Master Program Entrepreneurship and Tourism

Course of studies:

Consumer Behaviour in Tourism

Topic:

Scientific reflection of Metin Kozaks paper on

Holiday-taking decisions The role of spouses

Presented by:

Julian Ramsch

Presented to:

Dr. Mike Peters Dr. Claudia Mssenlechner

Date of Submission:

June 17th, 2013

Scientific reflection: Holiday taking decisions The role of spouses

Scientific reflection: Holiday taking decisions The role of spouses

The research paper focuses on the use of decision tactics for different consumer goods among spouses and their influence on consumer satisfaction and recommendation of purchased products.

The author first looks into literature on decision-making with a special focus on family decision-making. He evaluates the roles that spouses and other family members are known to take and identifies decision tactics that have already been proved in literature. On the basis of the literature review he formulates three research questions the study shall answer: first, which decisions tactics are relatively stronger; second, whether there might be any difference in terms of tactics applied between the two product categories vacation and eating out and third, how such tactics lead to overall satisfaction and word-of-mouth recommendation.

In order to answer his questions, the author conducts a survey to gather primary data. Therefore, he develops a questionnaire based on studies that have been carried out before and refines those by including additional decision tactics and two product categories instead of just one to avoid their limitation. Additionally, he introduces a part to examine consumer satisfaction and likelihood of recommendation. During a successful pilot research, the author has tested the quality of the questionnaire. The main study is done during three weeks in the winter of 2007. Participants of his study are married couples in Turkey affiliated to a university with either of the spouses answering the questions within one weeks time. Out of 402 questionnaires that are distributed, 226 can be used for the evaluation.

The results of the study offer a new insight on the decision-making of couples. Consulting the partner is a major issue in the study concerning travel decision-making. Although dining out needs apparently less joint consideration, the study shows that compromising is still the most used decision tactic in both product categories among the participants. The second most used tactic is persuasion, also regardless of the product category. All other decision tactics are rated very low and are, therefore, not as important. Nevertheless, there is a tendency that some (persuasion, bargaining, sacrifice, recommendation by friends/relatives, influence of children) are more important for the vacation decision, possibly due to the larger investments. The study reveals that the tactic of compromise leads to higher satisfaction and higher intention to recommend both product categories, whereas, the negatively connoted decision tactics (e.g. intimidation, coercion) cause a significant dissatisfaction and lead to lower recommendation rates.

Scientific reflection: Holiday taking decisions The role of spouses

However, the research has some weaknesses. It was carried out in a way that suggests that it is not representative regarding the generally formulated research questions. The questionnaire was only distributed among Turkish married couples and not even for this group a total size is given so that readers of the study results cannot reconstruct if the sample is representative. Beyond this, Turkish married couples have their own customs and it would, therefore, be necessary to examine the decision-making among spouses also in other geographical areas in order to increase the validity of the study results. Furthermore, it was only handed to couples with an academic background. The results probably differ in another social rank. Besides, socio-demographic characteristics as presented in the study are just a small part of the society. As only one of the partners answers the questionnaire, potentially different perceptions of how decisions are made are not considered. Additionally, influence might take place because the questionnaire needs to be filled out at home only within one week, which allows the other partner to talk to the test person.

The author states that this study is among the first to explore the field of decision-making and decision tactics in the tourism and hospitality sector. Hence, he implies for future theory to research deeper within this topic in particular but also to investigate in the more general field of decision-making. With reference to his study, the researcher suggests to test different products for future research and combine several in one study. Combining the test of different products with summary questions, whether using the authors or developing own ones, is also recommended to increase the knowledge within the area of research. For companies, the article advises to use the results to refine the marketing strategies. As it is crucial for marketing to know about decision-making within small social groups like families, product or service providers need to find out about the most important decision tactics and how they influence the purchase decision. This knowledge can enable them to develop products or services that serve the wish for compromise and thus, increase the likelihood of purchase. Through developing marketing programs that attract all parties involved in the decision-making, a compromise is more probable which leads to higher satisfaction and better experience which may then result in repeat customers.

Scientific reflection: Holiday taking decisions The role of spouses

Bibliography
Kozak, M. (2010) Holiday taking decisions the role of spouses. Tourism Management, 31(4), 489-494.