Shopping orientation and choice decision amongs adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the process of consumer socialisation will determine adolescents' shopping orientations and consequently, the relationship between their shopping orientation and choice decision in the marketplace. Eight shopping orientations were conceptualised to be an outcome of socialisation process, which is acquired via interaction with socialisation agents, namely parents, peers, printed media, television commercials and in-school education. The study also proposed five social structural variables (social class, gender, ethnicity, residence and religion) to be associated with the socialisation agents and shopping orientations. Age as the developmental variable was proposed to correlate with the influence of socialisation agents and shopping orientation. The final consideration was to find the relationships between adolescents' shopping orientation and their choice between traditional and modern retail outlets. Two types of retail institutions were examined: eating outlets and shopping venues.