Who Is the Decision-Maker: the Parents Or the Child in Group
ARTICLE IN PRESS Tourism Management 25 (2004) 183–194 Who is the decision-maker: the parents or the child in grouppackagetours? Kuo-Ching Wanga,*, An-Tien Hsiehb, Yi-Chun Yehc, Chien-Wen Tsaid,e a Department and Graduate School of Tourism Management, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC b College of Business, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC c Eslite Corporation, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC d Graduate Institute of International Business Administration, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC e Department of International Business, Ling Tung College, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC Received 8 May 2002; accepted 16 April 2003 Abstract Family decision-making research has frequently examined role relationshipbetween husband and wife across stages and subdecisions. In contrast to previous researches, this study examines how family role relationships, inclusive of parents and children, vary over decision-making stages for the grouppackagetour (GPT). A total of 240 different families (mother or father as respondents) purchasing GPTs were surveyed, among them, 35 families also included children. Results indicated that family has a tendency to make a joint decision in problem recognition and the final decision stages, and wives were found to play a dominant role in the information search stage. This study broadens the theoretical domains used in understanding family decision-making for the GPT. For practitioners, marketing implications are provided and recommendations for future research are also discussed. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Grouppackagetour (GPT); Family travel; Decision-making 1. Introduction influence of husbands and wives on purchase out- come (Davis, 1970, 1971, 1976; Ferber & Lee, 1974; Family decision-making has been an important Munsinger, Weber, & Hansen, 1975).
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