Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the causal relation between the psychological factors of behavior in risk-generating situations and the change of consumers’ behavior in the context of nowadays economic crisis. In order to test the conceptual model of behavior change in uncertain conditions developed, the empirical data were collected according to a sample of 527 Romanian consumers during April, 2010. The results of the study emphasize the starting premise, that is, in nowadays economic crisis, there is a direct causality relation between the perception of the risks, the risk-generating situation aversion and the change of consumers’ behavior. The results reveal, though, the fact that the psychological factors considered within the conceptual model do not influence on the same scale the change of behavior. The limits of the research arise from the perishable topic itself, because the dimensions of the identified segments as well as the profile of the behavioral change vary according to many identified factors. This study brings its contribution to the understanding of the change of consumers’ behavior in economic crisis conditions by using a new perspective unexplored by the literature in the field until now.

Key words: Economic crisis, risk perception, risk aversion, consumer’s behavior change.