World Review of Business Research
Vol. 1. No. 4. September 2011. Pp.84-96
Consumers’ Assertive and Aggressive Behaviour – Role of
Problem Recognition Styles, Information Search and
Demographic Variables: Young Chinese Customers in India
Palanisamy Ganesan*, R. Venkatesakumar**,
G.V. Sampth$ and A.S. Sathish@
The study examines whether the assertive or aggressive behaviour is influenced by the
way the purchase decision process is triggered and role of information search, in
addition to analyse the significance of demographic variables influence of young
Chinese consumers, who are living in a foreign country. The data were collected from
152 Chinese students in an Indian University. The Chinese students exhibit a unique
consumer behaviour pattern even though they are residing in a foreign country. The high
assertiveness score suggest that they are keen to ensure the information / or seeking
redress during their shopping. This could be due to the local shops / adjacent to the
university campus and high level of familiarity and peer students present during the
shopping occasion also. The present study reported further insight about the desired
state consumers; the Chinese students, who are all desired state type, exhibited high
degree of aggression rather than actual state consumers. The Chinese students who
stay in hostels prefer to shop neighborhood places. Also, the familiarity and security
factors might turn the consumers to be aggressive during their shopping in adjacent
places to the university campus and known shops. The difference exhibited by the
demographic variables on behaviour like aggression and assertion suggest the
significance of demographic characteristics in consumer behaviour studies.
Key Words: Assertiveness, Problem Recognition Styles, Consumer Behaviour,
Information search, Young consumers
JEL Codes: M3, M31, and M39.
1. Introduction
Assertiveness and aggressiveness represent two consumer interaction styles in the
marketplace; this behaviour could be interpreted as a reflection to maintain one‟s rights
in the market place. Galassi and Galassi (1977) defined assertive behaviour as a
complex set of behaviours emitted by a person in an interpersonal context which
expresses that person‟s feelings, attitudes, wishes, opinions or rights directly. Richins
(1983) defined consumer assertiveness as a tendency for consumers to “stand up for
their legitimate rights without violating the rights of others”. Richins (1983) further
established that assertiveness was correlated with education and income. Duhachek
and Iacobucci (2005) studied the relationship between personality and coping strategies
* Professor in Marketing, VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore, India, sumigans10@rediffmail.com
(Currently Full Professor, School of Finance and Banking, Kigali-Rwanda)
**Reader in Department of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry University,
Pondicherry, India
$
, Vice President (Operations), VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu – India
@ Assistant Professor in Marketing, VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore, India
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
and the results concluded that assertive consumers are more inclined to engage in
active coping because they perceive stress situations as requiring significant effort.
On the other hand, Aggressive behaviour involves the use of verbal and nonverbal
unpleasant /offensive stimuli to maintain rights. Richins (1983) concluded that
aggressive individuals tended to be younger and male. Duhachek and Iacobucci (2005)
related the traits of assertiveness to more aggressive general behaviour. Assertive or
aggressive behaviour might be individual consumer‟s traits or a result of the involvement
placed with a particular purchase decision also.
John Dewey (1910) first introduced the five-stage purchase decision process and it has
been widely accepted concept and still being the central pillar of consumer behaviour. In
spite of the fact that consumer problem recognition stage being considered as the
starting point of the purchase decision process, very limited researches explored the
significance of the two need/problem recognition styles (Bruner 1986; Bruner and
Pomazal 1988; Asugman and Cote 1993; Workman and Studak 2006). The earlier
studies related aggressiveness and assertiveness to culture (Swanson et al 2011);
coping strategies (Fornell and Westbrook,1979); intentions to complain (Slama and
Williams (1991) and to complaining, assertive interaction (Harris, L. 2010)
However, no research efforts were in the past to understand the relationship between
the problem recognition stage and information stage vis-à-vis the consumer
assertiveness or aggression. Thus, the present study examines whether the assertive or
aggressive behaviour is influenced by the way the purchase decision process is
triggered and the information search behaviour. In addition, many of the earlier studies
addressed the consumers in their own geographical settings. The present study focuses
the behaviour of consumers in a unique setting, viz., young Chinese consumers, who
are studying in a private university in India, situated in a district headquarters of
southern part of India (the young consumers of foreign origin). The study focuses on the
objective of bring out an unexplored research theme, viz., understanding the young
consumer behaviour, who are living in a foreign country, in terms of their purchase
decision process and personality traits such as assertiveness and aggressiveness. Also,
the study examines the significance of demographic variables in assertiveness and
aggressive behaviours.
