Children's Influence in Family Buying Sub-Decisions

Abstract

This study has been undertaken to examine the extent to which the influence is exerted by children varies across (i) sub-decisions in family buying decisions; and (ii) child and family product in Indian context. Purposeful sampling was used for the selection of information-rich cases to permit inquiry into and understanding of the phenomenon understudy in depth. A sample consisting of 200 children residing in rural and urban areas of Delhi, capital of India was selected for this study. Based on their demographics, the final sample is believed to be representative of the population. The measuring instrument used is a structured questionnaire, guided by the research objectives and literature review. Children’s influence across family buying sub-decisions was measured by using a modified version of six-item scale developed by Talpade and Talpade (1995). The primary data are analyzed and interpreted with the help of statistical tools such as means, standard deviation, t-test, and ANOVA by using SPSS (version 16). Descriptive analysis has also been used to support the results of statistical analysis. The analysis results clearly show that Indian children exert (i) influence in family buying sub-decisions, (ii) this influence varies across sub-decisions and type of product, and (iii) influence for child product is higher than for the family product.