ABSTRACT
This study was to identify the consumption behaviour and perceptions of fast foods by consumers in Owerri metropolis. The specific objectives are to; determine the socio-economic/demographic characteristics of the respondents; determine how fast food items are perceived relative to ‘standard’ foods; determine the frequency of fast food restaurant patronage by the respondents; determine the factors that affect the consumer decision to patronize fast food restaurants; Make policy recommended based on the study. Convenience sampling technique was used to select the respondents. The data for this study was collected from primary sources. The primary data was collected through interview with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. After carrying out this research the collected data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as tables and simple percentage frequency distribution and standard deviation to analyse the research objectives. Findings from the result revealed that both gender patronized fast foods. Fast foods were patronized more by singles than married, widowed and divorced; as the age of the consumers increased there was a decrease in the patronage of fast foods. It was found that consumers with tertiary level of education patronise fast foods more than their counterparts; it was also revealed that corporate employees patronise fast foods more and that most of the consumers were accompanied by their co-workers; fast foods were consumed majorly during lunch hours most times these fast foods were taken in takeaway packs. It was found that the major reason consumers patronized fast foods is not because of lack of time or as a meeting place for business but because of the taste. From the result it can be concluded that there is booming fast foods establishments in Owerri metropolis and the consumers appreciate fast foods therefore the fast foods should maintain good and balanced nutrition by reducing the amount of salt, fats and calories in their meals, maintain a sustainable clean hygiene and severe environment, endeavour to prepare more of the traditional Nigeria dishes with native and indigenous ingredients. This will help in promoting the rich and diverse nutritional culture of the nation since the restaurants had become the major eateries for Nigerians both young and old.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL PAGE ii
CERTIFICATION iii
DEDICATION iv
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS v
LIST OF TABLES vi
ABSTRACT
vii
CHAPTER
ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 5
1.3 Objective of the Study 6
1.4 Research Questions 6
1.5 Significance of the Study 7
1.6 Scope
of the Study 8
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 9
2.1 Conceptual Framework 10
2.1.1 Fast Food 10
2.1.2 Historical Development of Fast Food Industry 11
2.1.3 Types of Fast Food 14
2.1.4 Consumer Behaviour 16
2.1.5 Shortcomings of fast foods 17
2.1.6 Consumer Behaviour in the Fast Food Industry 18
2.1.7 Understanding Fast Food Consumption 22
2.1.8 The Fast Food Consumer 22
2.1.9 Social factors that affect Fast Food
consumption 24
2.1.10Moderation
of Social Influences on Fast Food 25
2.1.11Sources
of Influences 26
2.12 Psychological Influences of Fast Food
Consumption 28
2.2 Theoretical Framework 30
2.2.1 Consumer Behaviour Theory 30
2.2.2 People’s Perception Theory 30
2.2.3 Cost and Menu Theory 31
2.2.4 Consumer Choice Theory 32
2.2.5 Social Cognition Research and Theory 32
2.3 Related Empirical Works 33
2.4 Summary of Literature Review 35
CHAPTER
THREE
3.0 MATERIALS
AND METHODS 38
3.1 Research Design 38
3.2 Area of the Study 38
3.3 Population for the Study 39
3.4 Sample and Sampling Technique 39
3.5 Instrument for Data Collection 40
3.6 Validation of the Instrument. 40
3.7 Method of data analysis 40
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 DATA PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION AND
ANALYSIS 41
4.1 Socio
Economic Characteristics of The Employees Of
Fast Foods 41
4.2 How are fast foods perceived relative to
homemade foods? 45
4.3 Atmosphere of the fast food 47
4.4 Factors affect your decision to patronize
fast food
restaurants 48
CHAPTER
FIVE
5.0 SUMMARY
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 51
5.1 Summary 51
5.2 Conclusion 51
5.3 Recommendations 52
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
1
LIST
OF TABLES
Table 1: Distribution According Gender 41
Table 2:
Distribution According Marital Status
42
Table
3: Distribution According to Age 42
Table
4: Distribution according to Educational
Qualification 43
Table 5: Distribution
according to Occupation 44
Table
6: How are fast foods perceived to
homemade foods 45
Table7:
How will you describe the atmosphere
of the fast
food
when you ate there? 47
Table
8 Which of the factors affect your
decision to patronize
fast
food restaurants? 48
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
to the Study
Food
is one of the three basic needs of life being nest to air and water. A person
considers the satisfaction of this need as a priority, because it appeals to
his/her sense of taste and appearance. When such an elementary physiological
needs is transformed into a means for recreation and socialization, it helps
address the issues of belongingness as identified in the Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs. If a person gets the added benefits of quick service on site it might
help to ease his/her hectic humdrum of today’s modern and urban lifestyle. Fast
food restaurant is the name given to such a convenience. These restaurants
offer sandwiches, pizza, pastries, processed meat delicacies and local
favourites among others.
Fast
food is a specific variety of convenience food which is commonly associated
with high energy density, yet there has been ambiguity in the definition of
fast food in the existing empirical research. Some studies have preferred to
have definition of the phrase open to their participants. (Pereia, 2005)
combined cafeteria, restaurant and fast food in their definition of fast food,
whereas a different analysis of the same that separated the definition into
restaurant and fast food categories (Dutley, Gordon-Larson, Jacobs, Williams
and Popkin, 2007).
Wilson
and Wittert (2007) showed that the definition of fast food can be in consistent
even within a single sample. They allowed participants to define fast food from
a list of different food items, they found that although people indicated a
very broad definition of fast food when asked what style of food is classified
as fast food, (which include; Burger, fish and chips, meat pies, chicken pies,
pastries, fried rice and sandwiches). When discussing fast food they gave
examples which focused only on traditional fast food items such as Burger and
chips from large franchiser. These data are supported by research showing that
most fast food purchase are burgers, fries, pies and pizza (Driskell, 2006).
