ABSTRACT
The broad objective of this study was an examination of consumers’ attitude towards Nigeria made textile products in Abia State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: examine the effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products; ascertain the effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products; determine the effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products; examine the effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products; examine the effect of consumers cognitive attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products; and evaluate the effect of consumers cognitive attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products. The study adopted survey research design method. The population of this study consisted of all locally-made textile users in Abia State. With purposive sampling, copies of the questionnaire were given to 300 locally-made textile users/consumers across the six (6) selected local government areas in Abia State. Findings revealed that affective attitude was statistically significant and positive, implying that an increase in affective attitude will result to an increase in consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products. Similarly, affective consumer attitude was found to be positively and significantly influencing consumers’ satisfaction for made in Nigeria textile products. This indicates that customer satisfaction increases with an increase in affective attitude. The study also revealed that consumer behavioural attitude exerts statistically significant effect on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products. This signifies that the more there is consumer behavioural attitude, the more the patronage for made in Nigeria textile products. In the same vein, behavioural attitude was found to be statistically significant and positively related to consumers’ satisfaction for made in Nigeria textile products. This implies that an increase in behavioural attitude will result to a corresponding increase in consumers’ satisfaction for made in Nigeria textile products. To ensure effective marketing operations of domestic textile fabrics (wrappers) firms, we recommended that textile firms in Nigeria should include product innovation in their strategic plans and should adopt the correct sequence in new product development and management. They should develop and test new textile fabric concepts as a way of ensuring effectiveness and success in product innovation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of Contents vii
List of Tables xi
List of Figures xii
Abstract xiv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Objective of the Study 5
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Research Hypotheses 6
1.6 Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Scope of the Study 8
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Review 9
2.1.1 Concept of consumers’ attitude 9
2.1.1.1 Belief formation 11
2.1.1.2 Salient beliefs 12
2.1.2 Processes of belief formation 13
2.1.3 Attitude formation 13
2.1.4 Formation of intentions 14
2.1.5 Concept of Made-in-Nigeria goods 15
2.1.6 Packaging and consumers’ attitude towards made in Nigeria textile products 16
2.1.7 Design and consumers' attitude towards Made-In-Nigeria textiles products 19
2.1.8 Components of consumers’ attitude towards Nigeria made textile goods 20
2.1.9 Affective, cognitive, and behavioural responses 26
2.1.10 Affective, cognitive, and behavioural antecedents of attitude 27
2.1.11 Influence of affective, cognitive and behavioural attitudes of consumers towards
fabric purchasing practices 28
2.1.12 Marketing mix elements and consumers’ preference for foreign textile materials 29
2.1.13 Product quality and consumer response to local textiles 33
2.1.14 Impact of beliefs and attitudes on consumer response to Made-in-Nigeria textiles 35
2.1.15 Brand value and consumers’ attitude towards made in Nigeria textile products 36
2.1.16 Customer patronage 40
2.1.17 Customer satisfaction 41
2.2 Theoretical Review 43
2.2.1 Cognitive dissonance theory – Festinger (1957) 43
2.2.2 Cognitive learning theory – Plaget (1936) 44
2.2.3 The tri-component attitude model - Schiffman, and Kanuk, (2004) 44
2.2.4 The multiattribute attitude models – Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) 46
2.2.5 The attitude-towards-the-ad model – Heider (1946) 48
2.2.6 Application of cognitive learning theory 49
2.3 Empirical review 50
2.4 Summary of and gap in literature review 57
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 61
3.2 Study Area 61
3.3 Population of the Study 62
3.4 Sample Size Determination 62
3.5 Sampling Procedure 63
3.6 Sources of Data Collection 63
3.7 Research Instrument 64
3.8 Validity of the Instrument 64
3.9 Reliability of the Instrument 65
3.10 Administration of the Instrument 65
3.11 Scoring of instrument or measurement of variables 66
3.12 Method of Data Analyses 66
