Purchasing Behaviour of Young Consumers

...

In this paper, mainly intends to establish a causal model of intergenerational influences uniting these concepts to which we have referred: susceptibility of the young family influence, family influence on the skills, preferences, and finally the family knowledge in aspects as skills, preferences, and attitudes such as affective family communication. Therefore will be a review the work found in literature to examine these relationships between variables, thus giving rise to a series of hypotheses that are described below.

Following a structure is causal relations, began analysing the relations of the causes that generate influence (factors of susceptibility to influence) the results both family knowledge, and skills influences, preferences, and attitudes. Viswanathan (2000) showed that susceptibility to the personal influence, is positively related to communications, and intergenerational influences measures. The explanation of this relationship is that if the individual looking for information on another person, either because he wants to make a decision of purchase with greater security (information factor), either because he feels greater satisfaction to behave like the rest of the group (normative factor), this search for information it will mean that the individual will acquire a knowledge of this individual about his family in aspects related to the purchase so we offered feel the following hypothesis:

The more susceptible the young family influence, the greater the degree of knowledge by the young buying behaviour of his family.

With regard to the relationship between susceptibility, and the family influence understood as the degree of relationship skills, preferences, and attitudes among parents, and young people, Shah, and Mittal (1997) discuss aspects such as the similarities in lifestyles between parents, and young people, and the degree of experience in consumption referring to normative, and informative factors respectively to family influence susceptibility.

Thus, they pose when young is a lifestyle similar to their parents, and sees his parents with a greater experience regarding to an aspect of consumption that it has, so family union becomes intergenerational influences.

Webster, and Wright (1999) analysed empirically this moderator affection getting significant, and positive relations in almost all of the cases studied. In the same way that has shown that susceptibility to the influence of the family acts as a moderator between the degree of family unity, and family influences, we can also think of a direct effect between the susceptibility to the influence, and family influencing skills, preferences, and attitudes. Thus, it seems logical to consider that when the young man is susceptible to the influence of family, this susceptibility is finally translated into family influences.

For them, we have established the following hypothesis:

The more likely is the young family influence, the greater the degree of influence shown by the young person in proportion to the purchase behaviour of her family.

It examines the relationship between knowledge, and family influencing skills, preferences, and attitudes between parents, and young people. From the view of McLeod, and Chaffe (1972) is expressed that the influence should involve not only similarity of behaviours between influencer, and influenced, but also necessary precondition knowledge of the behaviour of the influenced by the influencer. Moore, and Lutz (1988) represent this model to the influences of intergenerational, establishing that, to allow an intergenerational influence, the young must first know the behaviour of their parents, and then act like them.

In addition to this necessary event in the study of the influence, Shah, and Mittal (1997) established that family has a direct effect on the family influences, this means that families in which there is a greater degree of harmony, and communication, will also have higher degrees of influence that those families characterized by lower degrees of union. In this way, one can think that this greater family communication also involves a family awareness which leads finally to major influences. The works that have been analysed between family knowledge, and family influences on purchase behaviour have shown the existence of a positive relationship (Bravo, and Martínez. 2003; Moore, and Lutz, 1988).

Therefore, be unveiled the following hypothesis:

The understanding of family purchase behaviour has a positive effect on the degree of family influence on the purchase behaviour of the individual.

Finally, it examines the relationship between family influence on the skills, preferences, and attitudes of the young, and the relationship on brands purchased by the young, and their parents. The work of Moore, and Lutz (1988) measured the influence through similarities in aspects as the choice in the purchase, reviews on aspects related to the market, and the coincidence of brands, all of them located in high degrees of influence in young by their parents.

In this way, sets the following hypothesis:

The family influence on purchase behaviour has a positive effect on the similarity in brands purchased by parents, and young people.

In summary form, the following table outlines a model where the hypothesis can be seen to contrast throughout this work.

[pic 2][pic 3][pic 4][pic 5][pic 6][pic 7][pic 8][pic 9][pic 10][pic 11][pic 12]Table 1. Hypotheses to be contrasted. [pic 13][pic 14][pic 15][pic 16][pic 17][pic 18][pic 19][pic 20][pic 21][pic 22][pic 23][pic 24][pic 25][pic 26][pic 27]

[pic 28]

As a general conclusion of the work, we can see that if there is a relationship between family influences measures considered in the study. Thus, susceptibility of the young family influence as a way of obtaining a useful information for purchasing decisions, comes in more knowledge skills, preferences, and attitudes of the young. Finally, the influences of parental skills, preferences, and attitudes of young people, is formed in a purchase by young people, of the same brands of products used by their parents.

This work allows for an order to the process of family influence, however, the model could be expand with the introduction of new variables that improve the fit of the model. Thus, expansion, could be the introduction of variable causing the susceptibility of the individual family. These variables could come from the characteristics