CH 3
CH 3
CH 3
Research Methodology
CHAPTER – III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Frame work, Hypotheses Development and Research model developed for the study.
This chapter also presents an overview of the methodology that was used for this study.
The study design, population, sampling methods, sample size, instrumentation, and data
analysis procedures are discussed. The purpose of this study was to identify the impact
of human value with food related life styles on packed ready to heat and eat food
products in Bangalore. The findings of the study may assist the manufacturers and
marketers to identify the right strategy to the right segment of the customers.
Consumer life-styles and purchasing behaviors have been always a great interest
how consumers think, feel and select from alternatives like products, brands and the like
and how the consumers are influenced by their environment, the reference groups,
family, and salespersons and so on. Life-styles are not held to the same degree by
are derived from and personalized through social and cultural learning and identify
consumer demographics (i.e. age, occupation), as the personal factors influencing human
values. Thus, a scrutiny of the relationship between consumer demographics, values and
life styles is likely to provide marketing managers with valuable insights for market
decisions.
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Life-style segmentation is based on the ideas that the more it’s know and
understand about consumers, the more effectively can communicate and market to them.
The underlying assumption here is that consumers express their personalities through
their behaviors and values. People with different personalities exhibit different behaviors
or similar behaviors for different reasons. Life-style retailing can be described as the
policy of tailoring a retail offer, or a portfolio of retail offers, closely to the life styles of
specific market segments. For instance, Wal-Mart tailors its merchandising offerings to
retailers approach food products, and this has powerfully impacted how packed ready to
heat and eat food products is offered to different target markets with different life-style
orientations. Understanding consumer life-styles and value orientations in any areas can
be very useful in profiling an individual consumer and/or targeting consumer groups for
marketing planning purposes. Past consumer behavior and psychology literature has
identified different types of consumer life-style groups. Each group has its own unique
styles as correlation of purchase are being utilized by such target markets as quality
to technology, trade, and consumers’ life styles. Day and Montgomery (1999) for
example, suggest that emerging issues facing all companies include the connected
and frictionless markets, demanding customers and consumers and their empowered
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behaviour, and the need for more flexible and adaptive organizations. Food-related
patterns of behaviour are also changing as a result of many pressures in the food
Many food marketers are finding that instead of clearly identified market and
industry boundaries with distinct sets of customers and competitors, these structures are
related behaviours, eg the drive for convenience and health. In a somewhat contradictory
way, other food marketers are also faced with a fragmentation of consumer markets.
Increased choice, varied life styles, improved discretionary incomes, and greater
exposure to brand promotion and communications has given rise to a number of varied
consumer segments. Thus, it is important for food companies to develop and implement
appropriate market surveillance systems in order to take advantage of these changes and
to keep their competitive position in spite of constant environmental shifts, and to target
By filling this research gap the contribution of the study will be in two aspects.
First from a food industry perspective, the outcomes of the research will support
food choices, how do consumers shop and cook, and what quality aspects do
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- Identifying strategically useful consumer food-related segments according to
how they perceive value in food products, which may be used as input for future
Secondly, from an academic perspective, this research provides insights into consumer
- Investigation and validity of the FRL instrument, with a view to improving it for
may then be the starting point for attempts to operationalise food-related life style
(FRL). In this study, an attempt is made to delineate relevant parts of cognitive structure,
relationship between the product and value attainment can be very indirect. The value
attainment finally achieved will depend not only on the product itself, but to a large
degree also on the usage situation and on the way food products are transformed into
meals (Steenkamp & van Trijp, 1990). This on the one hand makes it difficult for the
consumer to have his/her choice of food products directed by expected value attainment,
but on the other hand gives consumers many degrees of freedom in just how they try to
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use food products to attain values. These degrees of freedom put in another way, open
The following dimensions are the possible elements of food-related life styles,
because they contribute to the link between food products and values.
a. Personal Values
Personal Values are the guiding principles in people’s lives, which direct many
b. Purchasing motives
meal and their relative importance; for example, whether consuming a food will make
than overweight, or earn them praise from their friends. The likely perceived
consequences of the consumption of a food may be mixed; for example, it may have
negative health consequences but positive social and sensory consequences. Consumers
nutritional value, naturalness and freshness, which are used to judge the quality of food.
d. Ways of Shopping
by impulse buying, or by extensive deliberation? Do they read labels and other product
information, or do they rely on the advice of experts, like friends or sales personnel? Do
they shop themselves, or through other members of the family? In which shops - one-
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e. Cooking Methods
How the products are purchased transformed into meals? How much time is used
social activity, or one characterized by family division of labour? To which extent does
The planning and spontaneity involved, and the time people want to spend in food
f. Consumption situations
What are “the” meals? How are they spread over the day? Which products are
typical for which meals? In which environment do they take place? Is a meal perceived
differently when eaten alone, rather than with the family? With friends or guests?
food are eaten, usage (or consumption) situations such as family meals, celebratory
meals, eating alone at home etc. This component influences all the lifestyle components,
In the model, direct links are proposed between values and Quality Aspects and
Values and Purchase Motives. Quality aspects are proposed to have direct link with
cooking methods and ways of shopping. Purchase motive are proposed to have direct
link with cooking method and consumption situation. Finally, Cooking methods also
Overall, the direction of causation moves from left to right, from underlying values
through purchasing motivations, quality aspects, usage situations and ways of cooking
ultimately, to consumption. All the paths postulated in the model are formative.
