Exploring online consumer Behaviors - Research Paper Example

Research Methods The section details s of participants and research methodology used in understanding online consumer behaviors. ResearchParticipants and Sample Size The denominator of analysis in this research study is the individual consumer who has familiarity and understanding in buying products online. For the purpose of this study, a sample population of public school teachers within a New Orleans school district would be used to study and analyze their online consumer behavior. There are about XXX number of public school teachers in the district and it is expected at around X% would consent to participate in the study.

The primary reason for choosing public school teachers as sample participation is the diversity in income levels, demographics, family size, marital status, gender and online consumer behaviors present in this occupation. Research Procedure To test the hypothesis and address the key areas of investigation i.e. exploring the factors driving online purchases, a quantitative research methodology will be used. In deciding on the target online shopping destinations, experimental manipulation would be required in order to formulate relationship between consumer behavior and motivational characteristics.

Factors such as price variability or product quality have to be controlled in order to gauge the correlation between previous online experience and consumer behavior. A sample survey prepared for assessing online consumer behavioral patterns will be distributed among the sample population through a website. The survey would seek general information as age, gender, income levels, marital status and specific questions such as frequency of online shopping, nature of online shopping – specific or everyday use, satisfaction from online shopping experience, basic motivators of shopping online – price differential, ease of transaction, perceived quality, satisfaction of purchase etc and negative experiences in online shopping.

All the above research questions will be investigated across demographic groups (age and gender) of the sample population to see if there were any differences in the patterns of online shopping. The self-administered questionnaire will be developed with 25 motivation items based on a seven-point Likert scale whereby ‘‘1’’ corresponds to ‘‘Strongly Disagree’’ and ‘‘7’’ correspondes to ‘‘Strongly Agree.’’ The Cronbach’s ? value for privacy, security, credibility and experience will assess the reliability of the multi-item scales.

In this study, Straub’s process of validating instruments in testing convergent and discriminant validity will be followed. Data analysis will be used to compute a mean score for each participant. To summarize each participant’s responses for each motivator, descriptive statistics will be incorporated. A perceived bias of this study could be noted in the total population of women represented and the college education level of the participants. In order to test reliability, a repeat survey could be done at another correlating school district.