impact of gender on electronic goods purchase

8/4/2019 Impact of Gender on Electronic Goods Purchase

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Impact of gender in purchase behavior in electronic segments

ABSTRACTPurpose:

The prime objective of the study was to understand the variation in the importance given bydifferent gender groups to the select items while buying electronics. Using the survey datacollected from 100 consumers across ages and gender, we investigated how they perceive theproducts, the factors which influence different gender while buying electronic goods. Theresults also support the expected differences in mens and womens shopping orientations andwillingness to purchase electronic items. The results show that gender of consumers issignificant factor when selection of electronic goods is concerned. Implications of theseresults are discussed.

Methodology:

The first phase consisted of understanding the factors which influenced the choice of

different gender while buying electronic products. Then, in the second phase a questionnaire

was designed and data was collected. In the third phase the data collected was analysed and

the results were established.

Findings: Males and females want different products and they are likely to have differentways of thinking about obtaining these. This study furthers an understanding of how gender

affects consumers' approaches to decision making. The results supported the expecteddifferences in mens and womens shopping orientations and willingness to purchaseelectronic items. Also the factors which influence the purchase behaviour of different gendershowed which factors were most important for them while choosing electronic goods.

Originality:

Various studies have been done which bring out the effect of gender on purchase behaviour.

However, impact of gender on purchase of electronic goods has not been studied so far.

Therefore, this study can give good insights regarding the same.

Key words:

Purchase behaviour, impact of gender, electronic goods, variation.


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Impact of gender in purchase behavior in electronic segments

1. INTRODUCTION

Consumer electronics include electronic equipment intended for everyday use. Consumerelectronics are most often used in entertainment, communications and office productivity.

As opposed to many other products which are intended for consumption in the short term,electronics are intended to endure regular usage for several years or longer beforereplacement of the consumer product is required. Just about every household contains at leasta few items that may be properly considered of this nature.

Now, the Purchase behaviour of the customer for any product or good is simply the mostvaluable data set of all. Analyzing what, when, and how your customers buy along with thestated preference data collection and online behaviour will help understanding why they buy,

and drive your targeting efforts in intelligent directions. Consumer behaviour essentially isthe study of the processes that customers use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products,services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy.

Purchase decision making pattern is a complex amalgam of needs and desires, and isinfluenced by factors such as the consumer's (1) societal role (parent, spouse, worker, etc.),(2) social and cultural environment and norms, and (3) aspirations and inhibitions.

Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buya product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, socialanthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process,both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers suchas demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, age, marital status, size of family, income,education and employment) and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people'swants.

Males and females want different products and they are likely to have different ways of thinking about obtaining these. This study furthers an understanding of how gender affectsconsumers' approaches to decision making. Most people know that there is a difference inbehavior between men versus women when shopping. Men are interested in finding the rightproduct, and want quick answers, and being able to leave the store quickly. Women on theother hand, prefer to have a more personal interaction with the sales associate with more eyecontact, support and collaboration during the buying process. This study is primarily done tounderstand the shopping pattern of the different gender for electronics segment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officehttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/purchase.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/decision-making.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/pattern.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/complex.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/need.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/factor.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/consumer.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/role.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/worker.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/environment.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/norm.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/aspiration.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_(business)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographichttp://www.ehow.com/relationships-and-family/http://www.ehow.com/education/http://www.ehow.com/education/http://www.ehow.com/relationships-and-family/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Anthropologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_(business)http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/aspiration.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/norm.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/environment.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/worker.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/role.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/consumer.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/factor.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/need.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/complex.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/pattern.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/decision-making.htmlhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/purchase.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment


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2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Sabnavis (2002) identified three different consumer types of three generations in India.Traditional consumers of pre-liberalization phase (1960-70s) were, stable, inward lookingand had limited choices. They kept their family needs on the top and their own personal

needs were subordinate to their family needs. They avoided risk. In the transient phase (1980-90s), the consumers were more risk taking than their predecessors. They had experiencedmulti-choices and had a tendency to be better off than their parents. Economically, they hadno fears or concerns. The new millennium consumer tends to enjoy life. He has greater self-control, and looks for personal style and pleasure. Exposures to variety of products andenhancement of economic status have changed the attitudes of the upper middle classconsumers towards brands.

