Reliability and Validity of The Variables Assignment
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Reliability and Validity of The Variables Assignment
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The recent years saw an increase in consumer disapproval and boycotts due to scandals such as the collapse of Pana Plaza in Bangladesh. ShopHere has decided to conduct a research project to find out more about ethical consumers, the factors affecting their purchase intention, and how to increase sales volume with regards to this target market.
A mixed method approach was used for research, with both qualitative and quantitative research being conducted concurrently.
On 4th November 2017, interviews were conducted with 4 individuals who patronised shops that were known for sales of ethical products. The interviews were conducted over coffee and took approximately 15 minutes each. The interviews were recorded with the interviewer’s phone and converted to transcripts. Keywords were identified from the interviews and were categorised into themes, namely: Ease of Purchase, Subjective Norm, Self-Consciousness and Price.
With regards to the quantitative research, an online questionnaire was sent to 159 individuals using convenience sampling and a response rate of 83% (132 responses) was received. The survey consisted of 16 questions, out of which 4 were with regards to the respondent’s demographics.
The Reliability Statistics Table was first used to test the reliability and validity of the variables. All variables showed high levels of consistency, with Ease of Purchase being the only variable showing an acceptable level of consistency. It was concluded that all variables were reliable.
The Chi-Square Test was then conducted to test the relationship between the variables and the purchase intention. All variables had significant association with the purchase intention. The variables ranked the following with regards to correlation with purchase intention, from high to low: Self-Consciousness, Subjective Norm, Ease of Purchase.
The Linear Regression was also used to determine if the independent variables were associated to with purchase intention. These variables ranked the following from the strongest to weakest: Self-Consciousness, Ease of Purchase and Subjective Norm.
Several recommendations were made to help ShopHere increase sales with regards to ethical purchases. These includes improving marketing communications to help promote ShopHere as an ethical brand to reduce consumer guilt when purchasing of ShopHere’s products, reconsidering pricing strategy of products, and to consider strategic placement of their retail stores in addition to the existing collaborations with retailers.
FINDINGS
- Qualitative Research
Criteria were set prior to the interviews to help understand the purchase of ethical products. The researcher was stationed outside shops that were known for their ethical product and service. Customers of the shop were then requested for an interview session over a cup of coffee at a nearby location for the interview session. Each interview conducted took an estimated duration of 15 minutes. This is done to ensure minimal time were taken off the customers.
Over the period of a day, 4 customers accepted the session and the interviews were recorded using the interviewer’s phone before converting them into transcripts. Identified keywords from the transcripts were then classified for the research purposes. Among the interviews of the research, the key themes that were found to motivate a consumer to purchase ethical products are as per below:
- Ease of Purchase
- Subjective Norm
- Self-Consciousness
- Price
It had been noted that among the information given, Ease of Purchase, Subjective Norms & Self-Consciousness were evident from the literature review’s finding.
- Quantitative Research
The quantity data of this research were done through a survey questionnaire that was sent to 159 consumers through the convenient sampling methodology. The questions used were questions that have been used by peer reviewed academic journals to ensure that they remain relevant to the variables discussed.
Among the targeted consumers for the survey, 132 responses were received. With the data collected, this research has used the SPSS software to analyse the data and the results found are discussed below.
- Reliability Statistics Table
The Reliability Statistics table provides the actual value for the Cronbach’s alpha. The Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of internal consistency, that is, how closely related a set of items are as a group. It is also considered to be a measure of scale reliability when used for multiple Likert questions in a survey / questionnaire. Cronbach’s alpha can be written as a function of the number of test items and the average inter-correlation among the items. The higher the value of the Cronbach’s alpha, the stronger the internal consistency, with a score above 0.7 being highly correlated to each other. This deems the survey / questionnaire as reliable.
The authors of this research have devised a 15-question survey to test on the motivating factors behind ethical purchasing. Each question was 5-point Likert item from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. To understand whether the questions in this survey all reliably measure the same latent variable (motivating factors behind ethical purchasing), a Cronbach’s alpha was run on the sample of 132 respondents.
Purchase Intention
The reliability of variable Purchase Intention has generated a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.888, which indicates a high level of internal consistency.