3.13 Model Specification 66
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Presentation of Data 69
4.1.1 Questionnaire distribution and return 69
4.1.2. Sex of the respondents 69
4.1.3. Marital status of respondents 70
4.1.4. Occupation of the respondents 70
4.1.5. Do you buy locally-made textile materials? 71
4.2 Analyses of data 77
4.2.1 Effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in
Nigeria textile products 77
4.2.2 Effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made
in Nigeria textile products 78
4.2.3 Effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ patronage of made
in Nigeria textile products 79
4.2.4 Effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of
made in Nigeria textile products 80
4.2.5 Effect of consumers’ cognitive attitude on consumers’ patronage of made
in Nigeria textile products 81
4.2.6 Effect of consumers’ cognitive attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made
in Nigeria textile products 82
4.3 Discussion of result 83
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of findings 86
5.2 Conclusion 86
5.3. Recommendations 86
5.4 Contribution to knowledge 89
5.5 Limitations and areas for future research 89
References
Appendix
LIST OF TABLES
3.1 Sample distribution of locally-made textile users/consumers in the six (6)
selected local governments areas of Abia State. 62
4.1 Distribution and return of questionnaire 69
4.2. Frequency distribution showing the sex of the respondents 69
4.3. Frequency distribution showing the marital status of respondents 70
4.4. Frequency distribution showing the occupation of the respondents 70
4.5. Frequency distribution showing the respondents’ responses on the purchase of
locally-made textile materials 71
4.6. Frequency distribution showing responses on the frequency of purchase of textile
materials by the studied consumers of Nigeria-made textile products in Abia
State of Nigeria 71
4.7. Frequency distribution showing responses on consumer affective component of
attitude 72
4.8. Frequency distribution showing responses on consumer cognitive component of
attitude 73
4.9. Frequency distribution showing responses on consumers behavioural component of
attitude 74
4.10. Frequency distribution showing responses on customer patronage of
Nigeria-made textile products in Abia State of Nigeria 75
4.11. Frequency distribution showing responses on customer satisfaction of
Nigeria-made textile products in Abia State of Nigeria 76
4.12 Regression analysis showing the effect of consumer affective attitude
on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products 77
4.13. Simple regression analysis showing the effect of consumer affective attitude on
consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products 78
4.14. Simple regression analysis showing the effect of consumers behavioural
attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products 79
4.15 Simple regression analysis showing the effect of consumers behavioural
attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products 80
4.16. Regression analysis showing the effect of consumers’ cognitive attitude
on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products 81
4.17. Regression analysis showing the effect of consumers’ cognitive attitude
on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products 82
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Formation of beliefs 12
2.2 Formation of beliefs and of attitudes 12
2.3 Tri-component theory of attitudes applied to prejudice against women 29
2.4 Tricomponent attitude model 46
2.5. Attitude-towards-the-Ad model 49
2.6: Conceptual framework of the relationship between attitude and patronage of
made-in-Nigeria textile materials 50
5.1: Heuristic model showing the relationship between attitude and patronage of
made-in-Nigeria textile materials 89
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
As our society continues to evolve, it undergoes rapid changes and become more affluent. Evolving social forces make consumers spend a great part of their income in ways remarkably different from what took place in the past. Increased travel and education as well as improvements in communication such as the global-spanning television networks and the internet have also contributed to a convergence of tastes and preferences in a number of product categories around the world (Cecilia and Amelia, 2007). These have motivated consumers in developing countries to demand the same quality of goods available to their counterparts in developed countries (Saffu and Walker, 2006). With this increased globalisation, and liberalisation, it has become increasingly important to understand consumers’ attitude towards Nigeria made textile goods in order to reposition and improve the quality of locally made textiles to suit consumers’ taste and preference, strengthen local manufactures, increase their market share and build consumers’ confidence in locally made textile materials.
