Demographic Variables and Ownership of Motor Car

Demographic Variables and Ownership of Motor Car

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy

Management Matters, Volume 1, Number 2, March 2001

The aim of this research work is to investigate if demographic variables such as family income, occupation of father, occupation of mother, religious affiliation and food habits affect in any significant way the ownership of motor car.

We sampled 300 students pursuing M.B.A. programmes in different colleges affiliated to Madras University for data collection.  A questionnaire was developed and data were collected from these students by administering questionnaire to them.

Ownership of motor car is most affected by family income.  People with family income equal to or greater than five lakh rupees consider motor car as a status symbol.  It is necessary for them to maintain class affiliation with their own group and class differentiation with lower income groups.  Among the religious groups, Christians seem to be fond of owning motor cars.  There is something in the sub-culture of Christians that goads them to own motor cars, which is missing in other religious sub-cultures.  Next dominant demographic response that affects ownership of cars is occupation of father as professionals or businessmen.  People with these two occupations are more prone to own motor cars, than people with service as occupation.  Also, our results point out that people with omnivorous food habits are more likely to buy cars than people with pure vegetarian food habits.   

Work Value Preferences of Information Technology Professionals in Chennai City

Work Value Preferences of Information Technology Professionals:

A Study in Chennai City

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy 
Management Matters, Vol.1, No.5, September 2002 

Work value preferences affect job satisfaction and job commitment. Work values are sub set of life values. Life values are intrinsic and enduring perspectives of what is fundamentally right or desirable.  Work values of employees affect corporate culture.  The knowledge of work values of information technology (I.T.) professionals will result in proper design of job attributes and selection process.

To measure work values, 28 constructs have been selected from Konrad et al. (2000). The relevance of each one of these constructs was discussed with five I.T. Professionals and a questionnaire was developed with these 28 items.  Each item is given seven responses with response one indicating “not at all important” and response seven indicating “very much important”.  The questionnaire was administrated to 107 I.T. professionals working in two different companies in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and data were collected from them in the month of December 2001. 

The scores on the 28 constructs were factor analyzed with varimax rotation.  The factor analysis has condensed 28 constructs into eight orthogonal factors. 

1.      Professional skill development

2.      Authority and status

3.      Congenial social relationships

4.      Facilitating work environment

5.      Travel abroad

6.      Fringe benefits

7.      Job security

8.      Leisureliness in the job

The work value preferences are arranged according to values of means and standard errors. The I.T. professionals have rated the work value of professional skill development as the most important.  The next most important work value to them is job security.  Facilitating work environment, congenial social relationships, authority and status, fringe benefits, leisureliness in job and travel abroad are ordered on the basis of mean importance scores.

Z tests were conducted to test the significance of differences of mean importance scores between eight work values.  The difference in mean scores between the work values of professional skill development and job security is found to be significant at 95% confidence level (Z=3.4).  In addition, Z test indicated that professional skill development score is significantly higher in comparison to the mean scores of all other work values.  Professional skill development represents intrinsic work value.  The other seven work values represent extrinsic values.

Job security is not found to be significantly more important than facilitating work environment

(Z=0.44).  Job security is also not found to be significantly more important than congenial social relations (Z=0.82).  So, we club these three work values, namely, job security, facilitating work environment and congenial social relations as the set of work values which are second most important for the I.T. professionals.

Significant difference was found between the means of the work values of congenial social relations and authority and status (Z=2.2) at 95% confidence level.

There is no significant difference between authority between authority and status and fringe benefits (Z= 1.133).  Authority and status and fringe benefits are considered as third most important work values for the I.T. professionals.

There is no significant difference between the means of fringe benefits and leisureliness in the job (Z=1.979).  So leisureliness in the job is labeled as fourth most important work value.

There is no significant difference between the means of leisureliness in the job and travel abroad

(Z=1.884).  Travel abroad is considered as the least important work value among them.

I.T. companies shall focus on work values that are important for their employees.  Jobs in their organizations shall be designed with attributes that enhance employees’ professional skill development and that give employees job security, facilitating work environment and congenial social relationships.  The companies hall strive to match the important work values of their employees with the job attributes. Organizations shall upgrade their knowledge about the relative importance of their employees’ work values.

