Holiday Taking Decisions The Role of Spouses

Kozak, M. (2010). Holiday taking decisions The role of spouses. Tourism Management, Vol. 31, Nr. 4, pp. 489-494. Introduction and Problem Statement Existing studies about the decision-making process commonly refer to the background of marketing and psychology, but it still remains an under-investigated topic in tourism research. Empirical studies on testing the validity of decision-making models in tourism and hospitality are still limited and mainly focus on the distribution of gender roles and the influence of children on family decisionmaking. Furthermore, there has been only little research about the influence of decision tactics over the choice of products and about the correlation between decision tactics and overall consumer satisfaction or the intention of word-of-mouth recommendation. Research Questions 1) What decision tactics are more likely to be applied by spouses within a family consumption situation? 2) How does the application of decision tactics differ between the two product categories of frequently (eating out) and infrequently purchased products (taking vacation)? 3) How does the use of decision tactics relate to the level of consumer satisfaction and the likelihood of positive word-of-mouth recommendation? Research Method The survey was conducted with the aid of a fully-structured questionnaire form based on a list of statements relating to ten different decision tactics including a 6-point Likert scale and questions regarding consumer satisfaction and word-of-mouth recommendation. In comparison to previous studies, two different product categories and the relationship between decision tactics and (1) satisfaction and (2) the intention to recommend were taken into account. An additional section referred to socio-demographic characteristics. A pilot survey was carried out and the final results are based on 226 questionnaires. The sample only includes married couples affiliated with a university in western Turkey who have done the most recent purchase from these product categories. They were being interviewed over a three-week period, the form was handed out to them in person and either of the spouses anwered the questionnaire. With reference to the socio-demographic profile of the participants, the majority were middle-aged, full-time academic staff, well-educated with a middle income level and two children, and had been married for more than 10 years. The proportion of male participation was slightly higher. Discussion of Results Findings from Literature Review: The most dominant holiday-related decision making type in a family context has been joint decision making. The way dynamics build up within a family during the decision-making process depends on the nature and quality of the relationships among family members/with the partner which is Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Daniela Vanessa Bermadinger 1

reflected in the type of conflict and the approach to resolve conflicts. The original dominance of the male spouse has started to disappear along with the change of a womans role within society. Findings from Empirical Study: Study findings confirm that partners opinions matter and that more infrequently purchased products such as holiday trips receive a higher degree of joint consideration. Compromise is the decision tactic most often used in the experience of both vacation taking and eating out, followed by persuasion as the next most powerful tactic in both product categories. Recommendation by friends/relatives and the influence of children have appeared to be less influential. Yet, like persuasion, bargaining and sacrifice they seem to be more influential over holiday taking than eating out. Cooperative decision making, i.e. compromise, is also positively associated with the level of purchase satisfaction and the intention to recommend. Implications Research implications: Besides exploring the spousal decision-making process, the role of different decision tactics for multiple product categories has also been investigated. Contrary to former research, this study has introduced more decision tactics and two different product categories drawn from the tourism industry. Besides, the studys method is entirely different from other similar studies. Managerial implications: Small social groups like families constitute the basic customer portfolio in tourism and hospitality and thus, the ability to determine the influence of decision tactics in purchasing decisions is an important point with respect to tourism marketing. Tourism marketing practitioners can benefit from the understanding of how conflict-resolving tactics work between partners by developing marketing programmes that consider the preferences of both partners and equally attract their attention in order to facilitate their decision-making process. Critique Although other studies confirm that emotional bonds and the level of satisfaction with the cooperative relationship may have an influence over the choice and nature of decision tactics, this proposition is missing in the reviewed study. Other tourism product categories have been disregarded and need further examination. The analysis of various decision tactis used in the different stages of the decision-making process is also limited. Moreover, the sample only includes those affiliated with a university which results in low variation of respondents socio-demographic characteristics. Future research should be conducted to test whether the results have been due to specific cultural norms in Turkey or whether they vary across nations. Besides, it would have been interesting to see which influence marriage has on the choice of certain decision tactics. Finally, since, the topic under investigation is of psychological nature, a quantitative study might not have been the best research method to gain the deepest insight in domestic decision tactics.

Consumer Behaviour in Tourism

Daniela Vanessa Bermadinger