Consumers’ attitude is expressed by the types of textile fabrics they acquire and the behaviour exhibited while wearing the fabrics. Attitude as expression of feelings, thoughts and behaviours depend on individuals. Attitude is often learned from family and peer groups, (Marshall, 2000). With maturity, individual attitudes change over time by societal and educational experiences. It is noted that attitude about clothing tends to focus on comfort, utility, economy, fashion, self-expression and status which influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour in the textile industry. In marketing textile materials, there are different attributes that enhance personality and attract the attention or admiration of consumers like those in Abia State of South East Nigeria. These attributes include; colours, designs and quality of fabrics. Among the populace, personality and attitude play vital roles in consumer decision making especially in the purchase of textile materials (Ajunwa, 2004). The attitude of consumers towards textile materials is relatively cognitive and affective. Cognitive here relates to beliefs or disbelief, whereas affective relates to feeling of negative or positive disposition involving some emotional context (Kotler and Keller, 2006) which is evident in consumer purchasing behaviour.
Consumer purchasing behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of the ultimate consumer, and many factors influence individuals in their decision making process, shopping habits, the brands they buy or the retailers they patronise. A purchase decision is the result of each and every one of these factors. Thus, consumer behaviour is the mental, emotional and physical activities that people engage in when selecting, purchasing, using and disposing products and services so as to satisfy needs and desires (Keng, et al., 2013; Pinki, 2014). Consumers purchase products to reflect their personality and attitude. The type of house, clothes, furniture, appliances, automobiles, jewelry people buy indeed reflect their personalities and attitude. Ali, Babak and Seied (2014) simply described personality as the kind of behaviour that people have in front of the others and their reactions which are shown in the society. An individual or a consumer is always influenced by societal culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, personality, and personal psychological factors in making purchasing decisions.
Given this, consumer perception toward countries, cultures and their products especially textile materials keep on changing. Therefore, the issue is still of great interest and important to academics and practitioners in the fields of marketing and consumer behaviour. Thus, understanding consumer attitude towards Nigeria made textile goods is critical to marketers and local manufacturers, as a strong understanding of consumer attitude will help shed light on what is important to consumers and what need to be done to stimulate target market desire for locally made textile materials. Against this backdrop, the study: an appraisal of consumers’ attitude towards Nigeria made textile goods given consumers in selected Local Government Areas of Abia state Nigeria with reference to selected textile materials is initiated.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The situation in Nigeria over the years has been that consumers perceive locally-made products to be of inferior quality to those of foreign (Kalu and Ikwuegbu, 2000; Ogunnaike, 2010). They ascribe higher quality and value to foreign-made products than locally-made products. Their perception and attitude towards domestic products have been generally unfavourable or negative when compared to imported brands. Because of these perceptional and attitudinal differences, which ascribe positive image or evaluations to different locally-made products, consumers end up preferring and buying based on certain attitudinal factors (Sagagi, 2010). The situation became worst, when, despite the protest of the Textile Manufacturers Association, the Federal Government went ahead to lift the ban on the importation of textile products (Uzor, 2010). This reversal of policy compounded the problem of producers and marketers of textile fabrics (wrappers). The dismal situation is that the Nigerian market is filled with variety of brands of imported textile fabrics (wrappers) and the implication is that the domestic brands are now facing fierce competitive marketing battle with imported brands.
Basically, consumers’ preference for textile fabrics (wrappers) is invariably, influenced by the interplay of some factors or attributes. The attributes include: quality, design, colour attraction, colour-fastness, durability, texture, fashion, price, weight and strength of fabric (wrapper) (Yates, 2002; Brannon, 2005; Yoo, 2003; Ozo, 2002; Iwarere, 2009). Addressing and analyzing the impact of these factors on consumers’ purchase decisions is very crucial. This is because not much is known on how these factors affect purchase decisions in terms of wrappers. Past studies were undertaken generally on textile fabrics but not specifically on wrappers.
