Abstract: There are two theories concerning consumption decision-making according to its uniformity and controllability: trait theory and context theory. The trait theory holds that consumers have stable personalities at work and their decisions are predictable. An enterprise should subdivide the market according to the individuals’ demands. Personal traits that influence consumption decision-making include cognitive demand, selfimage, innovative motivation and material demand. Guided by the trait theory, consumer decision-making style is divided into eight kinds, with different decision-making styles corresponding to different marketing strategy. The context theory holds that consumption decisions are greatly affected by various contextual factors and consumers’ decision behavior can be controlled and changed. The relevant factors include physical factors, market factors, interpersonal factors and group factors. This theory encourages enterprises to develop marketing strategies to induce consumer decision-making.

Key words: consumption decision; trait theory ; context theory