Adolescent Influence in Family Purchase Decisions

The adolescent is considered as an active element in family purchase decisions, especially in the earliest stages of the process. However, researchers have focused their attention on purchases for adolescent use. In this chapter, the author examines adolescent influence for several products. A survey was used to collect data from several high-schools in districts of Lisbon, Setúbal, Portimão, and Beja. 2,800 questionnaires were delivered during May 2016. Adolescents were instructed to submit the questionnaires to their mothers and to return them, fully completed. 966 validated questionnaires were returned. The results point to adolescent's age, gender, product knowledge, and mother's occupational status as the relevant explanatory variables. The results also point to the relevance of considering product category as a moderating variable. The present chapter offers a contribution to companies by providing evidence of adolescent's influence in family purchase decisions. It is important that producing companies and retailer marketers focus their efforts on adolescent satisfaction.