MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY *********** TRƯƠNG THANH THẢO DECISION-MAKING STYLES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHOICE CRITERIA TOWARDS FASHION CLOTHES PURCHASE A STUDY OF HO CHI MINH CITY CONSUMERS ECONOMICS MASTER THESIS HO CHI MINH CITY – 2010 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY *********** TRƯƠNG THANH THẢO DECISION-MAKING STYLES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHOICE CRITERIA TOWARDS FASHION CLOTHES PURCHASE A STUDY OF HO CHI MINH CITY CONSUMERS ECONOMICS MASTER THESIS Major: Business Administration Major code: 60.34.05 Academic Supervisor: Dr Trần Hà Minh Quân Ho Chi Minh City - 2010 Acknowledgement ******** I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and deepest appreciation to my academic research supervisor, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan for his precious guidance, share of experiences, ceaseless encouragements and highly valuable suggestions during the research I would also like to express my appreciation to Professor Nguyen Dong Phong and UEH Board of Directors for creating MBA program in English In addition, I would like to thank all the teachers in the Economics University, Ho Chi Minh City, especially faculty of Business Administration and Postgraduate Faculty, who have taught me a lot about marketing and management knowledge in the past three years, for their suggestions and supports for this research I also would like to express my gratitude to my classmates in MBA classes, Batch 16, especially Mr Phong, Mr Trung, Mr Phuc (Faculty of Business Administration), all my friends in Batch 18, 19 for their share of knowledge, experience and their enthusiastic support in conducting survey for this research I would like to express my sincere thanks to my dearest friends for squeezing lots of time for helping me in conducting survey, share of knowledge and information for this research Finally yet importantly, I would like to thank my family members who always gave me supports and encouraged me when I had difficulties in doing the research Trương Thanh Thảo ABSTRACT ******* This research explores the decision-making styles of consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, tests the differences in these styles among gender, age, monthly income groups Specifically, it offers empirical results on the relationship between consumer decision-making styles and choice criteria towards fashion clothes purchase The Consumer Style Inventory (CSI), developed by Sproles and Kendall (1986) for examining different consumer decision-making styles, is adapted in this research A survey by questionnaire is employed as the tool to collect primary data and the research instrument is administered to 490 young consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, 410 are identified to be valid for the research The research results find that eight factors representing the decision-making styles regarding fashion clothes purchase of Ho Chi Minh City consumers are “Brand and “Price equals Quality” consciousness”, “Fashion and Novelty consciousness”, “Perfection and High Quality consciousness”, “Impulsiveness and Carelessness”, “Confusion by Overchoice”, ‘Habit and Brand Loyalty”, “Price and “Value for Money” consciousness” and “Recreational and Hedonic consciousness” Five factors representing clothes choice criteria including “product and quality related criteria”, “store and salesperson related criteria”, “style and design related criteria”, “brand and image related criteria” and “price related criteria” are found to positively or negatively correlate with decision-making styles such as “Brand and “Price equals Quality” consciousness”, “Fashion and Novelty consciousness”, “Perfection and High Quality consciousness”, “Habit and Brand Loyalty”, “Price and “Value for Money” consciousness and “Recreational and Hedonic consciousness” The testing results show that there are differences in Ho Chi Minh City consumer decision-making styles among gender, age, monthly income groups Keywords: decision-making style, consumer style inventory, fashion clothes TABLE OF CONTENTS ********** Acknowledgement i Abstract ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii ABBREVIATIONS v LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research introduction 1.2 Research rationale 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Scope of the research 1.5 Research method and process 1.6 Theoretical and practical implications of the research 1.7 Structure of the research Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2.1 Consumer decision – making styles 12 2.2 Clothes choice criteria 17 2.3 Some main characteristics of fashion clothes market and consumers in Ho Chi Minh City 19 2.4 The research model 21 2.5 Research hypothesis 21 2.6 Measurement scale 22 Chapter 3: RESEARCH DESIGN 24 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 Preliminary research 25 Stages in the preliminary research 25 The preliminary research outcome 25 Official research 30 The questionnaire 30 Sample size 30 Sampling method 31 Data analysis method 31 Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 33 4.1 Characteristics of sample 34 4.1.1 Descriptions of sample 34 4.1.2 Characteristics of sample 34 4.2 Descriptive statistics 35 4.2.1 Descriptive statistics for variables of decision-making styles 35 4.2.2 Descriptive statistics for variables of clothes choice criteria 37 4.3 Exploratory factor analysis 38 4.3.1 Exploratory factor analysis for decision-making styles 39 4.3.2 Exploratory factor analysis for clothes choice criteria 42 4.4 Scales reliability analysis 44 4.4.1 Scales reliability analysis for decision-making styles 45 4.4.2 Scales reliability analysis for clothes choice criteria 47 4.5 Testing the differences in decision-making styles among gender, age, monthly income groups 49 4.5.1 Testing the differences in decision-making styles among gender groups 49 4.5.2 Testing the differences in decision-making styles among age groups 50 4.5.3 Testing the differences in decision-making styles among income groups 50 4.6 Multiple regression analysis 52 4.6.1 Correlation analysis 52 4.6.2 Multiple regression analysis 54 4.7 Conclusion 67 Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 69 5.1 Summary of the research 70 5.2 Implications of the research 72 5.2.1 Theoretical implications 72 5.2.2 Practical implications 72 5.3 Limitations and recommendations for further research 78 5.4 Conclusion 78 References Appendix – Questions for “face to face” discussion Appendix – Questionnaire (Vietnamese version) Appendix – Sample characteristics Appendix – Exploratory Factor Analysis Results Appendix – Scale Reliability Analysis Results 14 Appendix – t-test and ANOVA test results 19 Appendix – Multiple regression analysis results 32 Appendix – Graphs for testing linear regression hypothesis 36 … …….