Several
factors can explain the changes in consumer fast food consumption in Owerri,
these include;
a)
Increasing participation of women in the
labour force,
b)
Longer work days,
c)
Growing number of households living on
at least two income sources,
d)
Decreasing housing sizes,
e)
Urbanization,
f)
Growth in tourism,
g)
Longer life expectation,
h)
Increasing education level of consumers,
i)
Increasing per capital income and the
increasing number of fast food restaurant such as Mr. Biggs, Crunchies,
Kilimanjaro, Jevenik and others. In addition younger generation who are influenced
by western life style portrayed through television and advertisement exhibit a
preference for fast food restaurants.
Many
Owerri urban residents are becoming increasingly more westernized and have
greater convenience when they eat out. On the other hand preference of older
generation is different than younger generation in Owerri urban residents.
Given the challenges facing the fast food industry, increasing market share of
fast food companies could be induced by increasing demand for fast food and
opening new market segment.
Food
away from home consumers mostly consist of educated, young, working class who
have higher paying jobs and household incomes, while this view is generally
sufficient for food away from home as a whole, it is somewhat limited in the
specific case of fast food. McCracken and Brandt (2007) and Byme (2008)
identified household incomes, household size and composition as important
determinants of total household expenditures on restaurants, fast food
facilities and other food away from home facilities, Etelund and Watson (2001)
also found that fast food consumption was empirically related to opportunity
cost of the household, Nayga and Capps (2004) studied the relationship between
household characteristics and the frequencies of dining at full service and
fast food restaurant. Hiemstra and Kim (2005) analyzed the impact of household
characteristics on expenditure by eating occasion and market segment. Jekanuski
(2001) examined the effect of price, income and demographic characteristics on
fast food consumption (Fanning, 2002) investigated socio-economic determinants
of the likelihood of consuming fast food using the specific model.
Despite
its growing importance fast food chains have received little detailed attention
in the academic literature being considered in but a few of the food away from
home studies (Park, 2004). In our local environment casual observation might
reveal that fast food consumption has psychological and social implications
beyond food and satisfaction of the thirst for hunger. It is not uncommon to
observe people visiting fast food restaurants during holidays or festivals or
perhaps patronizing it as status symbol. Fast food outlets presently serve the
food cravings of busy consumers with the advantages of ease in accessibility
and dispatch in services. The consumer behaviour, psychological and social
implications of fast food are worth researching to understand fast food
consumers decision making and buying behaviour toward these foods is influenced
by individual, social and personal factors, so for any other product or service
(Khan, M. 2007).
The
present study sets out to ascertain the fast food consumption behaviour of fast
food consumers in Owerri Urban area and how the consumers perceive fast food
consumption psychologically and socially.
1.2 Statement
of the Problem
Eating away from
home is becoming increasingly common and visit to fast food restaurants is
growing even more rapidly, people hardly cook at home because of their jobs and
busy schedules during the day, so this now cause people to eat out. For example
in Owerri metropolis, students and workers are always busy with their studies
and work respectively, this has increased the tendency for people to eat away
from home.
Urbanization and
the influence of westernized life style has also influenced the fast food
consumption behaviour, because people no longer have the time to cook in their
various houses
It is important
to know that even though there are a number of researches on fast foods, but
yet most of the researches on fast food industry have been a larger study
(Bhowmik 2005). There are few published studies and trilling portion size
interventions on fast food consumption behaviour and perceived social
influences, these have generally been
unsuccessful due to unavailability of data (Steenhuis & Vermeer, 2009). One
of the limiting factors in these
studies is the paucity of information relating to consumers’ consumption
behaviour. The experiences of developed economies in relation to the roles
played by fast food industries buttresses the fact that the importance of the
consumers perception of fast food restaurants cannot be overemphasized
especially in Owerri and to highlight its psychological and social influences
the fast foods industry has on consumers’ consumption behaviour.
1.3 Objective
of the Study
The
broad objective of this research work is to identify Consumption Behaviour and
Psycho- Social Perception of Fast Food by Consumers in Owerri Metropolis.
The
specific objectives are to determine:-
1. the socio-economic/demographic
characteristics of the respondents;
2.
how fast food items are perceived relative to ‘homemade’ foods;
3.
the frequency of patronage of fast food restaurant by the respondents;
4.
the factors that affect the consumer decision to patronize fast food
restaurants;
1.4 Research
Questions
The following questions will be answered
by this research work.
1.
What are the socio-economic
characteristics of the respondents?
2.
How are fast food items perceived
relative to ‘standard’ foods?
3.
What is the frequency of fast food
restaurant patronage by the respondents?
4.
What are the factors that affect the
consumer decision to patronize fast food restaurants?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This
research is an attempt to study specifically the fast food sector, to deepen
the knowledge on some of the perceptions of fast food consumers in owerri
metropolis. This study explores and understands more on the impact of the fast
food sector on the consumer behaviour. The findings of this study will be
beneficial to fast food sectors in order to understand the perception of their
customers that is; how they perceive the product and the influence it create in
them after consumption of fast food product.
It
will also benefit owners of fast food outlets in the sense that they will
realise the growing dependence on their fast food by consumers in the study
area and improve on their services to include meeting the nutritional
requirement of the consumers. Finally it will be beneficial to researchers who
will wish to go into a fresh work on the related study.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The
study is on the perceived social influences of fast food on the consumption
behaviour of Owerri urban residents. This study will be limited to fast food
only in the study area.
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