Theories of consumer behaviour often rely on "folk psychology". This is a common method of explanation in the social sciences, but it has some major limitations which are usually ignored in the marketing literature. To overcome these limitations, researchers must make an explicit choice between...

We report on the temporal stability of the parameters of the NBD-Dirichlet model, a well-known stochastic theory of buying behaviour. This model is widely used and recommended as a stationary market benchmark against which the dynamic effects of marketing interventions can be assessed. Yet there...