Age-wise Analysis of Children's Influence in Family Purchase Decisions

Abstract

Children’s age is the most commonly researched variable involving purchase decision influence (Mangleburg, 1990). Previous studies found child's age to be a predominating factor with regard to child's influence across the decision making stages (Beatty and Talpade, 1994). These studies have also found positive correlation between the age of children and the quantum of influence exerted by them on family purchase decisions (Laczniak and Palan, 2004). This study has been undertaken with the specific objective to extend these findings in Indian context, more precisely, to examine the impact of age on Indian children’s influence in family purchase decisions. A “structured non-disguised” pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from the students of class eighth to twelfth from 766 families residing in rural and urban areas in Delhi, India. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation and repeated measures ANOVA have been used to analyze and interpret the collected data. As per the analysis results children’s age do not moderate the influence exerted by them in family decision making process, in general, as well as across rural and urban Indian families.