furthermore, individuals are often described as
seeking satisfactory rather than optimum choices, and which embrace bounded rationality (Simon,
1991). Blackwell et al. (2006) also adopt a skeptical approach to the level of applicability of economic
man theory in today’s marketplace in practical levels arguing that nowadays consumers are more
tempted to make irrational purchase decisions due to the highly sophisticating levels of marketing
strategies.

As Studied by Brosekhan & Velayutham (2015) “Consumers are the kings of markets. Without
consumers, no business organization can run. All the activities of the business concerns end with
consumers and consumer satisfaction. Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying
behavior, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer, and buyer. Consumer
buying behavior has become an integral part of strategic market planning”.

It is appeal noting that consumer buying behavior is studied as a part of the marketing and its main
purpose it to learn the way how the individuals, groups or organizations choose, buy use, and order
the goods and the factors such as their previous experience, taste, price, and branding on which the
consumers base their purchasing decisions (Kotler and Keller, 2012).

Lee (2005) “carried out study to learn the five stages of customer decision making process in the
example of China. The researcher focuses on the facts that affect the consumer decision making
process on purchasing imported health food products, in fastidious demographic effects such as
gender, education, income, and married status. The author engaged questionnaire method in order to
reach the objectives of the research. Analysis of five stages of consumer decision making process
indicates that impact of family members on the consumer decision making process of purchasing
imported health food products was important”.
Engel, et al. (1986) “define consumer behavior as “those acts of individuals directly involved in
obtaining, using, and disposing of economic goods and services, including the decision processes that
precede and determine these acts”. “Simple observation provides limited insight into the complex
nature of consumer choice and researchers have increasingly sought the more sophisticated concepts
and methods of investigation provided by behavioral sciences to understand, forecast, and possibly
control consumer behavior more effectively. Psychology, social psychology, and sociology are the
disciplines most widely employed in this endeavor which has become a substantial academic industry
in its own right”.

Miettila, Aino and Moller (1990) In his a research focuses that the success of the mobile commerce
can be attributed to the personal nature of wireless devices. Adding to this are its unique features of
voice and data transmission and distinct features like localization, feasibility and convenience. The
sustained growth of the mobile commerce around the world has been more because of the transfer of
technology according to the needs of local geography

Muton 1994 The author emphasized that technological changes in the telecom and computers have
radically changed the business scenario. In turn, the new demands of business have spurred many
telecom based technological innovations. In order to exploit these innovations for competing in global
markets, business community has been putting pressures on governments to revise the policy,
regulation and structure of the telecom sector. Several countries across the world have responded by
restructuring the state control telecom provider, increasing private participation and deregulating
service provisions

Melody (1994) Points out various concerns for the telecom sector covering competition as important
one. Competition is considered more important factor than ownership in introducing efficiency.
Further the order in which structural adjustments take place determine the effectiveness. It will
recognize that developing countries feel the important role a responsive, business oriented, and
technologically advanced telecom sector plays in the growth of the economy. Many developing
countries accept the limitations of a monolith state monopoly in responding to the twin challenges of
spurring internal growth and competing in global economy

Carlson, Kahn, and Rowe (1999)Studied the organizational behavior aspect by observing the impact
of mobile phones on decision making in sales forces within organizations in United States and France.
They compared the differences in sales force behavior. Correlations were conducted to determine
whether the country, length of time the technology has been used, or their interactions were the major
effect. Their study showed that new technology adoption was responsible for a shortening of decision
making time in both countries. On the other hand, differences in standardization, formalization and
decision making time were identified. The results of the study indicated that cultural differences
between countries accounted for most of the differences in studied the affect of cultural background
and occupational status on the way people interact and perceive technology. She surveyed University
students and young professionals from Germany and the United Kingdom to study the attitude to and
use of cell phones. Differences in attitudes were measurable when emotional and motivational aspects
of mobile phone use were explained.