INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE AND OTHER DECISION VARIABLES IN THE ACQUISITION OF HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN ABUJA METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study surveyed the influence of knowledge of consumers in making sound priority acquisition of household appliances related to some demographic factors(social class, income, family life cycle and education qualifications) as independent variables and questions on knowledge of the respondents on purchase of household appliances as dependent variables. A structured instrument was constructed covering both independent and dependent variables. The reliability of the instrument was obtained at 0.832 Chromback alpha reliability. Convenience sampling technique was used to obtain two hundred (200) samples for the analysis. ANOVA was used for hypothesis testing of significant difference at P≤ 0.05. The results of the findings revealed that for both social class [sig. at 0.000] and income [sig. at 0.000] indicates that social class and income do not influence the extent of knowledge for sound priority acquisition of household appliance while family life cycle [sig. at 0.801] and educational qualification [sig. at 0.130] indicates it does. Females [sig. at 0.000] and males [sig. at 0.017] at t – critical value of 1.96 does not indicates significant difference exists among those who do research and those who donot research about household appliance before purchase to indicate sound priority acquisition. It can be concluded that social class and income does not influence consumer’s sound priority in household appliance acquisition while family life cycle and educational qualification does. Also, to do research about appliance before purchase is not common to both male and female consumers. It is recommended that consumers of high social class and income may delegate assistants/associate to seek for knowledge or information on their behalf in order to enable them make adequate decision on household appliance. It is, also, recommended that they should avail themselves to internet technology for knowledge about household appliance.