From the Item – Total Statistics table, it is demonstrated that the removal of any questions except the first question would result in a lower Cronbach’s alpha. Therefore, it is not advisable to remove these questions. Removal of the first question would result in an increase in Cronach’s alpha, and we can also see that the “Corrected Item-Total Correlation” value was low (0.694) for this item.
Self-Consciousness
The reliability of variable Purchase Intention has generated a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.817, which indicates a high level of internal consistency.
From the Item – Total Statistics table, it is demonstrated that the removal of any questions except the first question would result in a lower Cronbach’s alpha. Therefore, it is not advisable to remove these questions. Removal of the first question would result in an increase in Cronach’s alpha, and we can also see that the “Corrected Item-Total Correlation” value was low (0.596) for this item.
Subjective Norm
The reliability of variable Purchase Intention has generated a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.918, which indicates a high level of internal consistency.
From the Item – Total Statistics table, it is demonstrated that the removal of any questions except the last question would result in a lower Cronbach’s alpha. Therefore, it is not advisable to remove these questions. Removal of the first question would result in an increase in Cronach’s alpha, and we can also see that the “Corrected Item-Total Correlation” value was low (0.821) for this item.
Ease of Purchase
The reliability of variable Purchase Intention has generated a Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.705, which indicates an acceptable level of internal consistency.
From the Item – Total Statistics table, it is demonstrated that the removal of any questions except the first question would result in a lower Cronbach’s alpha. Therefore, it is not advisable to remove these questions. Removal of the first question would result in an increase in Cronach’s alpha, and we can also see that the “Corrected Item-Total Correlation” value was low (0.450) for this item.
Based on all variables discussed, the variable with the highest internal consistency with its coefficient closest to 1 is Subjective Norm, followed by Purchase Intention, Self-Consciousness and lastly, Ease of Purchase. In addition, as the Cronbach’s alpha exceeds for all the variables the minimal requirement of 0.6, they are deemed as reliable enough for further analysis.
- Chi-Square Test
The Chi-Square Test was conducted to help determine the relationship between the following variables and the purchase intention of the consumer.
Self-Consciousness
Self-Consciousness yield the highest value out of all three variables. With a Pearson’s R value of 0.730, it shows that Self-Consciousness has the highest coefficient correlation with purchase intention and has the most impact on purchase intention out of all three variables that were tested.
In addition, this variable has a p-value of 0. This allows for the conclusion that there is a valid and significant association between Self-Consciousness and purchase intention, and are not independent of each other.
Subjective Norm
Subjective Norm has the second highest value out of all three tested variables. With a Pearson’s R value of 0.601, it shows that Subjective Norm has the second highest correlation with purchase intention. As compared to Self-Consciousness, it might not have the most impact. However, the impact on purchase intention is still notable out of all three variables.
With regards to significance, this variable yields a p-value of 0. This means that the association between Self-Consciousness and purchase intention is valid and are not independent.
Ease of Purchase
Ease of Purchase ranked the lowest with regards to the value obtained from the test. With a Pearson’s R value of 0.579, it shows a correlation with purchase intention, but it is not as comparable to the other two variables that were tested.
However, the significance tested gave a p-value of 0, showing that there is still a valid association between Ease of Purchase and purchase intention. They are dependent and thus, this variable should not be ignored.
All in all, the Chi-Square test showed that the variable with the highest correlation is Self-Consciousness. This is followed by Subjective Norm and Ease of Purchase. All variables tested were significantly associated with purchase intention and thus, were all valid.
- Linear Regression
Using a linear regression analysis in SPSS, the data consist of 4 variables: 3 independent variables: (Self-Consciousness, Subjective Norm, Ease of Purchase), and dependent variable (Purchase Intention). The purpose of using linear regression is to find out if the 3 independent variables would be positively associated with Purchase Intention.
Referring to the Coefficients Table, the B coefficients tell us how many units purchase intention increases for a single unit increase in each predictor. As the table shows, 1 point increase on the self-consciousness corresponds to 0.497 points increase on the purchase intention. The same applies to subjective norm and easy of purchase, when a single unit increase, the purchase intention will be increased by 0.167 points and 0.295 points respectively. Most importantly, all B coefficients are positive numbers and the result shows self-consciousness is highly associated with purchase intention compared to the other 2 variables.
