Hypothesis Testing in Consumer Research (Essay Sample)

Hypothesis Testing in Consumer Research
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Citation: Harmen, Oppewal and Davie J. I. Grant (2002). Investigating consumer responsiveness to service contract attributes: A choice experimental approach. Retrieved on December 11, 2013 from < /search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=8575>
The study by Oppewal and Gran (2002) investigates consumer preference in investing for contracts in retail service such as those involved in purchase of rental apartments, pay-TV and mobile phones and demonstrates how experiments on choice can be used for the purpose. The study used hypothesis testing to ascertain the effects of entry fee, contract specificity, how transferable a durable component is, and monthly costs. The study found a lot of effects on prefence on contracts and found some preference for contract lengths. The results of the study also confirmed that the expected increases in price increases people’s preference to engage in long-term contracts while an opposite effect for decreases in price is not found in the study.
In the study, a convenience sample of Australian secondary school staff participated in the study. Convenience sampling is a non-probability sampling criteria where subjects are selected due to their proximity with the researcher and their convenient accessibility (Grasseti, 2012). This criterion is important because it allows the researcher to gather basic data and trends without the complications of using a randomized sample. This sample was a representation of a cross-section of individuals who would be making a purchase decision about pay-TV by offering a raffle of $100. The sample population was aged between 17 to 65 years old. The mode of the sample population was in the age group of 36 to 45 years.
ANOVA was used to check on the price expectation manipulations by running it against the expectations of price movements stated by the participants (Oppewal and Grant, 2002). The analysis indicated that the trend conditions in the assigned prices had created the intended price expectation differences. The mean is applicable in finding significantly accurate differences in variables (Hui, Bradlow and Fader 2009) as implemented in the study to find differences in the expected price trends. The expexted mean price in the conditions of ‘price fall’ decreased 11.1 percent while the mean ‘control condition price’ increased by 2.8 percent. The mean expectation in the ‘condition of price’ rise was that contract prices would indicate a price increase of 12.6 percent.
This study is important to me because it assisted me in understanding hypothesis testing. Various attributes that were manipulated corresponded to the formulated hypothesis. This study evidently shows that heterogeneous factors in the marketplace plays an influential role in the drive for purchase decisions on contract lengths. In addition, the price related attributes had varying impacts of the price range manipulation. The implication of the study is that bundled or service system providers should carefully consider their system’s pricing policies. This study highlights a scope in inducing customers into the purchase of packages through varying strategies, which entails offsetting discounts on durables against the service fee of premiums. The study also highlighted that c...