Research Report on Student Consumerism - Essay Example

? Research Background Current research was undertaken to learn food shopping and eating habits of The impact of such factors as students’ lifestyle, food and beverage brand name was analyzed within the scope of the research to derive insight to how students make their choices and what influences their priorities. Since the research was done among university students, any individual who is a full-time student at the university aged between eighteen and twenty-two was considered to be a sample representative within the present research. The research questionnaires were distributed among university students. However, only three questionnaires were returned and, consequently, considered within the research analysis. Thus, the sample is represented by three female full-time students, who live in the university dorm, are of the same age, but study different majors. The questionnaire they filled in included questions that would provide an insight to why they prefer some types of food over other and how their preferences have changed since their coming to the university. Literature Review Basis for the present research was derived from the analysis of available literature and research on consumer behavior in terms of consumers’ habits, preferences, and approaches to eating and food shopping. The major literature that advised present research included researches that had been conducted primarily among university students in Canada (Eichler, 1988) that studied factors influencing person’s food choices, difference in approaches to student diet, etc. Thus, according to Silverman (1997) there is a “Weight Gain Attributed to University Life” phenomenon known as the “freshman 15.” It is a popular belief that university students gain an average of fifteen pounds during their first year of university (Mason, 2002). Although it is partly a myth, studies show evidence that the majority of students entering university do in fact gain a significant amount of body mass during their first year of university attendance, which is associated with the accumulation of body fat (Blaxter, Hughes, Tight, 2006) A research by Hammersley (1993) looks at the factors influencing a person’s food choices, which are numerous and the relationships between those factors are seemingly complex (Wolcott, 1990). There is a high level of variance between the factors identified and described by researchers; the number and specificity of these factors vary, depending on the scope of the study. (Yates, 2004) Researchers of Healthy University of Toronto limited their study of food security on the St. George campus to five main factors: time, location, cost, variety, and nutrition (Wolcott, 1990). In another study, Holliday (2007) described factors as four stimulus properties of foods: Budget-friendly, Energizing, Sensory satisfaction, and Time; this is known as ‘BEST’ (Holliday, 2007). In contrast, a qualitative study conducted by Ribbens and Edwards (1998) to assess adolescents’ perceptions of factors influencing their food choices uncovered numerous situation-specific factors; media, peer influence, body image, mood, food cravings, and vegetarian beliefs are just some examples (Ribbens, Edwards, 1998) Method In this research Interview method has been used to collect data from our target respondents. We used direct interview method to get the answers. Major reason to use this method is the Open ended nature of Questions which have been asked to the Interviewees but at the same time it was not completely an un-structured type of interview because we have used the list of questions to get the desired results for our research topic so one can say that this was the semi-structure type of interview. There is certain benefit for using this approach like, In this way respondents can easily express their feelings more easily and Convenient and in result of this approach the non-biased information can be easily collect to some extent. (Taylor, 2002) The selected sample students are hostelries therefore there are chances that more often they visit somehow the same markets, shops, super-market or Departmental stores. Also stratification have been done among twenty students on the basis of their social class to which they belong and with the education like Social Sciences students and Technical field students and the last one is with the time period they have spent in the University. So we have selected students from different categories. (Wetherall, Taylor, Yates, 2003) Our major interest of this research was to investigate and find out the food preferences of students and their behavior regarding food items. Analysis During the data collection process we have used the technology in a way that we have record the whole interviews of all students so that we can use this to analyze the collected data accurately and to remove the biased factors also the main points of data has been recorded on the note books at the time of interview, then by sorting the all answers to their respective Questions, an effort has been made to Generalize or draw the results from the collected or recorded Answers or responses of target students. In female and male students the groups of 7 students out of which 3 are female and 4 are male belong to fashion able or modern society respond very nicely because this topic suit their nature and interest and therefore it become easy to communicate and collect data from them. They are responsive and show very much attention during the process. In general their response or preference for selecting the food was with “Brands and the outlet condition” which they provide to the interviewers and the prices did not matter for them. (Wolcott, 1990) Other group of 6 students out of those 4 were female and 2 were male and which were very simple and belong to the technical field of education give answers very briefly and straight forward and their intent was the Quality of food with reasonable prices, they lie in this category and the remaining group 7 students out of those 4 were male and 3 were female and which are the senior students of university and having last year in University answered the Questions in a very professional way like their General opinion was the Price and the Purchasing power is on the first priority and then with the available alternatives under your buying limit the Best Brand and the Quality comes on first. Evaluation To respect the ethics, In start of every interview we clearly told the reason for the interview to our respondents and mention the topic or issue of our research in front of them so they can respond to us in a true spirit and also we mention them that they have complete freedom to quit or withdraw from the interview at any time during the interview. So in this way we provide room for the students that if they don’t want to participate they can quit, instead of leaving us with non serious answers which leads us to biased information. First of all it is very necessary to mention that the one cannot generalize about the nature or behavior of students about consumerism or food selection preferences from the sample of only 20 students and it is also a fact that each individual is different from other, if we see compare them on their preferences. From the data collected from respondents one thing became very clear that the preference or priorities of each individual depend on the psychographic and demographic factor for instance the age, gender, experience, job holder or unemployed, social class and etc. these factors put major impacts are very clear on the preferences and priorities of students. If we kept constant these above mentioned factors then the Perception is the one of most important variables which effect the choice of students during their selection process of food and also any other item On the other hand it has also be found that the results of the data collected can be dramatically changed according to the style of Interviewer because if interviewer could not create a friendly atmosphere or could not tackle or handle with the barriers which come during the data collection process then the results or data collected could not be completely accurate or un-biased. References: Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. and Tight, M. (2006 3rd edn) How to Research, Buckingham: Open University Press. Eichler, M. (1988) Non-sexist Research Methods: A Practical Guide, London: Unwin Hyman. Gilbert, N. [ed.] (1992) Researching Social Life, London: Sage. Hammersley, M. (1993) Social Research: Philosophy, Politics and Practice, London: Sage. Holliday, A. (2007) Doing and Writing Qualitative Research, London: Sage. Mason, J. (2002) Qualitative Researching, London: Sage. Pink, S. (2007) Doing Visual Ethnography: images, media and representation in research, London: Sage. Ribbens, J. and Edwards, R. (eds) (1998) Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research, London: Sage. Silverman, D. [ed.] (1997) Qualitative Research Theory, Method and Practice, London: Sage. Taylor, S. (2002) Ethnographic Research: a Reader, London: Sage. Wetherall, M. Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (2001) Discourse Theory and Practice: a Reader, London: Sage. Wetherall, M. Taylor, S. and Yates, S. (2003) Discourse as Data, a Guide for Analysts, London: Sage. Wolcott, H.F. (1990) Writing Up Qualitative Research, California: Sage. Yates, S. J. (2004) Doing Social Science Research, London: Sage and Open Univ. Press. Read More