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3.4 Research Model
. This general schematic model raises the question: To what extent does it account
importance of packed ready to heat and eat food products, the main purpose of this study
was to determine the extent to which the food-related lifestyle model (including
personal/Human values), predicts consumption of packed ready to heat and eat food
products.
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3.5 Hypotheses of the Study
H1. Values creates positive and significant impact towards Quality aspects of packed
H2. Values creates positive and significant impact towards Purchasing Motives of
H3. There is positive relationship between purchase motives and quality aspects of
H4. Quality aspects of packed ready to heat and eat food products creates positive
H5. Quality aspects of packed ready to heat and eat food products creates positive
H6. Cooking Methods creates a direct positive significant impact towards ways of
H7. Purchase motives of packed ready to heat and eat food products create a positive
H8. Cooking methods creates a positive and significant impact towards consumption
situations.
Examining the three parts of this design separately provides further insight in to why this
numerical trends, means, and suggested characteristics (Bordens & Abbott, 2007; Leedy
& Ormrod, 2005). The use of a quantitative research design for this study allowed for
examination of the relationship between values and dimensions related to food related
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life styles of packed ready to heat and eat food products. Moreover, the study’s
quantitative nature provided insight into the differences and similarities between the
selected personal profiles of the respondents and human value by quantifying the
relationship between two or more nonmanipulated variables. In this study, it was not
possible to control the participants’ value because the classification of individuals was
based on the value. A correlational design does not allow for discerning the cause of
relationships shown by the study; therefore, it is important for the researcher to avoid the
Calkins (2005), although this manner of sampling is easier, it is also risky. Convenience
introduce bias with a convenience sampling technique given that, by choosing the
individuals who are most accessible rather than selecting them from a population
randomly, convenience sampling does not represent every member of the population
(Triola, 2008). A random sampling approach was not feasible for this study because the
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would have required randomization of participants into a treatment or intervention;
The sampling frame for the study is organized large food retail outlets in
Bangalore city shopping malls. The customers in the selected organized large food retail
outlet in selected shopping malls, who had purchased packed ready to heat and eat food
products or having knowledge about packed ready to heat and food products based on
previous experience are considered as the potential sampling frame. The customers who
had accepted to participate in the research survey after explaining the purpose of the
The exact population size for the study could not be predicted correctly or
unknown. As mentioned in the sampling frame, customers who had purchased or have
previous experience packed ready to heat and eat food products are considered as the
sample frame. As the population will be more than 50,000 or if it could be predicted, the
researcher considered 5% as margin of error, 95% as confidence level, and the 50% as
the response distribution, the recommended sample size scientifically was 382.
In this research, the researcher went for above the recommended sample size.
The customers who had accepted to participate in the research survey after explaining
the purpose of the study is considered as the sample size. Like which 1021
questionnaires were distributed, 848 were returned, in which 815 was fully completed
and at usable state. Initially the study was piloted and pretested with 50 respondents.
Thus the sample size for the study is 815 by adopting convenient sampling technique.
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3.10 The questionnaire / Scale Development
The FRL instrument (Brunso and Grunert, 1995; 1998) is a 69-item questionnaire
(six subscales), importance of quality aspects (six subscales), cooking methods (six
subscales). Each of these 23 subscales consists of three items. The wording of the items
was altered appropriately to focus on packed ready to heat and eat food products. All
items were measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from (1) “Strongly Disagree”
tradition, benevolence and universalism), which are measured through 56 items. In this
study, 20 items were used. Previous research by Worsley (1995) has shown that these 20
items yield similar values segments to those derived from the full instrument. The
dimensions considered in this study to measure the personal values of the respondents
response scale was employed, which ranged from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly
Agree”.
