Abstract
For decades, marketing research has focused on identifying psychographic segments to develop corporate strategy. However, as this article contends, psychographic segmentation research has often lacked sufficient theoretical grounding, particularly in the selection of variables and underlying theories guiding these studies. To address this gap, the present study systematically reviews a broad range of segmentation studies to evaluate their theoretical contributions and identify promising directions for future research. The analysis begins by examining the theories in a comprehensive psychographic segmentation study by Lesser and Hughes (1986a), followed by a review of 38 additional studies to uncover relevant underlying theories. The study also examines recent psychographic segmentation research to assess the current applicability of these theories. The findings reveal several areas with significant potential for advancing psychographic segmentation theory, notably highlighting Rogers' (2003) adoption categories and intrinsic motivation concepts as particularly rich for further development. The article concludes by proposing a variety of research propositions to guide future psychographic segmentation research.
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DOI
10.20429/jamt.2024.110202
Publication Date
12-2024
Recommended Citation
Lesser, J.A., and Barthol, S.M. (2024). Advancing theory in psychographic segmentation research. Journal of Applied Marketing Theory, 11(2), 1-24. ISSN: 2151-3236.