The Influence of Social and Cultural Factors on Consumer Behavior in Purchase Decisions

Abstract

Consumer purchase decisions are shaped not only by personal preferences but also by the social environments and cultural systems in which consumers live. This article examines how social factors (family, reference groups, peers, and social status) and cultural factors (values, traditions, religion, and subculture) influence purchase decisions, with particular attention to Indonesia. A descriptive qualitative literature review was conducted. The corpus consists of foundational consumer-behavior texts, three foundational journal articles, and twelve empirical or review articles published between 2021 and 2025, which were identified through web-based searches and examined mainly at the level of abstracts and publication records. Thematic synthesis shows that (1) social influence, especially subjective norms and group expectations, is a recurrent correlate of purchase intention across countries; (2) cultural values and religion act as interpretive frames, visible in Indonesian evidence on halal food, local brands, and retail choices; and (3) quantitative studies in Indonesia report inconsistent direct effects of social and cultural variables, which suggests that effects depend on product category, measurement, and context. The article proposes that marketers treat social and cultural factors as conditions that shape how other marketing stimuli are interpreted, and it recommends mixed-method and more representative studies. No new empirical data were collected, so all conclusions are conceptual.