Christina Kwai-Choi Lee

Family structure and influence in family decision making

Reports on a study which examines the effect of family structure in the family decision‐making process. In particular, it seeks to determine if sex‐role orientation and the wives’ occupational status make a difference in the amount of influence adolescents and their parents have in family purchase decisions. This study uses an observational approach to measure the amount of influence displayed by all members of the family in the purchase decision. Observational data is derived from videotaped recordings of family interactions during a simulated decision‐making situation. The results reported here support the comparative resource contribution theory; mothers who contribute to the provision of their families have significant influence. Further, the amount of influence exerted by adolescents is found to be dependent on their families’ sex‐role orientation and their mothers’ occupational status.

THE INFLUENCE OF AD MODEL ETHNICITY AND SELF-REFERENCING ON ATTITUDES : Evidence from New Zealand

This paper examines consumer self-referencing as a mechanism for explaining ethnicity effects in advertising. Data was collected from a 2 (model ethnicity: Asian, white) ´ 2 (product stereotypicality: stereotypical, nonstereotypical) experiment. Measured independent variables included participant ethnicity and self-referencing. Results show that (1) Asians exhibit greater self-referencing of Asian models than do whites; (2) self-referencing mediates ethnicity effects on attitudes (i.e., attitude toward the model, attitude toward the ad, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions); (3) high-self-referencing Asians have more favorable attitude toward the ad and purchase intentions than low-self-referencing Asians; and (4) Asian models advertising atypical products generate more self-referencing and more favorable attitudes toward the model, Aad, and purchase intentions from both Asians and whites.

Family decision making and coalition patterns

Although conflict resolution in family decision‐making processes has been a key topic in consumer behaviour research, very few studies have considered the impact of children on decision outcomes. Observation is used in this study to determine the relative influence of family members and the dominant decision‐making strategies that are used. Observational data are derived from videotaped recordings of family interactions during a simulated decision‐making situation. The paper begins with an overview of the decision‐making strategies used during the conflict resolution stage, discusses how the formation of coalitions influences the decision, and considers the role of gender and gender composition of children in family decision making. This is followed by the results, which indicate how these factors influence the family decision‐making process for nuclear families with two adolescent children.

Back From the Brink: Why Customers Stay

Much research has explored the customer’s decision to switch from one service provider to another and the impact of this decision. Less research, however, has explored the other possible decision the customer can make when considering switching—the decision to stay—and the reasons behind this decision. In light of this, the authors research customers who remained with their service provider after a recent “switching dilemma.” The dilemma requires the customer to consider carefully whether they should stay or leave. The authors collect data from 24 in-depth interviews and nearly 700 questionnaires. These are gathered from two divergent cultures and reveal seven categories of “reasons to stay,” which are present across many different service industries. The main discovery is that switching barriers, unearthed in previous research on why customers stay, only tell half the story; the other half is told by what we call the “affirmatory” factors.

The influence of family members on housing purchase decisions

Families and households make up a significant proportion of the real estate market. There is, however, little information in mainstream real estate literature on the impact of family behaviour on real estate decisions. This paper clarifies some of these issues by analysing and expanding on many of the findings from the marketing literature, in particular the topic of influence between different family members in the purchase of a new home. This paper presents some important issues to be considered when examining family decision‐making. These include the roles played by different family members and their influence at different stages of the decision‐making process. It also reports on the findings of a study involving a series of in‐depth interviews with real estate agents to determine their perception of the family decision‐making process in relation to a house purchase decision. This culminates in a conceptual framework on family decision making specifically for the purchase of residential real estate, before discussing the implications of these findings to the general real estate market, including service, promotion and valuation.

