Industry Buying Behaviour

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to understand the industry buying behaviour with reference to telecom service providers. This research also helps to identify the most important factor affecting industry buying of 4G connection. It is also identifying the association between the frequency of visits by company representative and satisfaction of clients, also to know why clients prefer current service provider over other. The research is descriptive in nature. Primary data has been collected through a structured self-design questionnaire formulated and filled by various industries. Total 61 clients have been selected as a sample by applying non probability convenient sampling. The data analysis is done with the help of Garret score and chi square test with the help of SPSS and advanced excel. The study found that there is a significant association between the frequencies of visit by company representative with the level of satisfaction. The study also investigated that the customer service is the most important factor client consider while buying 4G connection followed by complaint addressed and internet speed.

The International Telecommunications Union-Radio communications sector (ITU-R) in 2008,has set some standard requirements for 4G, as per IMT-Advanced specifications the peak requirements for high mobility communication such as trains and cars is 100 megabits per second (mbps) and for low mobility communication like pedestrians and stationary users is 1 Gigabit per second (gbps). As compared to 2G and 3G, a 4G system does not support the traditional circuit-switched telephony service; also the spread spectrum radio technology is abandoned in the 4G systems.

In the past 15 years rapid growth can be seen in telecommunication Industry, currently India is the second largest telecommunication market with over 1.20 billion subscribers. This substantially contributed to the GDP of India. Due to the strong consumer demand in the Indian telecom sector GOI has taken a proactive regulatory framework to ensure that the telecom service will be provided at an affordable price to the consumers.

Government is taking steps to penetrate telecom market in rural area. The combined efforts of government and FDI will create over 4 million job opportunities in next 5 years in the country.

Investment

With the increasing subscriber base major developments are taking place because of huge investments in the telecom sector.

§ Based on the data provided by DIPP the telecom sector has attracted an FDI of US$30.08 billion in the last 17 years.

§ Indian telecommunication companies are going to invest over USD 20 billion in next two years to expand their network and operations in India.

Government Initiatives

Government of India is going to come out with national telecom policy 2018 under which it is going to attract investment worth USD 100 billion by the end of the year 2022.

GOI with telecom companies working on a new tariff structure which will be more affordable so as to connect and attract more rural and remote people and government is working to digitally connect these regions.

Company wise market share in percentage:

Airtel 27.44

Vodafone 19.74

Idea Cellular 19.27

Reliance Jio 17.44

Telenor 3.21

Tata DoCoMo 2.59

Others 10.31

Literature Review

Jagdish Sheth (1973) has described that company specific factors and different situational factors plays an important role in industry buying behaviour. Company specific factor includes size, orientation and degree of centralisation of the company. Apart from this, some ad hoc situational factors also plays a vital role in buying decision process rather than the systematic buying approach. These situational factors may include temporary economic conditions, organizational changes such as mergers or acquisitions and temporary changes in the market place such as new product introduction, promotional efforts and price changes. The checklist for practical observations of ad hoc events is needed based on the situation which will give the neat relationship between theory and specific buying decision.

Seth also mentioned that the past experience of the company with a brand, influence the expectations of the buyer towards that brand and due to which buyer tends to buy that product/service and after using it the satisfaction level of the buyer can be found out.

Bamfield (2006) said consumer preference according to him is to select an option among many options which has the greatest anticipated value which ultimately satisfy needs or desires of a customer. The word preferences as per him indicate choices among more valued options available and it is the result of their behaviour which they possess while searching, purchasing, using and then disposing the products. The consumer preference is used in order to decide on which choice has the paramount predictable worth among all number of choices.

Byrne (2005) has described that the quality of customer service is the degree which repeats the buying behaviour of loyal customers and it can be acquired during the consumption of that service or product. Quality of customer service is not expressed and understood easily by consumer. It is problematic to determine quality clarification for researchers. Customers are always asked for quality services and products which develops awareness among customers.

Dr. Dhanavandan S.(2016) said that while doing a research a researcher faces a lot of problem for evaluating various factors. For this purpose he used Garrett Ranking method in which respondents were asked to rank the factors as per the importance according to what they feel, and then these ranks are converted in percent position value to get the garrett value. From garrett value the average comes out using garrett ranking scoring table and finally the factor with the highest average score/mean value is given the first rank.

Research Problem

A study to establish reasons influencing the buyer’s purchasing decision so as to attract more customers with regards to post-paid (4G) connections in B2B segment for increasing Airtel Business

To study the various factors affecting the buying behaviour of industry regarding post-paid (4G) connections Secondary Objectives

1. To study the importance of various factors affecting industry buying behaviour for post-paid (4G) connections
2. To study the association of satisfaction of clients with frequency of visit for feedback with respect to post-paid (4G) connections
3. To study the preference of customer towards telecom service provider.