Bus703 | Indian Consumers Purchase Assessment Answers

1.The given article attempts to understand different factors which affect the intention of Indian customers towards purchasing the organic apparel. The given literature reviews the opinions and studies of different authors and most significantly, Theory of Planned Behavior Model is applied to analyze the purchase intention of Indian consumers to organic cloths. In the given article, the literature review explains the TpB model (Theory of Planned Behavior Model) because this is the model that can be applied to understand green consumption practices among customers. Previously, there were various studies which have measured the relevancy of implementing this model in analyzing the green and sustainable consumer practices in Indian market. Theory of planned behavior is focused on the evidence that the people make reasoned and logical decisions to engage particular behaviors by analyzing the data available to them (Joshi and Rahman, 2015).

There are four components which construct this model such as attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and purchase intention. The literature review analyzes all the four components of this model in context of sustainable fashion consumption among Indian consumers (Varshneya and Das, 2016). Perceived consumer effectiveness states that the people have the potential to influence the result in a positive way as an outcome of their actions. From the literature, it can be evaluated that perceived behavioral control plays an impactful role in how the customers develop their purchase intention for organic apparel and textile. The knowledge and information about the products can lead the youth to develop perceived customer effectiveness so that they can convert their result into consuming behavior (Dhiman, Chand and Gupta, 2018). Moreover, there are some social forces which persuade the customers to perform any specific behavior. The article states that subjective norms create a typical personality and character of customers who the follow the social forces which will direct them to take the purchase decision for organic apparel and textile. These social forces can be generated from consumer’s family, social status and reference groups.

According to the authors, attitude plays a significant generator to the behavioral intention. A positive attitude and behavior towards a product that is eco-friendly can reflect consumer behavior of organic consumption. As per the literature, the buying behavior can be derived from purchase intention with the significant correctness. According to a research conducted in Indian market, young people are major population that shows a purchase intention towards organic apparel and cloths and textile with the eco-labeled brands. The research identified that urban customers in Indian society are much interested in buying the cloths of eco-labeled companies. Apart from this, literature states there are some socio-demographic factors like income and education which have greater impact on preferences and choices of customers towards organic cloths (Sandhya and Mahapatra, 2018). Additionally, Indian customers prefer to consider the prices of products before buying them. Other side of literature shows that willingness to pay for sustainable cloths is not judged on the basis of price but it depends on the category of organic products. The literature shows that people who are very conscious towards environment and natural resource, they prefer to buy sustainable and organic cloths. The companies which are operating their business in this segment, they need to conduct marketing research and identify the characteristics of eco-friendly consumers (Khare and Varshneya, 2017).  

The major strength of this question is that it gives the insights about the article and different factors which can affect the Indian consumer behavior towards organic clothing. It assists in understanding the application of TpB model in understanding a particular behavior. Apart from this, the major weakness is that it does not provide in-depth information about Indian consumers. There is lack of sufficient literature to understand the research topic and its analysis.

2.In the given article that is named as “Thematic analysis to assess Indian consumers purchase intention for organic apparel”, the research is conducted by using focus group as research design (Sandhya and Mahapatra, 2018). For the research, the data is collected from the participants via four focus group discussions. As per the given article, focus group is a small and demographically diversified group of individuals whose responses are examined in the research and analysis process about any specific topic. The major characteristics of this research design are that it shows the differences in the responses which are not possible in ethnographic study and one-on-one interview. It is like a systematic and structured discussion in which the individuals are chosen by a sampling process. These participants are gives with the opportunity to have a free discussion about that particular study. A focus group research design includes 6 to 10 participants who are selected because they have some specific and similar characteristics (Krueger, 2014).

In the process of researching the purchase behavior of Indian consumers, focus group is used very effectively. In this, four focus group discussions were organized Kochi City (Kerala India) in the period of September to November 2016. The researcher has chosen the participants with who they already contact. The individuals, who formed two focus groups, were the students with working experience and other two were the colleagues from the university. In this article, purposing sampling techniques are used for choosing the appropriate participants. Moreover, the researchers have maintained the uniformity with the group and heterogeneity across the groups. Different questions have been asked to the participants and social-demographic characteristics were identified and discussed (Stewart and Shamdasani, 2014).

The major strength of this question is that it focuses on the research design and method which is used to gather the data for attaining research objective. This approach facilitates in recognizing and approaching more differentiated viewpoints. It helps in comparing the outcomes across individuals across and within the groups. Thus, the biggest strength of this question is it helps in understanding the significance and role of focus group method in research (Vaismoradi, et al, 2016).

Apart from this, the weakness of this question is that focus group discussion is not a sufficient technique for identifying the behavior of Indian society. This study was limited to the Kochi City, Kerala. It is not enough because customers are changing in nature. There may be other qualitative research designs which can be used to approach research objective. Ethnographic study is another approach that can be used to analyze the lives, situations and culture of people whom they are studying (Polonsky and Waller, 2018). This technique will assist in understanding the purchasing behavior and intention of Indian customers towards organic clothing.