Influences and Emotions: Exploring Family Decision-making Processes when Buying a House

The decision to purchase a house is embedded within a set of economic and socio-cultural processes and is operationalized within the context of a specific local property market. In the residential mobility literature considerable attention has been given to examining issues of house prices, life-course and demographic influences on the decision to buy, but less attention has been directed to understanding the internal family decision-making process. While the act of purchasing a property constitutes a significant economic event for a family, the process of purchasing a house is an inherently social activity, involving setting goals, discussing and negotiating family needs, interacting with exchange professionals (information intermediaries), imagining modifications to potential purchases and interpreting market trends. These family activities are shaped by family structures, gender roles, ethnicity and socio-economic status. In addition, the house purchase process takes place within specific market conditions and institutional practices. For example, in New Zealand, the estate agent has a large amount of power when negotiating contracts between buyers and sellers. Using in-depth interviews, this paper examines family decision processes in Auckland from the perspective of estate agents who deal with families purchasing houses on a daily basis, and formulate their own understanding of buyer behaviour, and adult family members who have recently purchased houses. The analysis makes it possible to explore the ways in which estate agents interpret the purchasing behaviour of families and to compare these interpretations with the understandings of adult family members. The study offers insights into the ways in which families engage in search practices, interpret information and internally negotiate decisions. It is argued that the findings here contribute a greater understanding of how housing markets are performed and made.

Measuring influence in the family decision making process using an observational method

Many consumer behaviour researchers have concluded that using self reports in the measurement of influence in family decision making may provide data which is not reflective of actual influence among family members. This suggests the need for different methods of obtaining influence data. This paper reports the development and preliminary application of an observed influence scale; a scale developed to measure actual influence using content analysis of videotaped family interactions. This observational method determines the relative influence of family members over three stages of the decision making process. The scale is tested on nuclear families with two adolescents, 89 from New Zealand and 24 from Singapore. The analysis indicates the scale has strong predictive and face validity.

Socialisation through Consumption: Teenagers and the Internet

In this exploratory research we were interested in how teenagers consume the internet, and how these experiences help to shape them as consumers. Through a series of interviews and observations, we discovered that the internet provides an environment where adolescents observe and learn attitudes and behaviours within global communities, they learn to become members of global communities and, importantly, we learned that teenagers consume the internet as an experiential, rather than as an economic, activity. Interestingly, this research also demonstrated that adolescents’ consumption of the internet promoted active, as opposed to passive, socialisation processes. We discuss the potential impact these findings may have for both the way researchers approach adolescents as a consumer group, and the implications for policy makers concerned with regulating marketing approaches to adolescent consumers. We conclude with possible future research directions of interest to academics.

Country of origin as a source of sustainable competitive advantage: the case for international higher education institutions in New Zealand

The lucrative higher education market has intensified the competition among higher education providers as they aggressively promote their institutions to international students. In this study, we explore the factors which are important to Chinese international students when deciding on a study destination and higher tertiary education (ITE) institution. The results of this study provided the impetus to understand the factors which can be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for New Zealand and its ITE providers in the highly competitive Chinese market. Strategically, the results revealed New Zealand must maintain its position as a provider of quality higher education and build upon two unique distinctive capabilities: its comparatively low cost and reputation of being a safe country. Additionally, it would be strategically advantageous to build close collaborations between the Government and the institution to attract overseas students.

New Zealand Adolescents' Perception of Smoking and Social Policy Implications

The aim of this paper was to explore the attitudes and associations of smoking among adolescents to highlight the implications for the development of social policy. We report the results of a study based on a series of in-depth focus group discussions among school children. Several themes are identified, providing some indication of the susceptibility factors that can lead to smoking behaviour: the perception of infallibility despite knowledge of smoking related diseases; social influences from friends and family; the desire to experiment; and stress. The social policy initiatives recommended include the creation of anti-smoking messaging for cinema audiences in order to counteract the effect of aspirational role models. Targeting anti-smoking education programmes at the primary school level, extending current initiatives addressed at Maori and Pacific Island populations to pre- and primary-school education, and encouraging family involvement in these education programmes are also recommended. The reframing of current physical threatthemed media communication to focus more on social threat themes, and the widening of the media mix to reflect adolescent audience use are believed to be effective.