Influence of Personality on the Buying Behaviour of Undergraduate Students in Universities in Cross River State, Nigeria

Philip Thomas Udo-Imeh

doi:10.5539/ijms.v7n4p64

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the effect personality has on buying behavior among university undergraduate students. Personality was defined in terms of the big five personality traits, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. A sample of 323 undergraduate students was drawn from the two universities in Cross River State using a three-stage sampling technique. Multiple regression analysis was used in testing the hypotheses. The study shows that personality significantly influences buying behaviour and agreeableness was the strongest of the five predictor variables while neuroticism was the weakest. The study also reveals that socio-demographic variables have significant moderating effect on the influence of personality on buying behaviour.

Highlights

The survival and growth of organizations in today’s fast-paced, globalized and increasing competitive market is dependent on their ability to satisfy—and even delight customers
The study was on the influence of personality on the buying behaviour of undergraduate students in universities in Cross River State
Personality was measured on the ‘Big Five’ personality traits - agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness and neuroticism

Summary

Introduction

The survival and growth of organizations in today’s fast-paced, globalized and increasing competitive market is dependent on their ability to satisfy—and even delight customers. Customers’ satisfaction and delight hinge heavily on organizations’ identifying, understanding and implementing in the marketing strategies, information on the behaviour consumers exhibit in searching for, processing, using and disposing of products and services to satisfy their needs and wants. These behaviours are functions of the environmental, cultural, personal and psychological factors. As a person grows up his or her personality is altered or modified (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010) by the people or event surrounding him or her or due to his or her education—be it formal or informal

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