The study context, India is one of the largest emerging markets, with a population of
over one billion and it is one of the largest economies in the world in terms of purchasing
power. Since 1991, when the Indian economy moved from closed economy to free
market economy, most of the MNCs and TNCs consider India as one of the important
markets for their global operations. The era of consumerism is in the nascent stage and
still around 70 per cent of the total households in India (188 million) reside in the rural
areas and marketers are constrained by high cost distribution, low income and
educational levels of the consumers. Developments like use of Information Technology
in business operations, corporate retailing, Developments in Services sector are at their
initial stage and relatively a newer phenomenon in many of the rural districts.
85
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
The research work is organized into the following sections; the review of earlier studies
summarizes various studies related to purchase process and personality characters like
assertiveness and aggression; the third section, deals with research methodology used
and followed by results and discussion.
2. Review of Earlier Studies
The earlier researches addressed the relationships between (i) information search
efforts and problem recognition and (ii) shopping orientations versus need recognition
styles of the consumers. Bruner and Pomazal (1988) showed that consumer‟s problem
recognition occurs when a significant difference develops between a person‟s actual
state and desired state with respect to a particular need or want. It is not a discrepancy
of some absolute size that causes problem recognition, but a discrepancy of sufficient
magnitude to cause attention. The desired state is influenced by the consumers‟
reference groups, novelty in thinking like autistic thinking (which is postulated to be a
source of arousal of desire), etc; the actual state is affected by assortment deficiency
(run out or wear out of a product that was a previous solution), arousal of needs and
post purchase evaluations. Thus, the way a consumer feels the need / problem is
expected to influence their interaction styles, viz., assertive behaviour or aggressive
behaviour.
Prepurchase information requirements triggered by many factors; Urbany et al (1989)
concluded that the choice uncertainty, that is, to decide where to purchase, what
fragrance to purchase has increased the search options whereas knowledge uncertainty
– the features in the brands, performance of different brands etc, reduced search efforts.
Store image is used by consumers to gather product information in categories like
clothing, food, home furnishings (Johnson et al 2006). Unfavourable product
performance is found to influence the information search behaviour; Thillai Rajan and
Venkatesakumar (2007) study concluded that unfavourable product attributes
performance increases the search efforts of the consumers from various sources. Chen
et al (2008) concluded that rural Chinese consumers utilise a variety of information
sources when making their purchase decision, and for different product categories,
different information sources are preferred.
Many studies addressed the issue of assertive and aggressive behaviour of consumers.
Some people are assertive and seek redress whenever they are dissatisfied with a
product or service, while other people are reluctant to complain no matter how
dissatisfied they might be (Blodgett et al 1995). Consumer assertiveness is identified as
an antecedent for their complaining behaviour (Richins 1987; Bolfing 1989). Unlike
aggressiveness, assertiveness does not involve the use of violent actions to maintain
rights. However, an assertive person may become aggressive if his/her assertive
approach in complaining fails to accomplish the purpose of the complaint (Phau and Sari
2004).
The earlier studies addressed the significance of problem recognition styles and
information search behaviour; also few studies related these two stages of decision
86
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
process to subsequent stages. Thus the present study aims to relate the problem
recognition styles and information search behaviour to the consumer behaviours like
their aggressiveness and assertiveness, which was not addressed by earlier
researches. Thus, it is hypothesised that,
H1: Consumers’ assertiveness behaviour is significantly varying across their
problem recognition styles and information search efforts.
H2: Consumers’ aggressiveness behaviour is significantly varying across their
problem recognition styles and information search efforts.