Indian society being hierarchical in nature is therefore, status conscious (Sahay and Walsham,1997). Indians give very high value to brands. In India, a brand is a cue to quality because thequality of the unbranded products varies widely (Johansson, 1997). According to studyconducted by Maxwell (2001) on testing of homogeneity versus heterogeneity of globalconsumption in a cross-cultural price/brand effect model; Indian consumers in comparison toAmericans are tougher for the marketers to sell their products. However he found Indianconsumers more price and less brand conscious.

Technological innovations such as cellular phones and digital televisions have attracted theattention of marketing researchers as regards to their adoption process (Saaksjarvi, 2003).Rogers (1976) has provided a classification of adopters in terms of innovators, early adopters,early majority, late majority and laggards. But now consumers are also looking into thecompatibility of the new products to their self-image and life style (Saaksjarvi, 2003). Funk and Ndubisi (2006) observed a considerable association between color and the choice of anautomobile. The study further identifies the gender moderation on the relationship betweendifferent colour dimensions and the product choice.

Electronics is one of the most common product categories purchased. Electronic products isan experience good (Peterson et al., 1997) and such products may also differextensively according to price, quality, features, and the like. For such differentiatedproducts consumers will often perceive great variations in quality (Grewal et al., 2004).In fact, four different purchasing contexts can be considered with respect to a male-femalesetting:(1) Women purchasing electronics for themselves;(2) Men purchasing electronics for themselves;(3) Women purchasing electronics for their partner; and(4) Men purchasing electronics for their partner.While such variations in gender and purchase situation could be expected to influencepurchasing behaviour, no previous research has yet investigated this issue. Purchase actsrelated to electronics are often experienced more as work than as fun (Babin et al., 1994;Bloch et al., 1986). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the above-mentioned four purchasing contexts on consumer purchasing behaviour while buyingelectronics. The paper is organized as follows. First, a hypothesis for understanding consumerpurchase behaviour of different gender is proposed. Next, the research methodology isdeveloped. Then, the obtained results are presented. Finally, we discuss the implications of

the study and provide suggestions for further research.


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3. HYPOTHESIS

According to Barak and Gould (1985), younger consumers are greater fond of fashionable/stylish products than older ones. Young consumers are normally more willing totry new products and they are interested in asking more information than older ones. It makes

them self-confident and that is why they are more likely to be opinion leaders and lesshesitant in brand switching. But one should not ignore the older consumers also. The studieshave revealed that the older consumers are wealthy, innovative and they also have a tendencyto be the part of a typical consumption system (Szmigin and Carrigan, 2001). They can be aprime market for the luxury products. However they give more preference to comfort orconvenience than any other feature of the product. It also needs to be recognized that mostolder people International Journal of Business and Management May, 2009 181accept and enjoy their life stage, and are as willing to spend their money as any othergeneration, but only if the product and the message are relevant (Carrigan and Szimigin,1999). On the other hand, the youth, which is more informed, pragmatic, opportunistic,demanding and restless, will always seek excitement in products and services (Sharma,2004). It is normally perceived that young buyers try new products, seek greater informationand are more self-confident in decision-making. Elderly consumers are selectively innovativeand they accept only those innovations that provide exclusive benefits (Nam et al , 2007).Therefore, age and life cycle can be the delicate variables (Kotler and Keller, 2006) in theconsumer behavior process.H1: The importance of factors varies among different age groups.

Men and women purchase and relate products for different reasons (Dittmar et al , 1996).They are subjected to different social pressures (Darley and Smith, 1995). Male and femalehave a propensity to be right and left hemisphere reliant respectively (Meyers-Levy, 1994).Males are generally self-focused while females are responsive to the needs of both self andothers (Meyers-Levy, 1988). Coley and Burgess (2003), in their empirical study on widerange of products such as clothing, consumer electronics and books etc. had found significantdifferences between men and women withrespect to both affective and cognitive process components.

Rocha et al (2005) had also experienced different requirements for clothing and fashionproducts based upon age and gender. Laroche et al (2000) had found gender differences inrelation to acquisition of in-store information for buying Christmas electronics gifts.

