EMPIRICAL REVIEW OF FACTORS AFFECTING BUYING BEHAVIOR IN HEI’S OF KHYBER PAKHTOONKHWA PROVINCE (PAKISTAN)

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to highlight factors that affect buying practices in higher education institutions. Methodology: A questionnaire was used to collect primary data from respondents of higher education institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan). Correlation & Regression tests were applied with the help of SPSS for checking association and cause and effect relationship between predictors and criterion variables. Main findings: Findings of the study reveal that institutional goals, objectives, policies & procedures regarding the purchase, relationship with the suppliers & their credibility, product knowledge, and intangibility are some key factors that affect the buying behavior of individuals in institutions. Applications of the study: Study will help institutional buyers in particular and others in general to reduce brand sensitivity & risk associated with the purchase by following established procedures and policies. The study will help marketers in devising corporate and marketing strategies in different environments to overcome competition. Novelty/Originality of this study: The area of institutional buying in terms of branding has been largely ignored by researchers and academicians previously due to which this area remained underdeveloped theoretically. The study reveals the importance of various factors in institutional buying context and knowledge of these factors will help institutional buyers in particular and others in general, in reducing risk and uncertainty, by overcoming the complexity involved in institutional buying patterns.

An Exploratory Study of Business to Business (B2B) Brand Sensitivity - How do brands influence a German hospital’s buying decision-making process.

Historically branding was seen as having limited significance for organisations in industrial markets (Saunders & Watt, 1979). Research in the 1990s began to challenge this earlier view and delivered evidence of B2B’s branding relevance (Leek & Christodoulides, 2012; Veloutsou & Taylor, 2012) but still there is a lack of understanding when brands are the most significant in the context of B2B (Zablah, Brown, & Donthu, 2010). The researcher set out to investigate the B2B brand sensitivity in buying units of German hospitals. This required two prime investigations and analysis, to gain knowledge of the factors influencing brand sensitivity when buying medical devices. The researcher approached the investigation from a constructivist paradigm perspective and decided that a sector level case study approach of German hospitals was the most suitable method in order to explore in depth different aspects of the process and to get a comprehensive view of the situation (Yin, 2013). To gain ‘outsider’ research, qualitative semi-structured interviews have been the research method adopted, in order to understand why and how the situation occurred (Guba & Lincoln, 2005). The thesis highlights the role of brands in the context of organisational buying and provides guidance when brand sensitivity is present. In addition, B2B branding theory is enhanced and the managerial implications for managers in the medical device industry have been developed. The key findings of the thesis include the different participants in the buying unit of a German hospital and the influence factors for buying centre composition. Furthermore, the key findings show the factors that influence the decision making of a German hospital, and the parameters that have an influence on brand sensitivity are displayed. It is recommended to invest in branding strategies if the respective purchase decision is characterized by such a situation or the outlined brand values are required.

Identifying and Evaluating the Decision-Making Styles of Patients Referring to Specialty and Subspecialty Clinics in Iran

Background: Decision-making is a complex process, and many factors are involved in it. Identifying consumer decision-making styles provides insights that can serve a basis for managers to make decisions about how to deliver goods and services. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the decision-making styles of patients referring to specialty and subspecialty clinics in Iran. Methods: In this study, a qualitative-quantitative approach was used. In the qualitative phase, through the Delphi method, important factors in patients’ decision-making in selecting different clinics were identified in three rounds. In the quantitative part of the study, a questionnaire consisting of 48 questions was prepared using factors identified in the qualitative section. Finally, 460 questionnaires were collected. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation was used to summarize factors and extract decision-making styles. Results: The results identified 10 decision-making styles among patients referring to specialty and subspecialty clinics in Iran. Conclusions: Compared to previous research and the list of decision-making styles (CSI), the results showed that the two styles of being/inclining and paying attention to entertainment/recreation were not found among patients referring to clinics in this study. Each of the three styles of perfectionism/high-quality sensitivity, brand sensitivity, and habitual loyalty shopping was identified in two separate dimensions, and the style of coercion/lack of choice was identified in this study for the first time.

A Field Research On Youth’s Brand Loyalty And Brand Sensitivity In Clothes: A Application in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to measure brand loyalty and brand sensitivity among high school students. The research sample was composed of 338 vocational high school students in a district of Southeastern Anatolia. Questionnaire was used as data collection tool in the study. The questionnaire included demographic factors, socio-cultural factors and psychological factors to measure brand loyalty and brand sensitivity. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS program. Findings have shown that there was no significant difference between men and women with both brand loyalty and brand sensitivity, and that education level of parents, families, peers and social class positively affected brand sensitivity. It has also been found that psychological factors had a positive effect on brand loyalty and brand sensitivity of young people.

The moderating effect of emotion regulation on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the moderating role of positive and negative strategies of emotion regulation on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity.Design/methodology/approachBy conducting a survey, this study has collected a total of 405 responses and the data have been examined with structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study has demonstrated that some strategies of emotion regulation have a significant moderating effect, and they can down-regulate the effect of risk aversion on brand sensitivity. These strategies are positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, acceptance and rumination.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies should consider a broader range of respondents to validate the results. Moreover, the role of emotion regulation in the relationships among repurchase intention, customer loyalty and customer compliant could be examined. Further research could also focus on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity with regard to different types of buying situations and consumers’ types.Practical implicationsThe findings demonstrate a substantial implication regarding emotion regulation and brand management. Positive strategies of emotion regulation make risk-averse people less likely to pay attention to brands and lead them to be less brand-sensitive. New companies and businesses could use these findings to make consumers regulate their emotions positively.Originality/valueThis research provides novel findings about the influence of consumers’ emotion regulation on brand sensitivity. People who use positive strategies of emotion regulation tend to dampen the effect of their risk aversion on brand sensitivity and will become less sensitive to the brand.

Toward a deeper understanding of the choice process in child consumers through the concept of the evoked set

This article examines the important concept of the evoked set, applied for the first time to children. The main results confirm its existence in their decision process and highlight its specificities in terms of size and content. The data analysis underlines that the size of the evoked set depends on three main factors: brand sensitivity, the level of involvement, and whether the product is used in private or in public. As for its content, the study suggests that brands are more likely to be present in the evoked set if they are perceived as typical of their product category. These results open up important lines of inquiry as to how children appropriate brands both at a functional and symbolic level in their everyday life.