Gender differences among public sector bank employees

Gender differences and similarities on the cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism: A study on public sector bank employees

 Shriram Venkatraman and P Govinda Reddy 

Indian Journal of Education and Information Management,

Vol.1, No.2, February, 2012

Though individualism and collectivism are bipolar concepts, Hofstede attempted to quantify the dimension based on an extensive research. This paper strives to follow Hofstede’s survey questions, explore the pattern on the cultural dimension of individualism and collectivism, and investigate if this pattern differs based on gender in a public sector bank environment. It strives to understand this cultural dimension through statistical tests conducted on the data collected from 427 public sector bank employees in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

The questionnaire on individualism and collectivism strives to understand the cultural

orientation of Public sector bank employees. This questionnaire contains four questions specific to traits of individualism and collectivism and has been borrowed from Hofstede’s Value Survey Model 2008. The four questions are in the form of statements with five response choices which are as follows - utmost important, very important, moderate importance, little importance and very little or no importance. The respondents were encouraged to think of an ideal profession, disregarding their present profession.  In choosing an ideal profession, they were asked to select an answer choice for each of the statements based on their perception. The statements are as follows:

a) Have sufficient time for your personal/ home life

b) Have security of employment

c) Do work that is interesting

d) Have a job respected by your family and friends

These questions were borrowed as it was felt that they were relevant for the sample used in this study.

The respondents were 427 Banking professionals belonging to a large public sector

bank. The geography was limited to Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The survey aimed at getting an easy access to professionals and the professionals were selected through convenience sampling from the ranks of an Officer to that of a Senior Manager, within the Chennai circle of this bank. The demographic factor ‘Age’ was collected as a continuous variable and was then segmented into three categories namely ‘26 yrs to 35 yrs’, ‘36 yrs to 45 yrs’ and ‘46 yrs and above’. In order to identify the gender differences, the data were gathered from both the male and female employees of this bank. The survey was exploratory in nature.  Treating the survey responses as continuous data, statistical analyses were performed on the survey data.

It is worthwhile observing that female respondents score higher than male respondents in their responses to all statements, which makes their average score higher than that of their male counterparts and thus leads to statistical significance.

For a respondent, irrespective of gender, the results calculated through Hofstede’s Value Survey Model methodology reveals that public sector bank employees are Collectivistic in orientation. These results coincide with the results obtained by performing statistical analysis. Further, the data clearly show that females have a slightly higher likelihood of choosing collectivism over individualism. This observation of a higher proportion of females choosing collectivistic orientation over individualism is interesting and worth exploring, given the general perception that India is a collectivistic society and that Indian females are generally collectivistic in thinking compared to that of Indian males. However, as mentioned above it is also interesting to observe that females score higher than males in the statement indicating individualism. Transposing an average respondent’s profile on gender, leads one to assume that both female and male respondents want their jobs to be secured, interesting and give enough amount of personal time. However, a female respondent wants her job to be respected by people around her than her male counterpart. Though, the authors feel that these results cannot be extrapolated to represent a country, it nevertheless represents, the attitude of that particular public sector bank employees in Chennai, India. Although, scope for future research exists in terms of performing the same research on private bank employees and performing a comparative study of the attitude of the two groups, this survey can definitely be extended to several other industries as well.

Brand Preference of Motorbikes

Brand Preference of Motorbikes: A Study on Student Segment.

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy

The Geographic Teachers, India, Vol.5, No.1, 1998/1999,

The student segment is the most important for the two wheeler industry.  It is at the student stage, they first buy and use a brand and this encounter may influence them at later stages.  It is important to understand what factors the students’ value and weigh most in purchasing different brands.  This information will help in proper product positioning for this segment.

A sample of 40 male students in the University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India was selected. They were in the age group of 20 -24 years.  All of them were familiar with different brands of motorbikes.  We have developed a set of 19 constructs and added the key construct “purchasability of the brand” to these constructs to form a questionnaire.