Vankatesh and Morris (2000) studied the moderating role of gender in the adoption of a newsoftware system. They revealed that the determinants of adoption vary between genders;perceived usefulness of the technology was the major factor considered by men for theacceptance of new software. In contrast, the perceived ease of use of the software and thenormative influence (i.e. influence of peers and superior perception) were found keydeterminants for women. Ease of use and normative influence had not been found significantfor men. Men consider the most prominent sign; they are more likely to focus on task effectiveness of a technology without considering risk. In contrast, women are detailedprocessors and consider all information available including the ones that are understated andpotentially disconfirming. Women are then more likely to incorporate risk and othersecondary information in their decisions and behaviour (Graham et al, 2002).


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Williams (2002) investigated the effect of social class, income and gender effects on thebuying perceptions, attitudes and behaviour. The products like dress clothing, garden tools,automobiles, wedding gifts, living room furniture, childrens play clothing, kitchenappliances, casual clothing and stereos were selected that varied in durability, necessity,expressiveness and gender orientation. The study emphasized on understanding the

evaluation criteria, which correspond to product attributes and the benefits expected by theconsumers. Both men and women rated utilitarian criterion high over the subjective criterion.Women attached importance to all criteria across all products, while men gave importance toonly price. However Goldsmith (2002) found consistency for both men and women whileexamining personal characteristics of frequent electronic buyers.

4. METHODOLOGY

Research was carried out at a random basis and the sample population included people fromdifferent walks of life. The respondents were asked to give their choices on how they goabout selecting products. The criteria of different gender for purchasing an electronic product,i.e.the factors which influence the gender to purchase a certain product. To measure shoppingorientation, we asked respondents to think about their general electronic shopping behaviourwhen responding to the questions concerning shopping orientation. Same questions wereasked to both males and females and their corresponding data were noted down, based onwhich analysis of the data was carried out.

From the literature study, we developed a questionnaire based on the impact of gender and

factors influencing different gender while buying electronics. An information fact sheet was

used to collect the demographic information of the respondents, such as age, gender,

profession, address. We personally conducted a pilot test with colleagues and students. The

pilot test helped us to identify repetitive questions, questions with ambiguous meanings to

the respondents and questions that should be included but were missing. The study took us

three months and was conducted in Mumbai- the financial capital of India.

Data Analysis: The first phase consisted of the selection of the various factors to be

considered while analyzing gender purchase behaviour while buying electronics, In the

second phase a questionnaire was designed and data collected. In the third phase, thecollected data was analyzed and results were established.

5. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS

Future research may seek to verify the proposed conceptual model using a range of specificelectronic items across different purchasing situations. Future research may also expand themodel by suggesting other gender influencing factors on buying electronic items. Howeverconsumer buying is a complex process in which number of factors like social status,

economic factors and psychographic factors influence the buying of the consumer, and thisstudy has been done taking into consideration just one factor of gender.


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6. RESULTS

The results have been established on the reponse of the different gender groups to thequestionnaire designed by us. A question wise analysis of which showed significantdifferences between male and female in the choice of electronic goods purchase.

Following is the question wise analysis of the questionnaire:

Sample Size :100 ---- Males:54----Females: 46

Kitchen Gadget Entertainment Others Male (%) 15 25 50 10

Female (%) 35 20 45 0

Thus, we can conclude that both Male and Female prefer buying entertainment items more than theother items.

Sample Size : 100---- Males:54 ----

Females: 46 Cost Features looks Utilities

Male(%) 10 65 5 20 Female(%) 15 40 15 30

Thus we can conclude that both Male and Female prefer buying items which have good Features.


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Sample Size: 100 ----

Males:54 ----Females: 46 Dedicated Multipurpose No specific

Male(%) 15 30 55 Female(%) 15 50 35

Thus we can conclude that there is no specific preference where a Male buys the electronic itemswhere else a Female prefer buying electronic items in multipurpose stores.


Males:54 ----Females: 46

Once Twice More than 2 No specific Male(%) 15 5 10 70 Female(%) 15 15 15 55

Thus we can conclude that there is no such specific preference for both Male and when it comes up tothe frequency of buying electronic items.


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Sample Size :

100 ----Males:54 ----Females: 46

National International No specific Male(%) 15 30 55 Female(%) 20 35 45

Thus we can conclude that there is no such specific preference for both Male and Female when itcomes up to the brand preference for buying electronic items.

