Family purchase decisions : a comparative study

Abstract

The research sought to identify current trends in the roles assumed by marital spouses in Maltese households in respect of 'family purchase decisions' regarding 39 categories of products and services, within the changing dynamics of local society and family structure. A comparison with the results obtained in a similar study undertaken in 1982 was carried out. A survey, in the form of an on-line questionnaire to which 584 respondents from 483 individual households replied, provided an acceptable representative sample. The analysis of the results derived was carried out using the mathematical model proposed by Davis and Rigaux (1974) for family purchase decision making and by conducting suitable hypothesis testing. It was concluded that high involvement decision making, involving high investment, long term commitment or outcomes which could have an impact on the well-being of the whole family, is undertaken jointly by husbands and wives. Indeed, an increase in joint (syncratic) decision making was registered over the 1982 results. However, the overall classification for the products/services studied remained firmly AUTONOMIC, due to an equal increase in autonomic decision making and a commensurate and equally significant reduction in decisions previously classified as Husband-Dominant or Wife-Dominant in the 1982 study. The tendency towards both autonomic and syncratic decision making has grown stronger, with even decisions on product/service categories which were newly introduced in the current study to reflect present day realities being classified, in their majority, as autonomic - sometimes being decided upon by the husband, sometimes by the wife. The implication for marketers is that, while marketing efforts should continue to individually address the nowadays evidently more knowledgeable and affluent spouses, marketers should concurrently intensify efforts to address spouses jointly, and not only for products and services that involve the family as a whole, as spousal roles in decision making have become much more interchangeable.