***……… ABBREVIATIONS ******** CSI: Consumer Style Inventory EFA: exploratory factor analysis HCMC : Ho Chi Minh City m: million VND: Viet Nam Dong WTO: World Trade Organization LIST OF FIGURES ******** Figure 1.1 The research process Figure 1.2 Structure of the research Figure 2.1 The research model 21 Figure 3.1 Stages in preliminary research 25 Figure 4.1 The result of research model 67 LIST OF TABLES ******** Table 2.1: Summary of findings from 21 studies of clothes choice criteria .18 Table 2.2: 40 items of Consumer Style Inventory 22 Table 3.1: Variables for measuring decision-making styles 26 Table 3.2: Variables for measuring clothes choice criteria .29 Table 4.1: Characteristics of sample 34 Table 4.2: Descriptive statistics for variables of decision-making styles 35 Table 4.3: Descriptive statistics for variables of clothes choice criteria 37 Table 4.4 – Rotated component matrix of decision – making styles 39 Table 4.5 – Rotated component matrix of clothes choice criteria .43 Table 4.6 – Scale reliability of decision-making styles .45 Table 4.7 – Scale reliability of clothes choice criteria 47 Table 4.8– Correlation matrix 53 Table 4.9 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Brand style 55 Table 4.10 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Fashion style 57 Table 4.11 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Quality style 59 Table 4.12 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Habit style .62 Table 4.13 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Price style .64 Table 4.14 Coefficients in multiple regression analysis of Recreation style .66 Table 4.15 Summary of multiple regression analysis .68 ………………… ***………………… 10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents general introduction of the current research with which the research introduction, research rationale, research objectives are provided An introduction to the research method to be used, research process and scope of the research are also addressed in this chapter At the end of the chapter, the implication and structure of the research are provided 116 Test of Homogeneity of Variances Recreation style Levene Statistic df1 df2 2.433 Sig 407 089 ANOVA Recreation style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 10.248 5.124 Within Groups 398.752 407 980 Total 409.000 409 F 5.230 Sig .006 Multiple Comparisons Recreation style Bonferroni Mean (I) age (J) age Difference (I-J) Std Error 18-25 26-30 31-40 95% Confidence Interval Sig Lower Bound Upper Bound 26-30 16600365 11674121 467 -.1146325 4466398 31-40 49541230 * 15398384 004 1252479 8655767 18-25 -.16600365 11674121 467 -.4466398 1146325 31-40 32940865* 13533504 046 0040744 6547429 18-25 -.49541230* 15398384 004 -.8655767 -.1252479 26-30 -.32940865* 13533504 046 -.6547429 -.0040744 * The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level Testing the differences in decision-making styles among income groups “Brand and “Price equals Quality” consciousness” 117 Test of Homogeneity of Variances Brand style Levene Statistic df1 971 df2 Sig 406 406 ANOVA Brand style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 5.619 1.873 Within Groups 403.381 406 994 Total 409.000 409 F 1.885 Sig .131 “Fashion and Novelty consciousness” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Fashion style Levene Statistic df1 502 df2 Sig 406 681 ANOVA Fashion style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 3.695 1.232 Within Groups 405.305 406 998 Total 409.000 409 F 1.234 “Perfection and High Quality consciousness” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Quality style Levene Statistic 1.257 df1 df2 406 Sig .289 Sig .297 118 ANOVA Quality style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 6.799 2.266 Within Groups 402.201 406 991 Total 409.000 409 F 2.288 Sig .078 “Impulsiveness and Carelessness” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Impulse style Levene Statistic df1 644 df2 Sig 406 587 ANOVA Impulse style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 2.634 878 Within Groups 406.366 406 1.001 Total 409.000 409 F 877 Sig .453 “Confusion by Overchoice” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Confusion style Levene Statistic df1 202 df2 406 Sig .895 ANOVA Confusion style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 959 320 Within Groups 408.041 406 1.005 Total 409.000 409 F 318 Sig .812 119 “Habit and Brand-Loyalty” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Habit style Levene Statistic df1 184 df2 Sig 406 907 ANOVA Habit style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square F 6.981 2.327 Within Groups 402.019 406 990 Total 409.000 409 2.350 Sig .072 “Price and “Value for Money” consciousness” Test of Homogeneity of Variances Price style Levene Statistic df1 972 df2 Sig 406 406 ANOVA Price style Sum of Squares Between Groups Df Mean Square 7.921 2.640 Within Groups 401.079 406 988 Total 409.000 409 F 2.673 Sig .047 120 Multiple Comparisons Price style Bonferroni (I) (J) monthly monthly income income 9 m Mean Difference (I-J) 95% Confidence Interval Std Error Sig Lower Bound Upper Bound 5-7 m 23964610 12899114 383 -.1023415 5816337 7-9 m 32297136 14306539 147 -.0563306 7022733 >9 m 35879794 14353692 077 -.0217542 7393500 9 m 11915183 13885282 1.000 -.2489815 4872852 9 m 03582657 15201677 1.000 -.3672077 4388609