Influences of Chocolate Purchasing Decisions: Integration of Social
Judgment/Involvement Theory
1.0 Title
The working title of this research is initially drafted as Influences of Chocolate Purchasing Decisions: Integration of Social Judgment/Involvement Theory
2.0 Background of the Study
Understanding customer behaviour shall move along with customer expectations, customer requirements and their purchasing trend. Since there are several internal and external factors which impact the consumer buying decision, the consumer buying process is multifaceted. As such, these factors that influence the purchasing decision of an individual is manifested in the stages of consumer purchase behaviour as well as the type of buying behaviour the individual conforms to. Like any other commodity, the purchase of chocolate also kowtows with various influences and factors affecting the consumption behaviour. According to Lambin (1997, p. 175), chocolate is a mass-consumption product that is accessible to everyone. Further, consumers are demanding and desire variety. Making chocolate a luxury product gave confectionery a certain prestige. What give chocolate such status is the hand-made nature of their production and refined decoration.
Chocolates are offered and shared on a special occasion in an atmosphere of warmth. The consumption of chocolate of all categories is associated with pleasure that is connected with the ideas of refinement, the pleasure of taste and gift-giving as well. The strong and powerful taste and specific shapes, the consistency of chocolate that melts in the mouth, the feel of chocolate to the touch are also factors to which consumers are sensitive. The behaviour of the consumer of chocolates considers these factors. Moreover, the particulars do not only point to the physical aspects of purchasing as well as the ethical responsibility that comes with it. The price of chocolate does not inhibit consumers that are after quality; nonetheless, there are also consumers that specially consider the idea that chocolates are pure products devoid of chemicals.
Nevertheless, a vast of theory explains the purchasing behaviour and decision-making of the people. For the chocolate consumers purchasing, this study will utilize the social judgment/involvement (SJI) theory. SJI theory is a persuasion theory proposed by in 1961. Such theory argues that the degree of personal involvement in an issue determines how the target will evaluate an attempt at persuasion. SJI theory has three basic principles: the latitude of acceptance, the latitude of rejection and the latitude of no commitment. In the first principle, the region of an attitude into which messages that one will accept fall; the region of an attitude into which messages that one will reject fall; and on the third, the region of an attitude into messages that one will neither accept nor reject fall.
3.0 Objectives of the Study
There are two basic objectives that the research will seek to accomplish. The first one is to investigate the chocolate purchase decisions and behaviors of the people and the second, to integrate the Social Judgment/Involvement Theory with respect to the consumer behaviors and decision-making of the chocolate patrons. On the basis of the data collected and analyzed, the third objective is to propose a series of recommendations.
4.0 Research Plan
Cross-sectional design whereby a combination of quantitative and qualitative data is collected from a variety of sources at a single point in time will be used. The research will operate within the interpretivist paradigm which conforms to the constructivism theory. This theory claims that humans construct meaning from current knowledge structures. The research will begin with an expansive review of the literature (further to the above) which will be the secondary data of the research. This will incorporate the fields of consumer behaviour, consumer preferences, consumer decision-making, factors influencing the consumption, SJI theory and chocolate buying trends and statistics to which the paper will build its foundation on.
Primary research will be carried out through and thus it is likely to present findings that are of significant interest. It is also the best way to establish the accomplishment of the research objectives that the study poses. The first objective will achieved through primary research with survey and focus group interviews as the data collection methods in mind. For the questionnaire, the convenience sampling will be used and the participants of the focus group interviews will be drawn from the survey participants. Questionnaires will be arranged alphabetically, the plan is to collect 300 questionnaires and the 3rd respondent of the survey questionnaire will be called to participate in the focus group interview.
After the survey and the interview, to accomplish the second objective, literature review will be updated and the responses will be analyzed based on the principles of the SJI theory. The research will meet the requirements of validity, reliability, and generalisability. The research will be carried out in such a way as to not skew the results in any manner. It is important to appreciate the potential limitations of this research. Much of the data collected via interviews may be affected by bias, as people may express opinions rather than facts.
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