Important Considerations of Calorie - Dissertation Example

Marketing Contents Contents 2 Research Question 3 Background 3 Importance of Research 5 Literature Review 6 Methodology 8 Limitations of Research 9 Reference List 11 Research Question This paper has a singular research question which is: What are important considerations of calorie when fast food is purchased by Chinese students who study at the University of Stirling? This research wishes to find out the factors which are the most important determinants driving the consumption of fast food in the University of Sterling. The existing literature clearly identifies that fast food consumption has considerable adverse impacts on the health of the consumers yet there has been a surge in the consumption of fast food among students. Hence, this paper analyzes the perceptions and considerations made by the students when fast food is purchased by them. In order to answer the research question the research objectives can be summarized below: To critically analyze the existing literature to understand the considerations of calorie in the fast food consumption of the college goers. To conduct a primary research to examine the empirical validity of the research previously conducted in this field. Background Fast food consumption and calorie intake has become an important consideration in the contemporary world owing to increase in instances of obesity and health related issues among the population. Fast food can be considered as the ones which are rich in high energy, high saturated sugar like glucose and fructose and low fibre. Fast food has been widely linked with increase in body m ass and index. Most of the previous research that has been done in this field relates perceptions and attitudes of consumers towards fast food. The global trend clearly indicates that consumption of fast food have increased significantly in the past two decades with the infiltration of fast food giants into the major cities of the world. Studies conducted in United States have shown that the percentage of calorie intake from fast food have increased from 3% to 20% in the past twenty years (Henderson and Kelly, 2005). It has been documented in the existing literature that individuals who consume fast food have been observed to consume more calories compared to the nutritional content which contribute to factors like obesity and other health related problems (Binkley, 2006). Research conducted in United States regard of fast food consumption has revealed that consumption of fast food is very high for young adults. Individuals belonging to the age group of 19-25 years have been observed to consume higher proportion of fast food than individuals belonging to the age group of 12-18 and 30-39. College students prefer to consume fast food primarily because they are low in cost and conveniently available (Bowen and Vinyard, 2004). Most of the studies that have been conducted regarding the consumption of fast food among college students have shown that convenience is the most important reason that makes college students intake fast food. The increasing globalization of the world economy has altered the preference of Asian consumers and makes them acquire a taste for western food and preferences. The forces of globalization and modernization have modified the food preferences of Asian countries including China. It has been observed particularly in case of China that food rich in high calorie, saturated fats, excessive sugar and carbohydrates are replacing nutritional food which is particularly causing health problems for adolescents in China. Over the past two decades major cities in China are being widely invaded by top fast food restaurants like KFC, Burger King, McDonalds and Starbucks and so on and these companies are attributing a large proportion of their profits to consumption from China. Frequent consumption of fast food have been found to be associated with a large number of problems like lower scores measured in dietary behaviour and dietary attitude of consumers. Previous researchers conducted in this field have debated regarding the pattern of fast food consumption for teenagers and adults. Researchers like Allen et al., (2007) and Andrews et al., (2009) had concluded that attitude of teenagers and college goers are different from that of adults regarding consumption as teenagers have a tendency to underestimate the adverse effects that arise from the consumption of fast food. However, this claim has been widely debated in literature as other researchers like Moses and Baldwin, (2005) have shown that this claim is not necessarily true as empirical evidence to this claim could not be verified in their research. These facts indicate that the level of consumption of fast food in China has increased which is the primary background for choosing this research. This research focuses on the considerations made by the college students in China when they purchase fast food. Importance of Research Consumption of fast food has become relatively important for population across the world. Fast food consumption can be clearly linked to provision of high energy yet its detrimental effects are formidable as well. From a neutral standpoint it can be commented that that fast food consumption can be directly linked to obesity and diabetes as most of the research that has been conducted in this field has pointed to this fact (Qin, Prybutok and Zhao, 2010). The fast food industry in China is experiencing a rapid growth since its inception in 1980 and has grown almost 15% in the last two decades (Pechmann, et al., 2005). The growth of retail sector in China in the form of supermarkets has greatly altered the nutritional habits of the population in China. Availability of cheap junk foods which are high in calorie has been embraced by the Chinese population. This is likely to impact the population in the longer run. Consumption of fast food has been associated with health problems in a number of countries like the U.S.A. and U.K. so it can be argued based on this stance that excessive consumption of fast food in China can create such health problems. Apart from the obesity other major diseases like cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and cancer has also been found to be associated with excessive consumption of fast food (Powell, et al., 2007). Frequent consumption of fast food has also been found to be a major factor that