Reference no: EM133555586

Consumer & Buyer Behaviour

Assessment 1 - INSTRUCTION AND GUIDELINE

For this course, Assessments 1 & 2 are closely related, with the second assessment, the final project report (60%) built on the first assessment - research proposal (40%). Together, the two assessments require you to explain/explore/document/criticise the actions, behaviours, and practices of consumers and reason why consumers engage in different marketplace behaviours. As such, the research proposal (henceforth the "proposal ") gives you the chance to work as a group and choose 3 topics, receive feedback from us on the scope and suitability of the topics before your start working on assessment 2.

The components of the proposal are as follows.

1. Cover Page

Assessment 1,MKTG7503, Group number, name and student ID for all group members

(Recommended page numbers in brackets below apply to each topic)

2. Research background (3 pages approx.)

The background section should generate the reader's interest in your research topic and helps them understand why your study is important or worth studying. Typically, the background section includes an overview of the phenomenon/trend/behaviour/effect (i.e., what is it about), followed by information that provides an academic interpretation of the phenomenon (what the current research says about the phenomenon),

Put differently, you should first describe the overall phenomenon using information mainly coming from non-academic channels (e.g., industry reports, consumer reports, newspapers, YouTube videos, etc.), and then provide a theoretical interpretation of it based on academic information (journal articles, conference papers, textbook chapters, textbooks), which eventually lead up to the statement of research purpose/problem.

As an example, consider the "Mukbang (online eating show)" we've discussed in class. Were this your focus of the research, you can describe Mukang (the increasing popularity, the constantly changing trend locally and globally, profits for the hosts, the types of Mukbang, etc.) You can then search what academic literature says about this (e.g., using "Google scholar" or UQ library). For example, does any paper describe consumers' motivations behind watching the show? Do they provide any other interpretations of the phenomenon from various theoretical perspectives? Did their research focus on a particular group of consumers (e.g., young consumers, Chinese/Indian/Malaysian consumers, etc.)?

Afterwards, you're in a position to think about what your research aims to do - this often comes from a lack of understanding of a particular element of the phenomenon. This is often the useful and perhaps the simplest way to generate research problems.

For example, the industry and news reports may provide a comprehensive overview of the Mukbang. Is there anything they rarely mentioned? (e.g., the gender ratio of the audiences, motivations behind watching the show of consumers from a particular country or region, etc.).

Note: make sure at least ONE course concept from this course is explicitly mentioned in the background section (e.g., priming, learning, memory, motivation, decision making, involvement, behavioural conditioning, group process, etc.)

Hint 1: No phenomenon can be said to be thoroughly understood by our current state of knowledge. There are always things remaining to be explored and controversies to be reconciled. You are NOT expected to conduct a comprehensive review of all existing information, or construct research questions that were NEVER examined in the extant literature - this is way beyond the scope of this course).

The unexplored aspect of the phenomenon naturally leads to your problem statement - what is it about the phenomenon that we still don't know MUCH about? A good proposal has a logical flow - the statement of problem/purpose follows naturally from the discussion in the background information. Think of it as telling a story - here's what I'm interested in, here's what we know about it,
and here's what we don't know much about, and that's why I'm doing this research.

Example:
• you observe that in recent years more young consumers choose to be vegan. You want to know why. The tentative title for your project - the rising veganism among young consumers in (name of the country).
• Background and literature: what is veganism (abstaining from consuming animal and animal-related products), trends of this phenomenon in the country in which you plan to conduct your research (e.g., industry figures, news reports), retailers' reactions towards this trend (e.g., more vegan food on the shelf, greater variety). What the academic journals say about this phenomenon (possible theories explaining this effect, such as motivated by health concerns, animal welfare, social influence, peer influence, etc.). However, you noticed that little or limited research was done in country xxx.
• Research purpose/problem:

Hint 2: You can use subheadings (1 - background, 1.1 - the phenomenon, 1.2 - the academic view, 1.3 - research problem, 1.4 - research questions; this is entirely optional).

3. research questions

Research questions are detailed, broken-down elements from your research purpose/problem. You can think of your research purpose as an umbrella, and your research questions are the "nodes" of the umbrella. Good research questions comprise the following features: 1) they are subsumed within the overall research purpose (i.e., the RQs belong to your overarching research purpose) such that no research questions is outside your research problem, 2) they are focused on one single issue, and 3) they are examinable - meaning that each of your research questions can be answered by your interviewees in assessment 2.

List each RQ, and explain why this RQ is proposed. When doing so, you can refer to some information you've mentioned in the background section, or look for new information for the research questions.

Example (based on the "veganism" scenario)

RQ1 - What are people's primary reasons for becoming vegan?

Explain why this question is worth investigating. For example, you can give a review of the motivational theories (learned from this course). You then provide arguments regarding why RQ1 is asked here.

Possible argument 1: not much information on this question because it's a new trend in recent 5 years (cite relevant information to back up this claim)

Possible argument 2: current information provides divergent views on this question (list the divergent views here); so you want to examine which view is appropriate.

Possible argument 3: current information is mainly about Western consumers, and you want to study this in a country with different social values and cultural backgrounds (e.g., China, India, Japan, Singapore, etc...). For example, research xxx shows that Chinese and Australian consumers have different attitudes and acceptance of organic food. Because the current study is also about food choice, Chinese consumers may also differ from Western consumers in their perceptions and preferences of vegan food).

(You should list at least 1 argument for each RQ; but feel free to list as many as you see fit)

RQ2 - are there any gender effects (do males and females differ in their propensity to become vegan?) (elaborations and arguments)

RQ3 - what are the effects of social media on people's choices of becoming vegan (media exposure, social influence) (elaborations and arguments)

RQ4 - what are people's primary reasons for refusing to go vegan (elaborations and arguments)