Modelling consumer choice behaviour with Bayesian belief networks

Human behaviour is complex and often not transparant. Nevertheless, one would like to understand human behaviour and especially the underlying choice mechanisms and reasoning. Understanding choice behavior is of utmost importance in both the private and public sector. In the bussiness world, companies are interested in consumer choice behaviour because a better understanding of consumer choice behaviour allows them to introduce more successful products and increase their market share. Public agencies introduce different policies to stimulate a certain (desirable) behaviour. The effectiveness of such policies will improve as their understanding of the decision processes underlying those choices increases.