Sample Size : 100 ---- Males:54 ----

Females: 46 Word of mouth Advertisement Quantity

AfterSales Sales Brand

Male(%) 45 30 10 5 5 5 Female(%) 40 25 20 5 5 5

Thus we can conclude that both Male and Female buys a electronic item based on word of mouthrather than any other options available.


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Sample Size : 100 ---- Males:54 ----

Females: 46 0 V.likely likely neutral not sure v. unlikely unlikely

Male(%) 30 35 15 20 0 0 Female(%) 15 25 25 30 0 5

Thus we can conclude that the Males are very likely where else Females are not sure when they buy aelectronic product.


Females: 46


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Males:54 ----Females:

46 weekly monthly once in 3 months 1 year no specific

Male(%) 5 25 40 5 25 Female(%) 10 15 15 15 45

Thus we can conclude that the Males visit the electronic stores once in 3 months where else have nospecific preference for females to visit the stores.

Sample Size :100 ----

Males:54 ----Females: 46

None Once more than once Male(%) 45 30 25 Female(%) 55 20 25

Thus we can conclude that both Male and female make no phone calls to the retailer before buying aelectronic item


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Females: 46 Likely Neutral Unlikely

Male(%) 35 55 10 Female(%) 60 30 10

Thus we can conclude that Male have a neutral perspective when they gift someone the electronicitem in their household and Female are very Likely to gift someone the electronic item in theirhousehold.


Females: 46 Likely Neutral Unlikely

Male(%) 20 50 30 Female(%) 25 40 35

Thus we can conclude that both Male and Female are very neutral minded when they think of giftinga electronic item to someone not in their household.


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7. CONCLUSION

We can conclude from the results that in most cases the results support the expected gender-related differences with respect to the constructs included in our model. For example, womenare significantly more shopping for fun and shopping in multipurpose stores oriented than

men, along with the idea of purchase electronic for themselves or for others .Conversely,men are significantly more quick shoppers (as they buy product in any available stores) inpurchasing situations when compared to women.

Study also showed that male shoppers tend to have a preference to for price and features of the product. However, female shoppers tend to have a preference towards utility and looks of the product.

8. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

In order to attract more men, electronic retailers should make the electronic items morereasonable with new features and utilities, whereas difficulty in selecting items should bereduced in order to attract more women.

In fact, four different

Electronic purchasing contexts can be considered with respect to a male-female setting:

(1) Women and men purchasing electronic items related to entertainment

(2) Women and men purchasing electronic items based on word of mouth.

(3) Women and men purchasing electronic items in dedicated or multipurpose stores

(4) Women and men purchasing electronic items for themselves or for others;

The comparisons of gender differences while shopping are important. They should help the

marketers to focus their resources working on those aspects that appeal to both genders,

thus maximizing retail productivity. The differences revealed might help marketers to identify

the niche market they can explore.


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9. REFERENCES

1. Meyers- Levy, Joan (1988), The Influence of Sex Roles on Judgment, Journal of

Consumer Research , 14 (4), 522-30

2. Magi, A.W. (2003), Share of wallet in retailing: the effects of customer satisfaction,

loyalty cards and shopper characteristics, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 79 No. 2, pp. 97 -

106

3. Alreck, P. and R.B. Settle (2002), Gender Effects on Internet, Catalogue and StoreShopping, Journal of Database Management, 9(2), 150-162.

4. Jo Anne S. Hopper, Beverly Little, Western Carolina University Decision MakingStyles of Husband Wife Durable Good Purchases: An Investigation Of The ImpactOf Gender Role Attitudes

5. Oliver, R.L. (1997), Satisfaction: A Behavioral Perspective on the Consumer, The

McGraw-HillCompanies, New York, NY

6. Dholakia, R.R. (1999), Going shopping: key determinants of shopping behaviors and

motivations, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 27 No.

4, pg. 154-65.

7. Vijayasarathy, L.R. (2003), Shopping orientations, product types and internet

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8. Torben Hansen,Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School,Copenhagen,Denmark, and Jan Mller Jensen Department of Marketing andManagement, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark Shoppingorientation and online purchases: the role of gender and purchase situation .

9. Bloch, P.H., Sherrell, D.L. and Ridgway, N.M. (1986), Consumer search: anextended framework, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13, pp. 119 -26.

impact of gender on electronic goods purchase

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