Given only the scores on our predictors, we can predict purchase intention by computing:
Purchase Intention = (0.497 x self-consciousness) + (0.167 x subjective norm) + (0.295 x ease of purchase) + 0.204
It is worth noting the constant value of 0.204 which represents the average value of response variable in absence of other predictors. Mathematically, that’s perfectly correct. Whereby in to this case, when there is a zero setting for 3 predictors, it make sense that the purchase intention is equivalent to 0.204 due to other existing factors which is line with our qualitative findings.
The column “Sig.” holds the p-values for our predictors. As a rule, a B coefficient is statistically significant if p-value is smaller than 0.05. All our B coefficients are statistically significant as results shows: Self-Consciousness (0.000), Subjective Norm (0.01) and Ease of Purchase (0.000), with the exception of the constant value (0.445), which is more than 0.05 due to the limitation of insufficient responses from the survey. This limitation is brought about by time constraint. It would be better to gather a minimum of 220 response to generate more accurate findings.
The beta coefficients allow us to compare the relative strengths of our predictors. The results indicate that Self-Consciousness (0.48) has the strongest effect compared to the other two variables: Ease of Purchase (0.277) & Subjective Norm (0.186).
RECOMMENDATIONS
- Self-Consciousness
The findings of the quantitative study suggest that Self-Consciousness have the most significant potential to influence consumers on ethical purchase intention. Various levels of self-consciousness affect self-behaviour as consumer behaviour is a physiological process and is associated with emotions, including guilt.
Relating to the current study, the findings showed that guilt caused by the purchase of less ethical products will increase the future intention to buy ethical products (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014). Those customers feel guilty due to the negative past actions/experiences which results from one’s recognition of having failed to achieve or violated personal values or social norms. This provides opportunities for marketers to influence the consumer’s decision-making process (Burnett & Lunsford, 1994).
By focusing on the following marketing strategies, it will help to expand the possibilities for consumers to purchase ethical products. In return, increase the sales volume for the company.
- Repair consumers guilt by motivating them to connect with ethical brand, which could result in more favourite outcomes (Newman & Trump, 2017)
- Inform customers about their possible effectiveness through a personal contribution (Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006).
Above mentioned are practically related to marketing communications. It is recommended that company “ShopHere” should conduct the effective marketing promotions based on the following:
- Deliver ethical values related to ethical product in the advertisements which will help to disseminate valuable information that may educate customers to gain a higher level of values or beliefs congruent with the product (Joshi et al; Han & Chung, 2014). The company can also engage customers through social media such as television, radio and the internet. In addition, there can be a focus on the video terminal retail display of ethical products (Deng, 2015) to offer direct view and knowledge to help shoppers inhibit their shopping habits and recall their ethical purchase intention.
- Build an ethical reputation for the company (Deng, 2015), to create a positive image as well as to build credibility to consumers, such as ethics culture and corporate social responsibility. By doing so, it would attract customers to buy the firm’s products, which means boosting sales and profits. In a business setting, being ethical means applying principles of honesty and fairness to relationships with co-workers and customers. Providing decent working conditions and paying fair wages to the producers as well as treating every customer equally will help build on the reputation.
- Provide the opportunity for customers to interact with staff that better facilitate positive attitude and purchase intention formation (Yamoah, et al 2016). Salesperson may assist buyers by creating awareness of the potential needs of ethical products to better meet the consumers’ expectations or to inform them if they never knew about it.
- Price
Price was a variable that was not discussed during the research and was found important as most of the customers interviewed have shown their concerns over the variable. Further research was done to justify the importance of Price being a motivating factor for consumers to purchase ethically.
Among the literature review, Grimmer and his team have confirmed that price is an important factor that motivates consumer to purchase ethical product (Grimmer, P.Killburn and P.Miles 2016). With their research focused on using a survey for their quantitative research.
During the interview, although it is noted that consumers believes that ethical products are priced higher and will be willing to allocate more funds into ethical products, there is still a limitation to their budget and will not purchase above their means for them. Grimmer have agreed with this report stating that the importance of having a platform for pricing and promotional strategy on the products.