It is essential for every product to be attractive in order to arouse interest and invariably lead to positive consumer buying behaviour. It has been observed over time that a lot of manufacturers unconsciously neglect and forget to stress on product attractiveness such as design and packaging in the process of product development. Consumers, however take cognizance of these features, that is why in most cases, Nigerian consumers prefers foreign made to locally made textiles. For example, in Nigeria today, we have a lot of locally made textiles being used for occasions such as traditional weddings, naming ceremony, child dedication and so on. Despite these numerous advantages, many Nigerians still prefer foreign made textiles. Agbonifoh (1995) as cited in Ogunnaike (2010) observe that consumers consider locally-produced textile inferior compare to the imported ones. Consumers, especially women prefer to wear foreign made products (Asen, et al., 2011). The preference for foreign products to locally made products is high and has indirectly led to the dwindling of the Nigerian economy and the patronage of locally made textiles.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of this study was an examination of consumers’ attitude towards patronage of Nigeria made textile goods using selected Local Government Areas of Abia State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to:
i. examine the effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products.
ii. ascertain the effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products.
iii. determine the effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products
iv. examine the effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products.
v. ascertain the effect of consumers cognitive attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products.
vi. examine the effect of consumers cognitive attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:
i. What is the effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products?
ii. How does consumer affective attitude affect consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products?
iii. Does consumers’ behavioural attitude affect consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products?
iv. What is the effect of consumers’ behavioural attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products?
v. What is the effect of consumers’ cognitive attitude on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products?
vi. How does consumers cognitive attitude affect consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following research hypotheses in null (Ho) form were tested.
Ho1: Consumer affective attitude does not have any significant effect on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products
Ho2: There is no significant effect of consumer affective attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products
Ho3: Consumers behavioural attitude does not have any significant effect on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products
Ho4: There is no significant effect of consumers behavioural attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products.
Ho5: Consumers cognitive attitude does not have any significant effect on consumers’ patronage of made in Nigeria textile products.
Ho6: There is no significant effect of consumers cognitive attitude on consumers’ satisfaction of made in Nigeria textile products
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study findings will be of great importance to marketers and manufacturers of local textile products, it will enable them to have a comprehensive understanding of consumers’ attitudes towards their products, and factors influencing the choice of textile products in the local market in order to capture those factors in their design and production of indigenous textiles. The study findings will also be of importance to domestic manufacturers, foreign manufacturers, marketers, exporters and other channel intermediaries doing or wishing to do business in developing countries, it will enable them to know the desire, taste and preferences of local consumers. The study findings will aid local and foreign entrepreneurs intending to invest in the manufacturing of textile products for Nigerian market in designing their product for wider acceptance and on the quality of textile products needed in Nigeria. The study findings will also help government to know the attitudes of consumers towards locally made goods, especially textile products in order to make policies that will help local textile manufacturers to improve their production capacity and efficiency, stimulate and encourage patronage of locally made goods to boost economic development.
Furthermore, the study findings when implemented by local textiles manufactures will enable local consumers to benefit by having their taste, quality and preferences build into the production of locally produce textile products. The study findings will equally contribute to the growing body of literature related to consumers’ attitude on the country of origins’ products, it will eventually help improve the local textile industry in the country, and enhance the actualisation of the nation's aspiration to reduce imports of foreign textiles in a bid to discourage dumping and attain self-sufficiency in the provision of essential goods. The study will add to the scholarly materials available for research purposes.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The focus of the study was to appraise consumers’ attitude towards Nigeria made textile goods in selected local government areas of Abia state, Nigeria. The scope was described in terms of its object and its unit of analysis. The research object was the customers involved in the patronizing Nigerian-made textile products in Abia State of Nigeria. The research questions focused on the components of attitude which are affective, behavioural and cognitive. The geographical coverage was the entire Abia State. Abia State has 17 local government areas which fall into three (3) geographical zones. The study was conducted in six (6) selected Local Government Areas (Aba North, Ukwa East, Umuahia South, Isiala Ngwa South, Umunneochi and Ohafia) representing the three (3) senatorial zones (Abia North, Abia Sought and Abia Central) of Abia State. Selected customers in selected Local Government Areas of Abia State, Nigeria and selected textile goods formed the unit of analysis of the study.
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