Mahayudin, N.H.M et al (2010) studied the negative consequences of assertiveness
behaviour of consumers; the findings suggest that female, living in rural area and have
higher level of assertiveness, were more likely to encounter unpleasant experiences in
marketplace. However, significance of demographic variables was addressed by few
studies; particularly, the significance age and income related with aggressive behaviour.
Thus, it is proposed that
H3: Consumers’ assertiveness behaviour is significantly varying across gender
and age.
H4: Consumers’ aggressiveness behaviour is significantly varying across gender
and age.
3. Methodology
3.1 Sample and its Profile
Since the study focused on the Chinese consumers who live away from their country,
the researchers have applied the simple random sampling method for the selection of
the sample unit namely, young consumers. Out of the 200 students studying in a Private
University, (which is situated in Southern part of India) for their Under-Graduate
programme, it is decided to select majority of them and data collected from 152 Chinese
students. Also, the number of Chinese students migrating to India for their higher studies
could be viewed as a nascent stage of transition, the total number of students studying
in southern of India would be very limited. This would give a new physical environment
for the study, where the consumers are not native of the place and relocated for a period
of two years. The respondents are contacted directly with a structured questionnaire.
They are briefed about the study objectives and requested to record their opinion with
respect to each question.
Male respondents constitute 45 per cent of the sample and the rest are female
respondents. Mean age of the respondents found to be 21.2 years (σ =1.73 years) and it
is a positively skewed distribution (Sk = 1.688). The respondents were requested to
report about the shopping behaviour during the last shopping trip of purchase toilet soap
brands.
87
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
3.2 Measures used
The scale for the consumers‟ problem recognition styles scale consists of eight items
measure, which are Likert type, measured on a seven-point scale, developed by Bruner
(1986) with internal consistency of 0.90.The scale divides the consumers into actual
state (AS Type) consumers and desired state (DS Type) consumers based on the mean
score of aggregate of the eight items. Respondents with a score of 3.5 or less for the
average of the 8 items were categorized as „AS Types‟ with the rest being classified as
„DS Types‟ This procedure classified 37 respondents as „AS type‟ and the rest (115) as
„DS type‟. Mean score for the problem recognition style for „AS type‟ group is 2.9020 (σ
= 0.53695) and for the „DS type‟ is 4.2402 (σ = 0.5071) and the mean difference is
significant (F=189.423, p< 0.001).
The study of Blodgett and Hill (1991), classified the consumers information sources into
(a) in store search (b) interpersonal search (c) sales person (d) neutral sources and (e)
media. The respondents of the current study requested to report about how many such
sources were considered before they made their last purchase. The total information
search, aggregate of the above five sources, subsequently classified into „Low
information search‟ group (average search in the range of less than or equal to 4
sources), and „High Information Search‟ group (average search above 4 sources). This
classification resulted in placing 100 respondents as low search category and 52
respondents as high search category.
The scales for consumer assertiveness and aggressiveness are adopted from the study
of Richins (1983). The assertiveness scale consists of three subscales each containing
5-items and they were labeled as „resisting requests for compliance‟, „requesting
information or assistance‟, and „seeking redress‟; the scale for aggressiveness items
consists of 6 items. The scales are 5-point Likert type and the respondents were
requested to report their agree ness level of each of the items.
3.3. About the Statistical Analysis
Since the independent variables problem recognition style and information search were
classified into 2 categories each, and it was decided to compare the mean variations
across all the groups, across three dependent variables measuring assertiveness, a 2 X
2 Factorial design MANOVA is considered to be suitable design to compare the main
effects and interaction effects and employed. For the analysing aggressiveness, (where
single dependent measure), a 2 X 2 Factorial design ANOVA is used. Similarly, while
analysing the demographic characteristics (Gender & Age) along with assertiveness, 2 X
2 Factorial Design MANOVA was applied and to analyse aggressiveness 2 X 2 Factorial
design Univariate ANOVA used.
