THE EFFECT OF COGNITIVE FACTORS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A BUSINESS STRATEGY CONTEXT STUDY

Abstract

Health behaviour research is mainly based on the evaluation of the consequences of the behaviour. However, observing the worsening state of public health naturally raises questions about the causes of these trends. There are many factors influencing consumer health behaviour (legal, fiscal, demographic, political, etc.). It is agreed, that the consumer alone can hardly influence all of these mentioned factors (de Vries et al., 2018; Hilz et al., 2019). However, there are social cognitive psychological constructs (e.g., consumer attitudes), that can be partially or fully controlled or managed by the individual. In this article, the cognitive factors that influence consumer health behaviour are evaluated (pharmacy business context). The problem arises, what is the impact of cognitive factors on consumer health behaviour? The quantitative empirical research approach was chosen to reflect the attitudes of the Lithuanian population about health, research sample — 1,000 respondents. The interview was based on the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI). Results suggest, that the information from internet portals, has the most statistically significant impact on the formation of attitudes towards health. A similar tendency is reflected in health behaviour. The results of the study have practical value for pharmacy business companies and medical service companies.