contributes towards deficiencies in essential vitamins and minerals among the people that consumes them. The students of college can be considered as the potential workforce for the country in the forthcoming years (Bagozzi, et al., 2000). Therefore, if the workforce of the country suffers from diseases as mentioned then it is going to affect the growth of the country in the long run. This is because a physically weaker workforce will not be able to perform effectively which in turn will reduce the overall economic development of the country. This research will help in understanding the perception of students of college regarding fast food consumption and calorie intake. The results of the research will also help students to realize the adverse impacts of fast food consumption are expected to reduce the level thereof. This research will also be focused particularly on the Chinese college students and will be particularly useful for the Chinese population. Previous research that has been conducted in this field has focused mostly on the Western countries. Limited research has been conducted in conducted in China relating to college students and fast food consumption. Therefore, this research is also expected to complement the existing literature and the empirical nature of this research makes it a valid one. Though the research is based in the University of Stirling Literature Review In the past few years multiple researches has been done regarding the detrimental effect of fast food consumption on the health of consumers. The research conducted by Heidal, et al. (2012) had concentrated on the money spent and the calorie consumption of college students in fast food consumption. The results of their study had clearly revealed a strong positive correlation between the calorie consumption of the students and the expenditure incurred on fast food. The results obtained from this study had also pointed out that fast food consumption could be differentiated on the basis of gender as m ales were observed to consume higher amount of calorie and spent more amount of money on fast food compared to the females. This research had also pointed out that availability of fast food around the campuses increases the consumption of fast food among the students (Heidal, et al., 2012). The study conducted by Tillotson (2008) on the United States have clearly revealed that one out of every five dollar of food spend on retail consumption could be attributed to fast food and beverages. Also the study had confirmed that the younger generation has a higher propensity to consume fast foods compared to the older generation (Tillotson, 2008). The study conducted by Afolabi et al., (2013) had focused on the fast food consumption of Nigerian students. It was revealed from the research that fast food had made significant contribution in the diet of the college students of Nigeria but majority of them also suffer from nutritional deficiencies due to lower nutrition content of the food. Differences in gender and their consumption pattern have also been observed in this research as males have been observed to consume higher proportion of calorie compared to the female counterparts. Also the consumption of food and beverages has also been found to be different among the males and females (Afolabi, et al., 2013). Research conducted in the related topic has shown that the diet of adolescents mainly comprise of fatty foods, higher content of saturated fat and glucose. It has been observed that college goers have the tendency to consume greater proportion of fast food compared to homemade food. It is suggested that consumption of fast food is particularly detrimental to the health of the consumers because they have low content of iron, riboflavin, vitamins and calcium (Ludwig, Peterson and Gortmaker, 2001). This is the reason for which higher consumption of fast food leads to higher intake of fat. It has also been observed that consumption of fast food is directly associated with activities among students like skipping meals, less consumption of nutritious meals and obesity. Not only consumption of fast food but also lack of physical activity has been considered as the reason which contributes to the obesity and health related issues of the population (Zhang, van der Lans and Dagevos, 2010). A similar study has also been conducted in Spain to understand the pattern of fast food consumption and calorie intake. It has been observed that adolescent population in Spain has been increasingly consuming fast food over the nutritional food. The study conducted had clearly shown that the level of obesity and heart related disease in the country had increased due to the consumption of fast food among the people. The existing literature also shows that cultural factors play an important role in the consumption of fast food (Holgado, De Irala-Estevez and Martinez-Gonzalez, 2000). However, the study that has been conducted by Bryant and Dundes (2008) had focused on the difference between Spanish and American college students regarding the consumption of fast food. Their study has revealed that American students had a relatively greater tendency to consume higher fast food compared to students of other origin. The study had also revealed that Spanish students had a lesser interest in consuming fast food and they had objected to the infiltration of fast food in their own countries. This has clearly shown that culture plays a relatively significant role in the consumption pattern fast food (Bryant and Dundes, 2008). A variety of research has also concentrated on the reasons of fast food consumption among the people. A few common factors that could be distilled from these studies are convenience in obtaining fast food, delicious taste, lower cost of these food compared to the other foods in foreign countries also made it easier for the students to consume fast food. In a research that has been conducted it has been revealed 77% of the students consume fast food despite their derogatory effects because they are confident about the fact that a meal high in the nutritional content will cost much higher than a nutritional meal (Haines, O’Neil and Zanovec, 2014). It has also been analyzed in the calorific study of fast food that fast food is being increasingly consumed by college students primarily because they have become an important source for high energy, animal protein and fat. However, they are weak in