The Influence of Religion on Retail Patronage Behaviour in Malaysia

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The Influence of Religion on Retail Patronage Behaviour in Malaysia THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON RETAIL PATRONAGE BEHAVIOUR IN MALAYSIA By SAFIEK MOKHLIS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Management in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING 2006 ABSTRACT Although culture and subcultural norms have been subjected to increased scrutiny in recent years as explanatory constructs for various dimensions of consumer behaviours, religion as a subsystem of culture has received only slight attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the religious influences on some selected aspects of consumer behaviour. Utilising consumer behaviour model of retail patronage as a framework, religious influences on the following aspects of consumer behaviour were examined: lifestyle, use of information source, shopping orientation, store attribute importance and store patronage. Consistent with previous research, religion was viewed from two different perspectives namely religious affiliation and religiosity. Religious affiliation is the adherence of individuals to a particular religious group while religiosity, or religious commitment, is the degree in which beliefs in specific religious values and ideals are espoused and practiced by an individual. Fieldwork for this study was carried out in Malaysia where the populace contains sizable percentages of adherents to four of the world’s leading religions, namely Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. The research data was collected by means of a survey through personal interviews with a structured questionnaire. Out of three hundred respondents targeted, two hundred and twenty-six questionnaires were deemed usable for statistical analysis. Statistical tests were calculated using statistical procedures of SPSS version 11.5. The main statistical techniques used include exploratory factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings indicated significant differences between religious affiliation groups in the areas of lifestyle, store attributes and store patronage. Significant differences between religiosity groups were also revealed in the areas of lifestyle, information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. The usefulness of religious variables was further tested using multiple linear regression analysis with demographics and lifestyles were entered as extraneous variables. Results indicated that when the effect of other predictor variables were explicitly controlled (i.e. held constant) during the regression analysis, religious affiliation appeared to influence the ii perceived importance of store attributes. Intrapersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, appeared to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and perceived importance of store attributes. Similarly, interpersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, was found to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. Overall, findings indicated that consumer religiosity, as compared to religious affiliation, was more useful in predicting aspects of retail patronage activities. Thus it is suggested that religiosity variable should be given consideration in future patronage behaviour model building and research efforts. The implications of these results for theories of consumer behaviour along with the practical implications of the findings were discussed and opportunities for future research were provided. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to God for His mercy which has enabled me possible to complete this thesis. My sincere thanks go to my principal supervisor, Professor Leigh Sparks for being instrumental in shaping my studies and the key figure whose constructive criticisms and advice contributed immensely toward the completion of this study. Without his great assistance and support, I believe this thesis would have remained a scratchy drawing. Thanks to the librarians of Stirling University for their excellent assistance in providing me most of the material required for this thesis. The support I received during the past three years from staffs at the Department of Marketing must also be commented. Special appreciation goes to the Government of Malaysia and the University College of Science and Technology Malaysia (KUSTEM) for facilitating financial support throughout my doctoral study in Scotland. Last but not least, I wish to thank my parents who have never failed to continuously give their support and encouragement especially during my hard times and my trips away from home. May God bless us all! iv DECLARATION This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (marketing) at the University