Alternative approaches for thinking about and modeling consumer decisions in relationships

Simpson, Griskevicius, and Rothman identify an understudied area in consumer research (namely, decision making in social relationships), propose an important starting point for enquiry (a dyadic framework), and suggest many fruitful moderators for study that can be incorporated in their framework. After pointing out some boundary conditions and opportunities for future research concerning their suggestions, I consider a recent approach in psychology that applies to a relatively circumscribed domain of social relationships (i.e., the social relations model) and then briefly review an emerging approach (plural subject theory applied to goal-directed behavior) that goes beyond the social relations model and better fits certain psychological and social psychological phenomena in consumer behavior.