In the questionnaire each construct was given 7 possible responses one representing “far worse than competing brands” and response seven representing “far better than competing brands”.  Each respondent was given one questionnaire at a time and asked to write the name of a brand of motorbike on the top of the questionnaire and evaluate the constructs on the brand.  We have selected five brands of motorbikes – Suzuki Samurai, Kawasaki Bajaj 125, Hero Honda Splendor,  Hero Honda CD 100ss and Yamaha RXG.  Each respondent answered five questionnaires.  So we collected 40x5= 200 questionnaires.

These questionnaires were stored on the basis of brands of motorbikes. For each brand, we had 40 questionnaires.  These scores of 40 respondents on each of the 20 constructs, we got a data matrix with 20(No. of constructs) x 5 (No. of brands) items. The data were factor analyzed to condense 20 constructs by the method of principal components with Vari Max Rotation.  SPSS package was used for this.

The factor analysis has given rise to four factors. Factor loadings less than 0.6 are ignored in the analysis.  Factor one seems to represent easy maintenance on the vehicle and horse power.  Factor two represents price.  Factor three can be described as representing safety in driving.  Factor four can be called as representing comfort and look.

We have totaled the scored of all the respondents on all constructs having significant loadings in each of the factors and arrived at the average score per respondent by dividing the total by the number of respondents.  The maximum range of these average scores is 1 to 7.

On factor one, the maximum average score is for Suzuki Samurai and least score is for Hero Honda CD 100ss.  The respondents considered Suzuki Samurai as the best and Hero Honda CD 100ss as the worst on maintenance and horse power.  On price factor they considered Suzuki Samurai as the best and Yamaha RXG as the worst. On safety, the respondents ranked Kawasaki Bajaj 125 as the best and Suzuki Samurai as the worst. On comfort and look, the respondents considered Yamaha RXG and Hero Honda Splendor as the best and Hero Honda CD 100ss as the worst.

The study indicates that the primary constructs the student segment considers in making brand selection of motorbikes are the price of the brand and the mileage it gives.  These constructs are pivotal in determining the product positioning strategies for the student segment.

Study on Brand Selection of Ready Made Shirts

Brand Selection of Ready Made Shirts:  A study among the University students

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy

SRM Management Digest. Vol.1, No.1, December 2000. 

Market segmentation and product positioning are closely related.  When market segmentation is done on demographic variables, it is necessary to do market research in order to understand the preferences of the segmented group.  The target group selected for this study is 40 students (boys) in the age group of 20 to 24 years pursuing master’s degree in the University of Madras.  All of them are familiar with different brands of Ready Made Shirts in the market and they have been wearing shirts of one or more of these brands.  The aim of the study is to find out inter-relationships between different psychographic constructs relevant in the brand selection decisions of Ready Made Shirts.  Six brands of Ready Made Shirts are selected for the study.  They are Arrow, Allen Solly, Louis Philippe, Park Avenue, Peter England and Van Heusen.  Each one of these students is asked to write down independently the possible variables that affect their brand selection of shirts. 

Total number of questionnaires answered are 40 (Number of respondents) X 6 (Number of brands) = 240.  The data matrix is factor analyzed with principal components on the constructs and on the barnds.  Varimax rotation is used.

23 attributes of Ready Made Branded Shirts as possible means for inter brand comparisons and brand selections are developed.  The analysis narrowed down just to two attributes out of these 23 attributes that are most important in brand selection and purchase decisions of Ready Made Shirts by university students.  These two attributes are “Making them look attractive to girls” and “They are fashionable to wear”.  If the Ready Made Shirt manufacturers were to be successful in targeting the segment of university students, their marketing mix decisions ought to be based on “Making them look attractive to girls” and “Being fashionable”.  The design of the product shall meet these requirements. Advertisement themes must be focused on these attributes.  Distribution and pricing decisions shall confirm to the concept inherent in these attributes.

The factor analysis on brands indicated that the university students consider Louis Philippe as closest substitute to Allen Solly and Van Heusen is closest substitute of Arrow.  They consider Peter England as very different brand from the other five brands.  This indicates the nature of competitive structure in Branded Ready Made Shirt market.   