4. Results
To test the hypothesis 1 (H1) pertaining to the consumer assertiveness, a 2 (Problem
Recognition Styles: Actual State Vs Desired State) X 2 (Information Search Efforts: Low
88
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
/ High) factorial design with MANOVA was applied with each facet of assertiveness (3
facets) as dependent measures. The results summarized in the Table 1 and Table 2. To
test the hypothesis 2 (H2) pertaining to the consumer aggressiveness behaviour, a 2 X 2
Factorial design Univariate ANOVA (Problem Recognition Styles: Actual State Vs
Desired State & Information Search Efforts: Low / High) with aggressiveness as
dependent measure. The results summarised in Table -3 and Table -4.
From the analysis of Table 1 and 2, it is evident that there is no significant difference
between problem recognition styles and information search efforts on facets of
assertiveness and the results in the Table 2 supported the same and no evidence was
found in support of the hypothesis 1. However, it should be noticed that the respondents
showed high degree of assertiveness behaviour, where the mean scores across various
groups are in the range of 3.8 to 4.2 on a 5-point scale.
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics for facet of assertiveness
Consumer Type
SEARCH2
Mean
Std. Deviation
Resisting
AS Type
Low Search
4.0147
.8002
Requests For
High Search
4.1429
.5381
Compliance
Total search
4.0389
.7528
DS Type
Low Search
4.1010
.6877
High Search
4.0927
.5261
Total search
4.0978
.6270
Requesting
AS Type
Low Search
4.1600
.8524
Information or
High Search
3.8571
.8619
Assistance
Total search
4.1027
.8506
DS Type
Low Search
4.1628
.7219
High Search
4.0476
.7871
Total search
4.1177
.7468
Seeking
AS Type
Low Search
4.1267
.8412
Redress
High Search
4.0286
.8674
Total search
4.1081
.8348
DS Type
Low Search
4.0810
.8240
High Search
4.0134
.6579
Total search
4.0546
.7610
N
30
7
37
70
45
115
30
7
37
70
45
115
30
7
37
70
45
115
89
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
Table 2: Multivariate Tests - for facet of assertiveness
Effect
Value
F Hypothesis
Error df
df
CONSUM
Pillai's Trace
.002
.104
3.000
146.000
ER TYPE
Wilks' Lambda
.998
.104
3.000
146.000
Hotelling's Trace
.002
.104
3.000
146.000
Roy's Largest Root
.002
.104
3.000
146.000
SEARCH
EFFORTS
CONSUM
ER TYPE
X
SEARCH
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
.013
.987
.014
.014
.004
.996
.004
.004
.661
.661
.661
.661
.177
.177
.177
.177
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
3.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
146.000
Sig.
.958
.958
.958
.958
.577
.577
.577
.577
.912
.912
.912
.912
a Exact statistic
b Design: Intercept+CON_TYPE+SEARCH2+CON_TYPE * SEARCH
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics –
Aggressiveness behaviour across Consumer type & Search behaviour
Consumer
Type
AS Type
DS Type
Total
SEARCH
Mean
Std. Deviation
Low Search
3.6167
.8755
High Search
3.2857
.8373
Total search
3.5541
.8670
Low Search
4.0486
.7226
High Search
4.1332
.7246
Total search
4.0817
.7214
Low Search
3.9190
.7925
High Search
4.0191
.7878
Total search
3.9533
.7897
90
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
Table 4: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects – Aggressiveness behaviour
Source
Corrected Model
Type III Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
Sig.
8.611
3
1069.738
1
7.696
1
7.696
13.312
.000
SEARCH
.285
1
.285
.494
.483
CONSUMER TYPE
X SEARCH
.812
1
.812
1.404
.238
Error
85.560
148
.578
Total
2469.660
152
Intercept
CONSUMER TYPE
2.870
F
4.965
.003
1069.738 1850.401
.000
Corrected Total
94.171 151
R Squared = .091 (Adjusted R Squared = .073) & Dependent Variable:
Aggressiveness
From the above analysis (Table 4), it is evident that the main effect pertaining to
aggressiveness is found significant for „Consumer Type‟ variable. Therefore, it is evident
from Table 3 that actual state consumers found to be less aggressive (μ= 3.5541 & σ =
0.8670) than the desired state consumers (μ= 4.087 & σ = 0.7214) & (F= 13.312, Sig =
0.000). The search effect and interaction effect of consumer type and search were not
significant. Thus, the hypothesis 2 was supported partially by the findings.