Kienzler’s research have defined that there are 2 pricing strategy that could be used for the B2C business, namely, modelling strategy and behavioural strategy (Kienzler 2017). Due to the limitations of this research, behavioural strategy is not recommended as additional research must be done to consider the behaviour of ethical consumers. The use of modelling strategy focuses on the use of competitive pricing, product pricing and promotions to price their product.
With this in mind, ShopHere should focus on their pricing by looking at the following factors to price their products: (Expand)
- Competitor price of similar product
- Production cost of product
Price Promotion
- Promotional prices for bulk purchase
Bray’s research on bulk pricing have discovered that consumers tends to purchase in bulk because they are usually cheaper (Bray 2009). With this in mind, ShopHere could introduce bulk discounts for certain products that are more expandable to encourage consumers for higher purchase.
- Membership prices to encourage repurchase
Byun research have encouraged companies to create membership for consumers to feel associated to the brand while at the same time receiving promotional prices and bonuses will allow them to repurchase in the future (Byun 2015). With this in mind, ShopHere will be able to create a membership program for customers to receive discounts, promotional email and additional bonuses for future purchases.
- Ease of Purchase
The variable ease of purchase is evident in both the team’s quantitative and qualitative research.
The results in Zhu et al (2013)’s quantitative research demonstrates that the ease and convenience of purchasing ethical products positively moderates the relationship between green food consumption intention and behaviours. This means that the higher the purchasing convenience, the more likely will it bring green food consumption behaviours.
In addition, Young et al (2010) presents a previous study which shows that 30% of consumers are unable to translate their green food consumption intention into real purchase due to purchasing inconvenience.
Similarly, results from the team’s quantitative research have shown that ease of purchase is an influential factor on whether people will consume ethical products (i.e. with ethical products being readily available). These are based on three questions in the survey with regards to the convenience of purchasing ethical products.
Interviewees from the team’s qualitative research have also expressed that they are likely to purchase ethical products if they are made more convenient and readily available. Moreover, it is also highlighted that there is a lack of accessibility to ethical products in the market, whereby consumers may find it a hassle to travel long distances to purchase them.
To achieve the goal of increasing the sales volume of ethical products in ShopHere by increasing the ease of purchase for consumers, and also taking into consideration that the company already has stores across the country as well as an online platform, the following recommendations can be implemented:
As ShopHere is already a multi-channel retailer, the company should continue collaborating with major supermarket and retailer chains to integrate ethical products to their stores and e-commerce platforms. Research has found that there is a growing segment of multichannel shoppers – consumers for whom a multichannel offering is particularly appealing (Kushwaha and Shankar, 2007). Aside from that, there is substantial evidence that multichannel consumers spend more and have a higher lifetime value than single channel consumers (Neslin and Shankar, 2009). This does not only provide an opportunity of increasing the sales of its products, but to also create a sense of awareness surrounding ethical products to a larger population of consumers.
ShopHere can also look into strategical placement of their products in theM retail stores in neighbourhoods and districts where it is likely to attract consumers of various backgrounds. In (Jaravaza and Chitando 2013), it is shown that consumers rely heavily on stores that offer convenience, shorter travelling distance as well as the availability of public transport so as to reduce fatigue of moving around after work. Hence, it is ideal to place stores normally located in geographical proximity to consumers’ homes or workplaces make shopping more convenient, hence creating a larger consumer base. Competitors, transportation access, population density, the type of neighbourhood, traffic conditions are other factors when considering picking of a location to set up a store.
APPENDIX
- Reliability
Purchase Intention
Self-Consciousness
Subjective Norm
Ease of Purchase
- Chi-Square Test
Self-Consciousness
Subjective Norm
Ease of Purchase
- Linear Regression
REFERENCES
Bray, Jeremy W. 2009. “You save money when you buy in bulk: does volume‐based pricing cause people to buy more beer?” Health economics.
Byun, Jaemun. 2015. “Effective promotions for membership subscriptions and renewals to tourist attractions: Discount vs. bonus.” Tourism management
Kienzler, M. (2017). Pricing strategy: A review of 22years of marketing research. Journal of business research, 101-110.