Study on Durable Goods and Brands

Study of on Durable Goods and Brands: A Study of Chennai College Students About Their Familial Preferences

 G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P. Govinda Reddy (2001)

  UGC Minor Research Project

            Data regarding familial preferences about durable goods and brands have been collected from 300 students belonging to different colleges in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in the year 1999. The data pertaining to the ownership pattern of Motor Car, Air Conditioner, Micro-oven, Cell/Mobile phone, Personal Computer and Washing Machine among the families of these 300 students have been analysed.  The findings of the study are as follows:

Durable Goods:

Motor cars

35 percent of the respondents owned motor cars.  The best discriminator of the ownership of motor cars is family income greater than five lakh rupees.  79 percent of this group own motor cars.  The next best discriminator for the ownership of motor cars is religious affiliation as Christians.  56 percent of Christians in the sample own motor cars.  The next important discriminator is professional women as 52 percent of them own cars.

Air conditioners

23.3 percent of the sample respondents own air-conditioners.  The best discriminator for the ownership of air-conditioners is family income being greater than 5 lakh rupees. 57 percent of the respondents in this income group own air-conditioners.  The next best discriminator is professional women of whom 40 percent own air-conditioners.

Micro ovens

            14 percent of the respondents own micro-ovens.  The best discriminator for the ownership of micro-ovens is religious affiliation as Christians.  29 percent of Christian respondents own micro-ovens. The next best discriminator is professional women.  26 percent of the professional women own micro-ovens.  Income effect is found to be negligible in the ownership of micro-oven.

Cell/Mobile phones

            Among the products that have been selected in this work, cell/mobile phones are least owned at that point of time.  Only 13.3 percent of the respondents owned cell/mobile phones.  The best discriminator for this product is religious affiliation as Muslims.  27 percent of the Muslim respondents own cell/mobile phones.  The next best discriminators are family income being greater than 5 lakh rupees and professional women.  26.2 percent of  the respondents with family income greater than 5 lakh rupees and 26 percent of professional women respectively own cell/mobile phones.

Personal Computers

            27 percent of the respondents own personal computer.  The best discriminators for this product are family income grater than 5 lakh rupees and family income between 3 to 5 lakh rupees.  43 percent and 38 percent of the respondents in these groups respectively own the personal computers.  37 percent of the professional women own personal computers. 33 percent of the respondents with vegetarian food habits own personal computers.

Washing Machines

            Among the products that have been considered for this survey, washing machine is the most popular product.  56.7 percent of the sample own washing machines.  The most important discriminators for the ownership of washing machines are occupation of mother as service, religious affiliation as Christians and income between 3 to 5 lakh rupees.  75 percent of the respondents in each of these groups respectively own washing machines.  There is negative income effect for the ownership of washing machine for the group with income greater than 5 lakh rupees.  Only 71.4 percent of this group own washing machines.

Brand selection of Durable Goods:

Motor cars

The motor cars have been classified into three varieties on the basis of the internal space available in the car.  Compact car Brand (Maruti- 800, Zen, Santro, Fiat Uno and Tata Indica), Mid-size car Brand (Premier Padmini, Ambassador, Fiat Sienna) and Luxury car brands (Tata Sierra, Tata Safari, Ciello and Maruti Omni).  This classification has no relationship to the price of the car. 

45.1 percent of business men own mid-sized cars while 43.5 percent of professionals own compact cars.  Men in service are equally divided with 35.5 percent own compact cars and another 35.3 percent own mid-sized cars.  Professional men seem to be more fond of compact cars, while business men seem to be more fond of mid-sized cars.

 39 percent of house wives own mid-sized cars while 42.8 percent of professional women have mid-sized cars.  Very few women in service own cars.  

44.4 percent of Christians own mid-sized cars while 40.8 percent of Hindus own mid-sized cars. 

43 percent of non-vegetarian respondents own mid-sized cars while 42.1 percent of the respondents with vegetarian diet own mid-sized cars. 

48.5 percent of respondents with income greater than 5 lakh rupees own mid-sized cars.  The respondents with income 3-5 lakh rupees and with income 2-3 lakh rupees are alike with 41.4 percent in each group own compact cars. 57.1 percent of respondents with income less than 2 lakhs prefer mid-sized cars.  In the income range of 2 to 5 lakh rupees compact cars seem to be popular.  For others midsized cars seem to be popular.

Air conditioners

The brands for air conditioners are classified as Amtrex, Hitachi, Godrej and others in this study.