Initially the questionnaire was tested with pilot study. The questionnaire was
similar type of answers was deleted, one dimension from personal values was fully
deleted. Few sentences was changed and simplified after discussing with marketing
practitioners. The content validity was checked with marketing managers and marketing
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3.11 Data – Quality Criteria
Composite R Cronbachs
Sl.No Dimensions AVE
Reliability Square Alpha
1 Value
2. Quality Aspects
3. Purchasing Motives
4. Cooking Methods
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5. Ways of Shopping
Importance of product
a. 0.680916 0.864877 0.766498
information
b. Attitudes to advertising 0.657077 0.851471 0.739978
Enjoyment from
c. 0.667080 0.857342 0.599030 0.751127
shopping
d. Specialty shops 0.737658 0.893696 0.821454
To attain reliability and Convergent validity the study should attain CR > 0.7
(reliability), CR > (AVE) and AVE > 0.5 (Convergent Validity). The Composite
reliability in the study is above .7, and all the Composite reliability values were higher
than the average variance explained, the average variance explained were higher than .5.
The analysis indicated that all dimensions were valid and reliable measures for their
KMO &
Dimen Variance
Construct Loadings Bartlett's
sion Explained
Test
I. Value
a. Universalism
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4. Believe in environmental protection. .820
b. Power
c. Security
d. Tradition
e. Conformity
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II. Ways of Shopping
d. Specialty shops
Bank upon every opportunity to shop for
1. packed, Ready to heat & eat food .893
products from a specific shop.
Buying packed Ready to heat & eat food
.691
2. products in specialty food shops where I .879 73.812
940.768
can get expert advice & live demo.
Enquire before, on what I am buying, so I
3. often ask questions in shops, where I buy .802
Ready to heat & eat food products.
e. Price criteria
.608
1. Check prices, even on small items. .678 65.992
679.163
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Keep myself updated with the changing
2. .891
prices of products.
Watch special offers in advertisement to
3. take the advantage of them before .852
shopping.
f. Shopping list
a. Health
Plan the amounts and types of packed
1. Ready to heat & eat food products that .899
the family consumes.
Naturalness of the packed Ready to heat .640
2. & eat food that I buy is an important 69.650
.828 771.233
quality.
Avoid buying packed food products with
3. .772
additives and preservatives.
d. Organic products
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1. Always buy organically grown food
.835
products if available.
Like to buy natural products, ie products .698
2. .822 68.187
without preservatives and additives 621.592
Don't mind spending more money for
3. .820
quality and organic food products.
e. Taste
f. Freshness
a. Interest in cooking
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eat food.
c. Convenience
e. Planning
f. Woman's task
a. Self-Fulfilment in food
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3. I am an excellent cook. .737
b. Security
c. Social relationships
b. Social event
For each of the item scales, factor analysis was used to reduce the total number
used to extract factors. Varimax rotation was used to facilitate the interpretation of the
factor matrix. The Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of
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sampling adequacy were used to validate the use of factor analysis. Exploratory factor
food-related items. All the individual statements are with loading greater than 0.5 on
their primary factor. After EFA, 28 dimensions were considered for CFA. All the 28
dimensions produced only one factor and confirmed the single dimensionality. Factor
loadings for all items were significant at p , 0.01 level, which indicates a high level of
unidimensionality of scales.Also the entire loadings in the factor were above .650 and all
the dimensions contributing above 55% of item variance. The KMO is also checked for
the entire dimension, which met the required criteria above .5.
All data were analyzed with IBM SPSS v.22 software. Inferential testing was
performed using a 95% level of significance. Descriptive statistics were provided in the
between human values and dimensions related to the study. As well as frequencies and
percentages are used for categorical variables (Personal Profiles of the Respondents) of
the study. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to examine the internal consistency
Prior to hypothesis testing, the assumptions associated with the use of a linear
regression were checked to ensure the appropriate use of the model. The regression
model ensures the inter-correlation, R-square and the error factor. The regression model
also checked the absence of multi-collinearity. The hypotheses testing were done with
the help of structural equation modeling with the help of next generation path modeling
software.
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3.14 Assessment of Normality
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SF1 815 3 5 -.412 -.725
SF2 815 3 5 -.347 -.720
SF3 815 2 5 -.847 .461
SEC1 815 1 5 -.198 -.939
SEC2 815 1 5 -.005 -.407
SEC3 815 1 5 -.356 -1.143
SR1 815 2 5 -.489 -.275
SR2 815 2 5 -.967 .769
SR3 815 2 5 -.974 .286
1998); therefore, it is important to check the normality of the variables before the
research model to be tested. Two statistical characteristics are used to describe non-
normality i.e. skewness and kurtosis (Hair, 1998; Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001).
Skewness concerns the symmetry of the distribution. If the mean value of a variable
does not fall in the centre of the distribution, it is called a skewed variable. If there is
positive skewness, there is a pileup of cases to the left and right tail is too long and is
otherwise for negative skewness (Kline, 1998; Hair, 1998; Tabachnick and Fidell, 2001).
Kurtosis has to do with the peakedness of the distribution; the distribution is either too
peaked or flat. Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) suggest that value of skewness and kurtosis
should be within the range of -2 to 2 when the data is normally distributed. The above
table shows that the range fall between the required criteria, thus normality is achieved.
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