of Stirling, United Kingdom. I declare that this thesis is based on my original work except for quotations and citations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that this thesis has not been previously or concurrently submitted, either in whole or in part, for any other qualification at the University of Stirling or other institutions. Signed Safiek Mokhlis September 2006 v This thesis is dedicated to Ayang, Alyssa & Amy vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv DECLARATION v LIST OF TABLES xv LIST OF FIGURES xviii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.0 Preamble 1 1.1 Setting the Agenda 1 1.2 Purpose of the Study 6 1.3 Hypotheses 7 1.4 The Conduct of the Study 9 1.5 Significance of the Study 10 1.6 Structure of This Thesis 11 CHAPTER 2: RELIGION AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR 15 2.0 Introduction 15 2.1 Religion as a Cultural Subsystem 15 2.2 Definition of Religion 19 2.3 The Study of Religion in the Social Sciences 21 2.4 The Study of Religion in Marketing 23 2.5 Religion and Consumer Behaviour 30 2.5.1 Consumption in Particular Religious Settings 32 2.5.2 Religious Influences on Consumption Behaviours 36 2.5.2.1 Religious Affiliation and Consumer Behaviour 37 2.5.2.2 Religiosity and Consumer Behaviour 47 2.6 Measurement of Religiosity in Consumer Research 56 2.7 Summary 65 vii CHAPTER 3: RETAIL PATRONAGE BEHAVIOUR 67 3.0 Introduction 67 3.1 Models of Retail Patronage Behaviour 68 3.1.1 Darden’s Patronage Model of Consumer Behaviour 69 3.1.2 Sheth’s Patronage Behaviour Model 80 3.2 Conceptual Model 88 3.2.1 Personal Characteristics 91 3.2.1.1 Religion 91 3.2.1.2 Lifestyle 93 3.2.1.3 Demographic Influences 95 3.2.2 Information Sources 97 3.2.3 Shopping Orientation 99 3.2.4 Importance of Store Attributes 106 3.2.5 Store Patronage 111 3.3 Hypotheses 112 3.3.1 Religious Affiliation 112 3.3.2 Religiosity 113 3.3.3 Prediction of Patronage Behaviour 113 3.4 Summary 114 CHAPTER 4: MALAYSIA AS A SETTING FOR THE STUDY 116 4.0 Introduction 116 4.1 An Overview 120 4.2 Brief Historical Background 124 4.3 Political Environment 128 4.4 The Malaysian Economy 129 4.5 Demography 134 4.6 Consumer Behaviour 137 4.6.1 Income and Buying Power 137 4.6.2 Lifestyles 138 4.6.3 Leisure Activities 143 4.7 Cultural Environment 146 viii 4.7.1 Ethnicity 146 4.7.1.1 Bumiputra Groups 147 4.7.1.2 Non-Bumiputra Groups 148 4.7.2 Language 150 4.7.3 Religion 150 4.7.4 Religious Beliefs and Practices 154 4.7.4.1 Islam 154 4.7.4.2 Buddhism 158 4.7.4.3 Hinduism 161 4.7.4.4 Christianity 165 4.8 Summary 169 CHAPTER 5: METHODOLOGY 171 5.0 Introduction 171 5.1 Options in Research Paradigm 173 5.1.1 Qualitative and Quantitative 179 5.1.1.1 Qualitative 179 5.1.1.2 Quantitative 180 5.1.2 Justifications for the Chosen Paradigm and Approach 184 5.2 Choice of Data Collection Method 187 5.2.1 Experiment 187 5.2.2 Observation 188 5.2.3 Survey 189 5.2.3.1 Justifications for the Survey Method 190 5.2.3.2 Mode of Communication for Survey 192 5.3 The Survey Instrument 198 5.3.1 Measurement Format of Items 199 5.3.2 Product Class 201 5.3.3 Composition of Questionnaire 203 5.3.3.1 Religion 204 5.3.3.2 Lifestyle 209 ix 5.3.3.3 Shopping Orientations 209 5.3.3.4 Importance of Store Attributes 210 5.3.3.5 Information Sources 210 5.3.3.6 Patronage Behaviour 211 5.3.3.7 Demographics 211 5.3.4 Evaluation of the Measurements 213 5.3.4.1 Validity 213 5.3.4.2 Reliability 215 5.3.5 Translation Procedure 220 5.3.6 Piloting the Questionnaire 222 5.4 Sampling Process 224 5.4.1 Target Population 224 5.4.2 Sample Size 226 5.4.3 Sample Selection 229 5.4.4 Sources of Sampling Error 231 5.5 Survey Procedure 232 5.5.1 Planning the Field Operation 233 5.5.2 Implementation of Field Survey 234 5.5.3 Problems in Conducting the Fieldwork 236 5.6 Ethical Considerations 237 5.7 Summary 240 CHAPTER 6: METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS 242 6.0 Introduction 242 6.1 Choice of a Statistical Package 242 6.2 Choice of Statistical Techniques 243 6.2.1 Objectives of the Analysis 243 6.2.2 Focus of the Analysis 244 6.2.3 Sample Type and Size 245 6.2.4 The Level of Measurement 246 6.2.5 Distribution Pattern of the Data 247 6.3 Statistical Tests Used in this Study 249 x 6.4 Univariate Analysis 250 6.5 Bivariate Analysis 251 6.5.1 Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) 251 6.5.1.1 Assumptions 253 6.5.1.2 One-Way ANOVA 256 6.5.1.3 Two-Way ANOVA 258 6.5.1.4 Post-hoc Procedure 259 6.6 Multivariate Analysis 261 6.6.1 Factor Analysis 261 6.6.1.1 Pre-Analysis 263 6.6.1.2 Examination of the Correlation Matrix 267 6.6.1.3 Factor Extraction 268 6.6.1.4 Factor Rotation 270 6.6.1.5 Interpretation of Factor 272 6.6.1.6 Data Reduction 274 6.6.2 Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) 276 6.6.2.1 Assumptions
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