3.By analyzing the article and research studies, it can be stated that yes, the utilization of both thematic and theoretical thematic approaches improve the quality of research findings. When considering an exploratory example, it is necessary to conduct a qualitative examination. This is the reason that thematic analysis is used in the given article. The major reason behind this is that there is not a sufficient literature in the Indian context (Yadav and Pathak, 2016). In this research process, the narrations of participants were collected by using the focus group discussions. The themes and codes were produced from this technique that is a process that is mostly used as part of qualitative research design. The researcher used theoretical thematic analysis identifies the themes which develop the narrations from the chosen individuals. This research technique enhanced the quality of research because it provided a useful and flexible research tool that assisted in getting the detailed and rich data about purchase intention of Indian customers. It is a structured method that has provided a proper understanding about the research area with the help of already published theoretical phenomenon (Clarke and Braun, 2014).

By using theoretical and thematic analysis, different themes were identified to recognize the codes from transcripts. Later, theory of planned behavior was implemented for the objective of thematic analysis. In this, the major themes are such as knowledge about products, purchase intention towards apparel, subjective norms, perceived behaved control, knowledge about environment, customers’ attitude etc. After using codes, themes and narrations of focus groups, a consolidated view of responses is prepared. In this way, both of these approaches assisted to find out the appropriate results of research. It enhanced the quality and correctness of this research and researchers were able to find out the results (Javadi and Zarea, 2016).

One of the biggest strengths of this question is that it provides the insights about the importance of thematic and theoretical thematic analysis which is used in the article research. Considering this question, it can be understood that how two research techniques focus group discussions and thematic analysis can be combined to identify final results. It helps in knowing about that how the researchers can use this technique in their research. The purchase behavior of Indian customers is identified by using different themes and codes (Prakash and Pathak, 2017). The major weakness of this question is that it gives only information about the utilization of a research technique i.e. thematic analysis. This question is not able to give the answer about the research objective of customer behavior towards organic clothing products. Moreover, it is identified that this study has both contradicting and corroborating evidences in terms of different phenomenon as analyzed using TpB model. The analysis failed to identify the purchase behavior of customers in Indian context as it identified their behavior in generalized context.

4.After using different research technique, i.e. focus group discussion, thematic and theoretical thematic analysis, the researchers have found the outcome of the research article. The results of the article indicate that there are some dimensions which can explain the purchase intention of consumers towards organic clothing in Indian context. As analyzed in the literature review, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms are the major factors which have vital relationship on purchase behavior for sustainable products. These factors are assisted by the themes which developed from focus group discussion (Levén, Holmström and Mathiassen, 2014).

From the article analysis, it is also resulted that customers with the favorable attitudes will have a personality to involve in the purchase of organic apparels, but this attitude may be inhibited by skepticism. In the thematic and theoretical thematic analysis, it is evidenced that however the customers have information about environmental problems, it is not necessary that they will engage in the organic products’ consumption. In this research study, 33% of the targeted population showed that they are very concerned about the environment but they will not express their inclinations for sustainable clothing because they will be for the recycled or edible products (Basha, et al, 2015). Moreover, the results indicate that there is lack of trust among customers as they have adverse perception about tags, certification and certifying authorities. It is important to address this by developing new policies and systems. The companies need to develop the trust among customers about the organic products and their advantages towards environment and society.

However, the researchers have made every possible effort to meet the research objective, but they are not able to find out the proper results. By looking at the discussion and results of article, it is identified that research is limited to a single geographic location India that cannot show the overall purchase intention of Indian customers. Moreover, the chosen factors and themes helped in generating some positive outcomes of this research (Davidson, et al, 2014). Thus, the major strength of this question is that it supports in understanding the final outcomes of the article research. It indicates that how different research techniques were used and generated the results to research objective. It focuses on the critical analysis of the results and gives the recommendations how it could be better for generating more effective research outcomes. Apart from this, the weakness of this question is that it analyzed the negative part of research methods used in the article. It is unable to find out the consumer purchasing behavior of Indian consumers towards organic products.

References

Krueger, R.A., 2014. Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. Sage publications.

Levén, P., Holmström, J. and Mathiassen, L., 2014. Managing research and innovation networks: Evidence from a government sponsored cross-industry program. Research Policy, 43(1), pp.156-168.

Polonsky, M.J. and Waller, D.S., 2018. Designing and managing a research project: A business student's guide. Sage publications.

Prakash, G. and Pathak, P., 2017. Intention to buy eco-friendly packaged products among young consumers of India: A study on developing nation. Journal of cleaner production, 141, pp.385-393.

Sandhya, G. and Mahapatra, S. K.2018, Thematic Analysis to Assess Indian Consumers Purchase Intention for Organic Apparel*. The Qualitative Report, 23(8), 1962-1982.

Stewart, D.W. and Shamdasani, P.N., 2014. Focus groups: Theory and practice (Vol. 20). Sage publications.

Vaismoradi, M., Jones, J., Turunen, H. and Snelgrove, S., 2016. Theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 6(5), p.100.

Varshneya, G. and Das, G., 2016. Exploring gender difference in organic clothing purchase intention and ecological behaviour. International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 13(1), pp.57-75.

Yadav, R. and Pathak, G.S., 2016. Young consumers' intention towards buying green products in a developing nation: Extending the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, pp.732-739.