Zhang, Jie, Paul Farris, Tarun Kushwaha, John Irvin, Thomas J. Steenburgh, and Barton A. Weitz. 2009. “Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies”. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1389644.
Jaravaza, Divaries Cosmas, and Patience Chitando. 2013. “The Role Of Store Location In Influencing Customers’ Store Choice”. Journal Of Emerging Trends In Economics And Management Sciences (JETEMS) 4 (3): 302-307.
Tarun, Kushwaha and Shankar, Venkatesh. 2007. “Single Channel vs. Multichannel Customers: Determinants and Value to Retailers,” working paper, Texas A&M University
Neslin, Scott A., Dhruv Grewal, Robert Leghorn, Venkatesh Shankar, Marije L. Teerling, Jacquelyn S. Thomas, and Peter C. Verhoef. 2006. “Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Management,” Journal of Service Research, 9, 2, 95–112. ——— and Venkatesh Shankar. 2009. “Key Issues in Multichannel Customer Management: Current Knowledge and Future Directions,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23, 1, 70–81.
Antonetti, Paolo, and Stan Maklan. 2014. Exploring postconsumption guilt and pride in the context of sustainability. Psychology & Marketing 31 (9): 717-35.doi: 10.1002/mar.20730
Burnett, Melissa S., and Dale A. Lunsford. 1994. Conceptualizing guilt in the consumer decision-making process. Journal of Consumer Marketing 11 (3): 33-43.doi: 10.1108/07363769410065454
Newman, Kevin P., and Rebecca K. Trump. 2017. When are consumers motivated to connect with ethical brands? The roles of guilt and moral identity importance. Psychology & Marketing34 (6): 597-609.doi: 10.1002/mar.21008
Vermeir, Iris, and Wim Verbeke. 2006. Sustainable food consumption: Exploring the consumer “attitude – behavioral intention” gap. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 19 (2): 169.doi: 10.1007/s10806-005-5485-3
Joshi, Yatish, and Zillur Rahman. 2016. Predictors of young consumer’s green purchase behaviour. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal 27 (4): 452-72.doi: 10.1108/MEQ-05-2015-0091
Han, Tae-Im, and Jae-Eun Chung. 2014. Korean consumers’ motivations and perceived risks toward the purchase of organic cotton apparel. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal 32 (4): 235-50.doi: 10.1177/0887302X14538116
Deng, Xinming. 2015. Understanding chinese consumers’ ethical purchasing decision-making process: A combination of qualitative and quantitative study. Geoforum 67: 204-13.doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.03.018
Yamoah, Fred Amofa, Rachel Duffy, Dan Petrovici, and Andrew Fearne. 2016. Towards a framework for understanding fairtrade purchase intention in the mainstream environment of supermarkets. Journal of Business Ethics 136 (1): 181-197.doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2509-9
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RUBRIC
Excellent Quality
95-100%
Introduction 45-41 points
The background and significance of the problem and a clear statement of the research purpose is provided. The search history is mentioned.
Literature Support
91-84 points
The background and significance of the problem and a clear statement of the research purpose is provided. The search history is mentioned.
Methodology
58-53 points
Content is well-organized with headings for each slide and bulleted lists to group related material as needed. Use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance readability and presentation content is excellent. Length requirements of 10 slides/pages or less is met.
Average Score
50-85%
40-38 points
More depth/detail for the background and significance is needed, or the research detail is not clear. No search history information is provided.
83-76 points
Review of relevant theoretical literature is evident, but there is little integration of studies into concepts related to problem. Review is partially focused and organized. Supporting and opposing research are included. Summary of information presented is included. Conclusion may not contain a biblical integration.
52-49 points
Content is somewhat organized, but no structure is apparent. The use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. is occasionally detracting to the presentation content. Length requirements may not be met.
Poor Quality
0-45%
37-1 points
The background and/or significance are missing. No search history information is provided.
75-1 points
Review of relevant theoretical literature is evident, but there is no integration of studies into concepts related to problem. Review is partially focused and organized. Supporting and opposing research are not included in the summary of information presented. Conclusion does not contain a biblical integration.
48-1 points
There is no clear or logical organizational structure. No logical sequence is apparent. The use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. is often detracting to the presentation content. Length requirements may not be met
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