Parental Occupation and Children’s Influence in Family Buying Decisions in India – an Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which father’s profession will affect the influence exerted by children across stages of the family buying decisions in the purchase of child product in Indian families. A cross-sectional survey method was carried out with “structured non-disguised” questionnaires to collect the primary data from 400 school going children in the age group 13 to 18 years and residing in families inrural and urban areas of Delhi, capital of India. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, paired t-test, and ANOVA have been used to analyze and interpret the surveyed data. It was hypothesized that: (i) children exert influence across the stages of the family buying decisions (H1), (ii) children’s influence varies across the stages of the family buying decisions (H2),and (iii) father’s occupation has significant impact on their children’s influence in the stages of the family buying decisions (H3). The analyses results indicate that children in Indian families do influence the family buying decisions irrespective of their fathers’ occupation. Thus, the analyses results lead to the acceptance of H1, partial acceptance of H2, and rejection of H3.