micronutrients and essential minerals. The synthesis of the existing literature shows that there is a wide variety of study that has been done in this related topic. However, none of the research that has been conducted in this field has focused on Chinese students particularly. This study has particularly focused on students of Stirling University. This research is unique because it will help to distinguish between the taste and preference of Chinese students particularly in the Scotland based University. Such an attempt has not been made in the scope of previous study. Though the study conducted by Bryant and Dundes had focused on Spanish and American students and the difference in the pattern of their fast food consumption yet such an attempt has not being taken for the Chinese students. This research is therefore expected to add to the existing literature that has been done in the context of China and calorie consumption in fast food. Also this research can provide a clear understanding to the students regarding the ill effects that can occur to them if they keep on consuming excess fast food. Methodology In order to conduct this research a mixed method has been employed. This research can also be classified as an exploratory research form which an exploratory research design has been employed. An interpretivist stance has been adopted in order to accomplish this research. The rationale for choosing an interpretevist approach is that there is no one particular philosophy that is ideal for this research (Gratton and Jones, 2010). This research wants to find out the considerations made by the students when they purchase fast food. This involves using an exploration into the attitude of the students. The research design that has been adopted for this paper includes both focus group interviews and questionnaire method. This research plans to employ an inductive approach in order to add to the theoretical insights about this topic. Focus group interviews employ the method of open-ended questions which are used to obtain deeper understanding about the subject. It is expected that the focus group interviews will be helpful in comprehending the social behavior of the people. These interviews are coordinated with the help of a moderator who is present along with the participants to understand their preferences (Kotler, 2011). This is a qualitative research which will use ethnographic and survey method to answer the research questions. Questionnaire survey has been conducted for quantitative interpretation of the results. Questionnaire survey asks a set of pre-determined questions to the respondents and gathers their responses. This method will allow the researcher to gather sufficient information in a relatively small span of time and will be crucial for conducting the quantitative analysis of this academic research (Malhotra, Birks and Wills, 2012). Data collection method of this research employs collection of both primary and secondary data. Primary data will be collected to answer the research question directly. This feat will allow the researcher to collect those data which are specific for the purpose of research. Secondary data has also been collected to provide robustness to the results that will be obtained from the analysis of secondary data (Connaway and Powell, 2010). In order to collect secondary data a wide range of journals, books, newspaper articles and websites have been referred to. Additionally, any related research work that will be studied for the purpose of this research can be considered as secondary data. The portion of the literature review of the dissertation has been constructed entirely on the basis of secondary data. In order to choose the sample for conducting primary data convenient sampling will be used. This method of sampling will be simpler to use by the researcher as it involves choosing respondents based on their vicinity to the researcher. This in turn allows the researcher to avoid complexities related to random probability based sampling (Patton, 2002). A sample of ten students will be selected for conducting the research. These students will be directly selected from the University of Stirling. In order to simplify the process of sampling only students from the undergraduate course will be chosen. Only Chinese students from a number of courses will be selected in order to conduct this study. This is because the study specifically concentrates on the Chinese students of the University and no other ethnic group will be considered. The questionnaire survey prepared for the purpose of this research will be circulated to these respondents. Each questionnaire will contain a set of ten questions directly related to the topic. Questionnaire will contain both dichotomous questions and Likert scale questions. The focus group interview will contain five members. The respondents for focus group interviews will also be chosen from the students studying in the university. Limitations of Research The biggest limitation of this research is the sample size that has been considered for this research. This research has used a sample size of only ten which can be considered as inappropriate for representing the size of the entire population. The results obtained from this study would have been more robust if a larger sample size could be considered. This limitation can be considered as a methodological limitation of the research. The concept of reliability in a research relates to the idea that whether the study the technique that has been used in the research is capable of producing consistent results. In order to improve the reliability of the research it must be ensured that the respondents provide honest answers to the interview and the questionnaire. Ensuring this is a very difficult task but the researcher must ensure that the respondents provide unbiased answers. The respondents must be convinced that answers provided by them will be used only for academic purpose. Finally, the issue of validity of the research needs to be answered. Saunders had described that whether the results obtained from the research has any validity in the real sense. It can be said that the results obtained from this research cannot be generalized broadly. This is because the sample size is too small and it is particularly aimed for the Chinese students for which it cannot be applied at a general level. 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