Constructing a smoking behaviour model to guide decision-making in dark marketing

D.Phil.The aim of this study was to explore the psychosocial factors which impact on smoking behaviour and to consider the impact of these factors on the formulation of national policy, as well as business and management practices around the marketing and promotion of tobacco products. An analytic induction approach was followed in analysing the data of multiple cases. Interviews and observations were used to gather in-depth information on nine participants (smokers, ex-smokers, social smokers and non-smokers). The data was subjected to analytic induction in order to build a typology of smoking behaviour. This theoretical tool was compared to current knowledge and culminated in a model of psychosocial factors that influence smoking behaviour, which was tested against a further four cases. No negative cases were found. The outcome of this study suggests that promoters of tobacco products should follow a more focused approach towards dark marketing. It also highlights that government and other anti-smoking agencies are not always effective in reducing smoking and counteracting covert marketing practices. The study also illustrated that analytic induction can be applied successfully in consumer behaviour studies. Finally, it contributed to local knowledge of qualitative research, as analytic induction has not been applied fully in a local study before