Among professional women, Godrej brand of air-conditioners seem to be popular as 27.3 percent of them opt for it.  Among other categories significant brand differences is not seen.

42.8 percent of Muslims use Godrej air-conditioners while 26.7 percent of Christian respondents have Godrej air conditioners. Significant brand preference of air conditioners is not seen among the Hindus.

33.3 percent of vegetarian respondents own Godrej air conditioners while 14.6 percent of respondents with non-vegetarian food habits have Godrej brand of air conditioners.  Air conditioner brands selections are not affected by food habits.

72.7 percent of the lowest income group respondents own less popular brands or assembled air conditioners.  Income group between 2-3 lakhs is also similar with 79 percent of them buying popular brands or assembled sets.  The respondents with income greater than 5 lakhs are also opting for less known brands or assembled units to the extent of 67 percent.  Only the respondents belonging to 3-5 lakhs seem to go far brands.  21 percent of them are having Godrej brand of air conditioners.

Micro ovens

The brands for micro ovens are classified as; Philips, Kenstar, BPL and others.

66.6 percent of men in service go for Kenstar brand of micro ovens.  42.1 percent of businessmen using micro ovens have BPL brand.  33.4 percent of professional men have micro ovens with BPL brand.  People in service are cautious.  They are more interested in savings and riskless investments.  Occasionally when they decide to purchase luxurious products, they opt for well known brands or proven brands from the experience of their own colleagues whom they can trust.  Cautiousness may be emanating due to lack of self confidence in them.  On the other hand businessmen and professional tend to be more self confident and so opt for risky decisions.  Their own convictions are more important than experiences of their friends and colleagues.  More variability has been noticed for businessmen and professional men in choosing the brands of micro ovens.  It looks like they are more individualistic.

60 percent of women in service go for Kenstar brand of micro ovens while 42.8 percent of professional women go far BPL brand of micro ovens.  Micro oven may be considered as women’s product.  In many households, the decision makers are the women in the house.  Variability for the house wife seems to be higher than that of other groups.  Housewives represent leisure class more than other groups.  They have time to socialize more.  They meet different people and shop around more.  They are exposed to variety of information about different bands.  This may give rise to more variability in their brand selections.

Cell/Mobile phones

The brands for cell/mobile are classified as; Skycell, Ericson, Nokia and others.

Nokia seem to be popular across all income groups.  62.5 percent of professional men, who use cell phones, have Nokia brand.  The corresponding percentage for men in service and business men is 50%.

Occupation of father does not seem to have any effect on cell phone brand selection.

57.1 percent of professional women who have cell phones are using Nokia brand.  51.7 percent of house wives own cell phones of Nokia brand. Only two respondents whose mothers are in service and who are using cell phones are using Ericson brand.

52 percent of Hindu respondents who use cell phones use the brand of Nokia.  The corresponding figures for Muslims and Christians are 50 percent and 37.5 percent respectively.  There is no effect of religious affiliation on band selection.

48.6 percent of non vegetarian respondents having cell phones use Nokia brand while 40 percent of the vegetarian respondents use Nokia brand.   No effect of food habits is seen on cell phone brand selection.

Popular brand across all income groups appear to be Nokia. 45.5% of respondents with income greater than 5 lakhs who cell phones have Nokia brand.  The figures for the other income groups (3-5 lakhs, 2-3 lakhs and less than 2 lakhs) is 50 percent, 50 percent and 40 percent respectively.  There is no income effect on brand selection of cell phones.

Personal Computers

The brands for personal computers are classifies as; HCL, H.P, Compaq, IBM, assembled and others.

61.9 percent of men in service having computers have assembled personal computers, while the percentage of business men buying assembled personal computers is 50 percent. 

53 percent of house wives, who have computers, have assembled computers.  46.1% of women in service have assembled personal computers while he number for professional women it is 20 percent.

52.5 percent of Hindu respondents who have computers have assembled sets.  40 percent of Muslims have assembled sets.  26.8 percent of Christians have Compaq brand of computers.

48.1 percent of respondents with vegetarian food habits and 46.6 percent of respondents with non vegetarian food habits are having assembled personal computers.  There is no effect of food habits on the selection of personal computers.

