An Agent-Based Modeling Approach for Understanding Drivers of Consumer Decisions on Foreign versus Domestic Products: Case Study of a Local Refrigerator Market

Despite extensive studies on consumer behavior and decision making, the social influence of consumers on each other has not been widely investigated. To incorporate such interactions, in this study, we propose and apply an agent-based simulation model where consumers are defined as agents. The purchase behavior of each agent is characterized as a function based on the concept of the black-box model for consumer behavior. In particular, we investigate the effect of consumers' social network and its interaction with the marketing mix parameters (4Ps). A case study of household appliances in a local market is used to demonstrate how the dynamics of preferences between domestic and foreign brands occurs. The simulation model is used to examine the effect of eight scenarios related to these interactions. The obtained results are compared and the most important factors are determined as product features and price.