BMO6630 Business Research Methods | Conspicuous consumption

Part A

Survey

Opinions are the best way of getting to understand a concept. Therefore, we as the researcher would like to give you an opportunity to give us your opinion based on the following issue. Conspicuous consumption is a very critical issue and affects management largely. People have addressed the issue in many different ways and context. However, we would like to get to know what you think about the same issues in a different dimension. That is why we have come up with the following questions to get your opinion on the same. The questions are base on the real life situations. Understanding the cause of the problem is one way of solving it. Therefore, we would appreciate your contributions in helping us address the above management problem based on conspicuous consumption.  The following questions are simple and we hope that you understand them. Please answer the questions as per your understanding as well as your experience. They are 12 interesting questions, which am sure you will enjoy answering. If you have any example that you would like to share with us, we are promising to keep it private .we value your feedback, so feel free to give us your opinion.

Questionnaires

1. Only in Australia
2. Outside Australia
3. If no go to question 3

1. Less than 1000$
2. More than 1000$
3. Any other amount

1. Yes
2. No
3. If no go to question 7

1. Socio-demographics
2. Cultural values
3. Shopping motivations
4. Experiences

1. Yes
2. No
3. If yes please give a brief explanation on how it affects the economy

Part B

Report on question’s structure

In the world people, have different reasons for why they consume a certain product. The difference in the reasons for consuming the products results from the different motives that a person have while consuming such products. There are those people who only consume a product because the product is aimed at satisfying their basic needs. However, some people more so those who are of the upper class may consume products based on a different reason. These reasons are for instance prestige and gaining fame. The consumption of a product in an aim of prestige or gaining fame is what is referred to as conspicuous consumption. There are very many reasons stated and discussed by different authors why people tend to consume conspicuous goods (Dev, Podoshen, and Shahzad, 2018). However, little has been mentioned about socio demographics, shopping motivation, experience and cultural values. Most of the authors only concentrate on peer pressure and social status as the reason to why people consume the status product. In our research, we are going to focus on the mentioned factors that lead to the consumption and paying less attention to the obvious reasons.  In addition, we focused more on the Australian domestic and international traveler in specific. 

In our research, we employed different research methods tough we focused more on an online survey. The survey was aimed at getting direct feedback from different consumers on what they think about conspicuous consumption (Bronner, and de Hoog, 2018). We were able to identify some of the issues that we were to include in the survey questions to enhance an exemplary feedback. Coming up with the best research team needed a serious vetting and critical considerations. Some of the things that we looked at when deciding on the team members were cultural differences and the general understanding of the team members. The team members had to be well informed on the topic and the problems related to the same. In addition, we had to choose people from different places in Australia as well as different cultures.  After an involving discussion, we had to come up with the structure of the questions that we were supposed to use in our survey. The questions had to include all the relevant information needed to gain relevant feedback. This is because getting the correct feedback would be the first step for us to be able to solve the management problem of conspicuous consumption.

In our effort of coming up with the best questions for our survey, we had to consider the following aspects. Our survey structure had to meet the following checklist for efficient and relevant feedback. Primarily the questions that we selected had to create a good first impression to the participant. In addition, the mode of delivering the questions to the participant had to be an effect on and that shows that we value their feedback. Therefore, we chose to deliver the questions in a well-structured email written in a professional format. The structure and the content of a survey question are also very important. Therefore, we had to make a good choice in the title of the survey questionnaires that will be more meaningful to the participant. The title had to be short and clear in this case to enhance understanding. Like any other survey, we had to provide instructions on how to answer the questions. However, the instructions were not supposed to be complicated but clear and simple. They were supposed to have polite language that will motivate the participant to give the best responses to the questions.

Poor or incomplete feedback from a participant may be due to lack of enough caution while the researcher is coming up with the survey questions. Therefore, our questions had to be well thought of and presented to the participant in the best way. The questions had to be interesting and non-threatening to encourage the participant to give the best and genuine feedback. The most important questions had to come at the beginning pet of the questionnaires. This is because some of the respondents may decide not to complete all the survey questions. Placing the important questions at the beginning will enable the researcher to get the most important feedback even if the respondent does not respond to all the questions.

The order in which the questions are arranged is very important and may lead to a good or insufficient feedback. Therefore, our questions had to be arranged in the best order where all the related questions were grouped together. The questions that required related answers were also grouped together as well as those that needed the participant personal information. On the questions that required the respondent to give their personal information, we had to avoid all the questions that could lead to subsequent answers. These questions may influence the attitude of the respondent, as a result, affects the responses of the participant. Therefore, we had to avoid all the biased questions for quality feedback.  Last but least the method of conducting the survey and the survey itself had to be convenient and easy to complete. 

A valid survey is that which meets the purpose that it was designed for. In our case, the survey is supposed to address the management problems associated with conspicuous consumptions. Therefore, we had to come up with the steps that will enable us to design the survey to address the issue. The first step is to define the goals and objectives of the research in relation to the problem of management.  This is in the efforts of defining the research objectives as well as the purpose. After stating the objective there is, need to design the general research question that involved the specific requirements of the research.  We had to now convert the research questions to a hypothesis that is a testable statement of an opinion. The other step that we took is making sure that the survey was valid. A valid survey is one that has met the objectives. Therefore, we had to check the results of the survey using the objectives to ensure that the survey was valid.

References

Bronner, F. and de Hoog, R., 2018. Conspicuous consumption and the rising importance of experiential purchases. International journal of market research, 60(1), pp.88-103.

Dev, M., Podoshen, J.S. and Shahzad, M., 2018. An Exploratory Comparison of Materialism and Conspicuous Consumption in Pakistan. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, pp.1-9.