44.4 percent of respondents with income greater than 5 lakhs of rupees have assembled personal computers.  56.6 percent of the respondents with income between 3-5 lakh rupees own assembled personal computers.  42.9 percent of respondents with income between 2-3 lakhs of rupees and 31.6 percent of respondents with less than 2 lakhs of rupees income go for assembled personal computers.  There is no income effect on the selection of personal computer brands.

Washing Machines

The brands for washing machines are classified as; Whirlpool, BPL, Videocon and others.

38.5 percent of men in service who own washing machines are using Videocon brand while 37 percent of professional men own washing machines are using Videocon brand.  Professional men seem to like BPL brand next to Videocon brand of washing machines.  Men in service also give second preference to BPL brand of washing machines.  Business men do not seem to be uniform in their brand selection.  They almost equally like whirlpool, BPL and Videocon of washing machines.   Many of them (33.3%) are using other brands.  Professional men and men in service prefer Videocon washing machine significantly more than business men.  Less variance is seen among professionals and in service persons compared to businessmen on washing machine brand selection.   This may be due to the fact that professional and service people often meet together and discuss about what brands are the best in the market.  This social communication may be the reason for the low variance.  Business men may be working more independently and they may meet very few businessmen and they may not discuss brand selection topics among them.

43.8 percent of professional women who own washing machines are having BPL brand washing machines.  42.4 percent of women in service using washing machines are having Videocon washing machines.   26.6 percent of housewives having washing machines own Videocon washing machines.  Variability in brand selection seems to be highest among housewives.  Women in service prefer Videocon washing machine more significantly in comparison to housewives.  Housewives seem to be more variant in their brand selection.    They have got more free time.  They may not simply follow opinion leaders.  They may meet more opinion leaders and finally use their own discretion.  Women in service do not have much time for brand selection.  They just follow an opinion leader’s service, in their brand selection, without any analytical processing.

33.6 percent of Hindus owning washing machines are having Videocon washing machines.  30.55 percent of Christians and 30.8 percent of Muslims who are having washing machines are respectively having BPL brand of washing machines.

35 percent of the respondents with vegetarian food habits, who are using washing machines are having Videocon brand of washing machines.  27.7 percent of respondents with non vegetarian food habits own Videocon washing machines. 23.1 percent of respondents with non vegetarian food habits have BPL brand of washing machines.  Vegetarians and non vegetarians do not differ significantly on preference towards Videocon washing machines.

30 percent of the respondents with income greater than 5 lakhs of rupees, who are using washing machines are having Videocon brand of washing machines.  28.9 percent of the respondents with income in the range of 3-5 laks are having BPL brand of washing machines.  27 percent of the respondents with income in between 2-3 lakhs of rupees and 34.9 percent of the respondents with income less than 2 lakhs of rupees have Videocon brand of washing machines.  The income groups from 3 to 5 lakhs of rupees seem to differ from other income groups in that it mostly prefer s BPL brand.  Income effect does not seem to be operating on brand choice.

Individualism and Collectivism

Individualism Vs. Collectivism: A Study on Students. 

G.Suryanarayana Reddy and P.Govinda Reddy

Management Matters, Vol.1, Issue 2, March-August 2004

A questionnaire was prepared by using seven constructs for measuring individualism and eight constructs for measuring collectivism from Oyserman et al. 2002.  Each item was given seven responses with response one indicating “not at all characteristic of me” and response seven indicating “completely characteristic of me”.  The questionnaire was administered to 100 M.B.A. students of Madras University, Chennai, India in the year 2003.

The factor analysis had given rise to six rotated factors: Group orientation, achievement orientation, in-group harmony, collectivist conscientiousness, distinctiveness of private and public spaces and autonomy.  Three represent individualistic characteristics and the other three represent collectivist orientations.  As they are orthogonal, any one of these orientations can be developed independent of others.  One type of orientation among these six factors can not assist or hinder any other orientation. 

The present study points out that a sample from Chennai based M.B.A. students showing the characteristic of individualistic cultural domains.  This study also points out that each of these concepts consists of different orthogonal domains.  As traditional societies become more and more modern, individualism and collectivism will become too broad concepts to differentiate national cultures.  Narrower domains need to be developed to differentiate national cultures and even sub-cultures within a nation.