Demographics and consumer behaviour

Mohammad B Naseri

How do socio-demographic variables impact on consumer behaviour? PhD research in the Department of Business aims to find out.

Mohammad B Naseri came to Australia from Iran in 1997 on a scholarship from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to commence a PhD in Demography. Unfortunately, he only learnt about the three-year scholarship in 1996 and by the time his visa was approved there was only one year left. When the scholarship was not extended, Naseri decided to take a different track.

After successfully completing a Master of Accounting (CPA) at Macquarie, Naseri enrolled in a PhD in Business. This builds on his interest in social science research which dates back to his days as an undergraduate. Naseri was successful in gaining an Australian Postgraduate Award to fund this study in 2003.

English as a second language

Before commencing his study at Macquarie, Naseri, for whom English is a second language, was required to pass an English test. He attended the National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research at Macquarie, which provided him with a good support base.

“Having English as a second language has been difficult,” he says. “I am spending a lot of time writing up my findings, but it’s not a major obstacle.”

Effect of demographic variables on consumer behaviour

For his PhD Naseri is using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to look at the effect of socio-demographic variables on consumer behaviour.

“The area of consumer behaviour I’m looking at is financial services, especially credit cards,” Naseri says. “I’m using a logistic regression model to predict consumer behaviour – to use the credit card to borrow or not. I am also going to look at the adoption of new technologies such as mobile phones, Internet, e-government and online shopping.”

Naseri’s research involves a great deal of ‘data mining’. His information is coming from the ABS Household Expenditure Survey, which surveyed nearly 7000 households, and the General Social Survey which had a sample size of 15,500.

“You could write two or three PhDs with all the information,” he says. “I’m currently working on credit cards with specific reference to age. You find that age, regardless of sex, income and education, has a significant impact on interest payment behaviour.”

What Naseri is trying to establish is whether banks and financial institutions can use the demographic data already available to them to target their market more effectively.

Online shopping 2002 – 2012

Naseri’s next challenge is to present a paper at the World Marketing Congress in Germany on predictions of online shopping in Australia for the period 2002-2012. He has discovered that the number of new online shoppers will peak during 2004/2005 and then decrease.

“This will affect the companies who want to do online business,” Naseri says. “Declining numbers of new internet shoppers suggest stiffer competition in the near future. Marketers will need to design appropriate strategies to maintain their market share or expand it after this critical point.”

For further information contact Naseri’s supervisor Professor Farhat Yusuf at farhat.yusuf@mq.edu.au

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