To test the Hypothesis -3 (H3), 2 X 2 Factorial design MANOVA (Gender: Male Vs.
Female / Age: less than or equal to 20 years and above 20 years) was employed (since
assertiveness involves 3 facets). Results are summarized in Table 5. It is evident (Table
5) that all the Multivariate tests like Pillai‟s Trace to Roy‟s Largest Root show
significance for Gender at 0.1 level of significance and age variable show significance at
0.05 levels. However, their interaction effect was not found significant (sig = 0.864). The
analysis pertaining to the gender and age group on assertive behaviour suggests that
the main effects for gender and age were significant and the no interaction effect was
found.
Moreover, not all the facets of assertiveness show statistical significance. From the
analysis, it is evident that Gender and „Seeking redress‟ show statistically significant
relationship. Age group is significantly related to Resisting Requests for Compliance
facet of assertiveness. However it is evident from the analysis that all other relationships
are not statistically significant (Tables were omitted from display due to space paucity;
interested readers may obtain it from the authors).
From the analysis, it is found that as far as „Resisting request for compliance‟, the
younger age Chinese consumers (less than 20 years) showed stronger behaviour (μ=
4.3708 & σ = 0.6862) than the elderly age group respondents (μ= 3.8908 & σ = 0.5642)
& (F= 22.026, Sig = 0.000). Seeking redress behaviour was found varying between Male
91
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
respondents and female. Male respondents were found stronger in their opinion (μ=
4.2441 & σ = 0.8930) than the female respondents (μ= 3.9247 & σ = 0.6394) & (F=
5.950, Sig = 0.016). (Tables were omitted from display due to space paucity; interested
readers may obtain it from the authors).
Table 5: Multivariate Tests - Assertive behaviour
Effect
Intercept
GENDER
AGE
GENDER
X AGE
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
Pillai's Trace
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Roy's Largest Root
Value
F
.989
.011
88.878
88.878
.047
.953
.050
.050
.150
.850
.177
.177
.005
.995
.005
.005
4325.401
4325.401
4325.401
4325.401
2.423
2.423
2.423
2.423
8.607
8.607
8.607
8.607
0.246
0.246
0.246
0.246
Hypothesis
df
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
Error
df
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
146
Sig.
.000
.000
.000
.000
.068
.068
.068
.068
.000
.000
.000
.000
.864
.864
.864
.864
a Exact statistic
b Design: Intercept+GENDER+AGE2+GENDER * AGE2
The results in the Tables 6 and 7 suggest that aggressiveness does not vary across
gender and age group of respondents and no support for the hypothesis 4 found.
92
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
Table 6: Tests of Between-Subjects Effects - Assertiveness behaviour
Source
Type III
Sum of
Squares
.387
2184.731
Corrected Model
Intercept
df
Mean
Square
3
1
F
Sig.
.129
.203
2184.731 3447.69
1
1
.182
.287
1
.240
.379
1 3.579E-04
.001
.894
.000
GENDER
.182
.593
AGE
.240
.539
GENDER X
3.579E-04
.981
AGE
Error
93.785 148
.634
Total
2469.660 152
Corrected Total
94.171 151
a R Squared = .004 (Adjusted R Squared = -.016) Dependent Variable:
Aggressiveness
Table 7: Descriptive Statistics
Gender of the
respondents
Male
AGE
Less than 20
Years
21 and above
Total
Female
Less than 20
Years
21 and above
Total
Total
Less than 20
Years
21 and above
Total
Dependent Variable: Aggressiveness
Mean
Std.
Deviation
3.8623
.8670
3.9481
3.9191
3.9374
.9619
.9253
.7151
4.0168
3.9809
3.9091
.6256
.6647
.7696
3.9829
3.9533
.8058
.7897
5. Discussion
Results for Chinese Consumer assertiveness behaviour conclude that no significant
variation found across the problem recognition styles and information search efforts.
However, it should be noticed that the average scores across the facets of
assertiveness are quite high and thus, the Chinese students exhibit high degree of
assertiveness – even though they are away from their native place (foreign soil). Desired
state consumers were found to be very aggressive rather than actual state consumers.
