Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

12-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Major Professor

Gerald D. Sentell

Committee Members

Gary N. Dicer, William E. Cole, H. Alan Lasater

Abstract

There is a serious void of quality information on actual behavior of consumers in less developed countries (LDCs). This dissertation is an effort to begin to reduce the knowledge gap in the field about consumers in one LDC--Turkey.

The subject area of this study revolves around issues surrounding the identification and analysis of buyer behavior of Turkish "Information Seekers" (ISs). ISs are those consumers to whom information availability tends to be an important buying criterion in any significant purchase and/or who consult a broad range of information sources before making such a purchase more often than "Average Consumers" (ACs).

Guidelines established by the International Consumer Information Survey at Indiana University have been utilized in this study, and IS identification measures used by Thorelli and Sentell in their book, Consumer Emancipation and Economic Development: The Case of Thailand (1982) have been replicated to enable comparability.

The dissertation describes a study conducted in Ankara, Turkey's capital, during December 1979. Findings associated with a stratified sample of 339 modern sector consumers are discussed. Twenty-five hypotheses are proposed and tested by nonparametric analysis.

The focus of the survey is on such aspects of consumer behavior as attitudes towards advertising, media, merchants, bargaining, foreign versus domestic products, important buying criteria, the availability and handling of product information, and consumer dissatisfaction and complaint behavior. The findings are also related to information seeking behavior, demographics, media habits, personal traits, and cultural values. Furthermore, ISs are compared to AGs in Turkey and ISs in other countries.

The results of the study validate the findings of the earlier Thai study and indicate many similarities between consumers of the LDCs. Unlike their counterparts in more developed countries, the differences in socioeconomic status and demographics between LDCs--, ISs and AGs are not significant. In addition, LDGs' ISs neither / perceive themselves as opinion leaders nor act as vigilantes in the marketplace. As a result it appears that LDGs' ISs are not rendering any particular contribution to economic development in their capacity as actors in the marketplace because of the nature of the LDG marketplace and resulting buyer behavior.

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