93
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
This portrays a typical consumer behaviour pattern- where the purchase process is
triggered by external factors like advertisements, peer usage or promotional offers,
(desired state consumers), still the consumers exhibited very high degree of
assertiveness in seeking help or avoiding pressures from sales persons. It also supports
the view that the Chinese consumers are aggressive in their shopping behaviour, even
though the decision process is influenced by various external factors, not an intrinsically
triggered one. Ambience and facilities which were the mainstays of newly opened
stores had not figured out at top of mind perceptions (Sinha and Banerjee 2004) and it is
ignored by the marketers for many decades. Many of the retailers still follow
conventional method of store operations and this could have influenced the students to
be aggressive in their shopping.
Male and female consumers differ significantly in the behaviour of „Seeking redress‟;
male consumers were found to be very strong in seeking redress (μ= 4.2241 & σ =
0.8930) rather than the female consumers (μ= 3.9247 & σ = 0.6394). Consumers with
less than 20 years of age found to high in „Resisting requests for Compliance‟ (μ=
4.3708 & σ = 0.6862) rather than the elders (μ= 3.8908 & σ = 0.5642). However no
significant differences were observed on the aggressiveness behaviour of the
consumers across the gender and age group. But the consumers across various
demographic variables exhibited high degree of aggression during their shopping
behaviour for toilet soaps purchase.
Thus, the Chinese students exhibited a unique consumer behaviour pattern even though
they are residing in a foreign country. The high assertiveness score suggest that they
are keen to ensure the information / or seeking redress during their shopping. This could
be due to the local shops / adjacent to the university campus and high level of familiarity
and peer students present during the shopping occasion also.
6. Conclusion
The study brought findings related the Chinese students‟ behaviour in a foreign context.
Even though the consumers stay in a foreign soil, they exhibited very high degree of
aggression during their shopping behaviour. In India, organised retailing is in evolving
stage and many of the retailers in India still follow conventional way of doing business
and the related operations and many of the shops are also tiny in size. These factors
could be the reasons for the students to be aggressive during their shopping trip.
Moreover, the respondents prefer to shop adjacent shops/ mini malls around the
university vicinity, they might have gained introduction with the shopping environment
and storekeepers, which would give confidence during their shopping trip and assertive
and aggressive shopping behaviour even though their not resident of the country.
Very few studies attempted to profile the behaviour of desired state consumers (Bruner
G.C. 1986; Bruner and Pomazal 1988 and Workman & Studak 2006). The present study
reported further insight about problem recognition styles of the consumers, particularly,
to the desired state consumers. The Chinese students, who are all desired state type,
exhibited high degree of aggression rather than actual state consumers. Yavas (2001)
94
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
argued that atmosphere, security, ease of access was also considered by the
consumers in deciding the shopping trip. The Chinese students, who are staying in
hostels, prefer to shop neighborhood places; the familiarity and security factors might
turn the consumers to be aggressive during their shopping.
The difference exhibited by the demographic variables on behaviour like aggression and
assertion suggest the significance of demographic characteristics in consumer
behaviour studies. The consumers exhibited strong assertive and aggressive behaviours
for the product category – toilet soaps. In case of durable purchases or essential
services like mobile phone services, hospital services or restaurant services expected to
provide considerable variations and insight about the young consumer behaviour in
foreign context. Since the shopping context is familiar to the respondents, a comparison
of unfamiliar or newer shopping contexts, purchase of new brands / product categories
might provide further insights about the Chinese consumers‟ behaviour in foreign
context. However, factors like shopping preference (in shopping or out shopping), brand
loyalty, post purchase satisfaction and costs involved in shopping are not considered in
the scope of the study, which might influence the consumer behaviour.
However, the study has some limitations; it has taken a sample, which is the students,
staying in the university‟s premises and often uses the local shops for their regular
purchases. The results are likely to be different in case of durable / apparel / or any out
shopping kind of activities.
References
Asugman, G & Cote, JA 1993, „Cognitive and Affective Decision Making Preferences in
Impulse Buying‟, Asian Journal of Marketing, pp.23-30.
Blodgett, JG, Wakefield, KL, & Barnes, JH 1995, „The effects of customer service on
consumer complaining behaviour‟, Journal of Services Marketing, vol.9, no.4,
pp.31-42.
Bolfing, CP 1989, „How do consumers express dissatisfaction and what can service
marketers do about it?‟ Journal of Services Marketing, vol.3, pp.5-23.
Bruner II, GC 1986, „Problem Recognition Styles and Search Patterns: an empirical
investigation‟, Journal of Retailing, vol.62 (fall), pp.281-297.
Burner II, GC, &Pomazal, RJ 1988, „Problem Recognition: the crucial first stage of the
consumer decision process‟, The Journal of Services Marketing, vol.2 (summer),
pp.43-53.
Chen, Qimei, He, Yi, Zhao, Xinshu., & David. G 2008, „Sources of product information
for Chinese rural consumers‟, International Journal of Advertising, vol. 27, no.1,
p.67.
Duhachek, A & Iacobucci, D 2005, „Consumer Personality and Coping: Testing Rival
Theories of Process‟, Journal of Consumer Psychology, vol. 15, no. 1,pp. 52-63.
Fornell, C & Westbrook, RA 1979, „An exploratory study of assertiveness,
aggressiveness, and consumer complaining behaviour‟, Advances in Consumer
Research, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 105-10.
95
Ganesan, Venkatesakumar, Sampth & Sathish
Galassi, MD & Galassi, JP 1977, ‘Assert Yourself – How To Be Your Own Person, New
York: Human Sciences Press.
Harris, L 2010, „Fraudulent consumer returns: exploiting retailers‟ return policies,
European Journal of Marketing, vol. 44, no. 6, pp. 730-747
Johnson, Kim KP, Yoo, Jeong-Ju., Rhee, Jongeun, Lennon, Sharron., Jasper, Cynthia,
and Damhorst, ML 2006, „Multi-channel shopping: channel use among rural
consumers‟, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 34,
no.6, p.453.
Mahayudin, NHM, Haron, SA, & Fah, BCY 2010, „Unpleasant Market Experience and
Consumer Complaint Behavior‟, Asian Social Science, vol. 6, no, 5, pp. 63-69
Phau, I, & Sari, RP 2004, „Engaging in complaint behaviour An Indonesian perspective‟,
Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 22, no.4, pp.407-426
Richins, ML 1983, „An Analysis of Consumer Interaction Styles in the Marketplace‟,
Journal of Consumer Research, vol.10, pp.73-82.
Richins, ML 1983, „Negative word-of-mouth by dissatisfied consumers: A pilot study‟,
Journal of Marketing, vol. 47, pp. 68–78.
Richins, ML 1987, „A multivariate analysis of responses to dissatisfaction‟, Journal of the
Academy of Marketing Science, vol.15, pp.24-32.
Sinha, PK & Banerjee, A 2004, ‟Store choice behaviour in an evolving market‟,
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol.32, no.10, pp.482494.
Slama, ME & Williams, TG 1991, „Consumer interaction styles and purchase complaint
intentions‟, Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining, vol.
4, pp. 167-74.
Swanson, SR, Frankel, R, Sagan, M. & Johansen, DL 2011, „Private and public voice:
exploring cultural influence‟, Managing Service Quality, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 216-39.
Thillai Rajan, P & Venkatesakumar, R 2007, „Product Attributes Evaluations and
Information Search Efforts – A study on FMCG product category‟, PCTE Journal of
Management, vol. 4, no.2, p.71
Urbany, JE, Peter, RD & Wilkie, WL 1989, „Buyer Uncertainty and Info Search‟, Journal
of Consumer Research, vol. 16 (September), pp.208-215.
Workman, JE, & Studak, CM 2006, „Fashion Consumers and Fashion Recognition
styles‟, International Journal of Consumer Studies, vol. 30 (January), pp.75 – 84.
Yavas, U 2001, „Patronage motives and product purchase patterns: a correspondence
analysis‟, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, vol. 19, no.2, pp.97- 102.
96