Consumer Problem Perceived by Urban Low-Income Consumers and the Related Factors

도시 저소득층의 소비자문제지각과 관련요인 연구

The purposes of this study were to identify the overall levels of consumer problem, consumer competencies and purchase pattern of urban low-income consumers and to examine the factors affecting the consumer problem and the subareas-market environment problem(MEP) and transaction relation problem(TRP). The related factors, that is, independent variables were competencies-related factors(consumption-oriented attitude, attitude on consumerism, consumer knowledge), purchase pattern-related factors (search pattern, credit pattern, peddler pattern) and socio-demorgraphic factors(age, educational level, family size). For this purpose, a survey was conducted by interview using questionaires on 198 homemakers that lived in the poor areas of Seoul. Statistics used for data analysis were Frequency Distribution, Percentile, Mean, Pearson's Correlation, One-way ANOVA, Scheffe-test, Breakdown and Multiple Classification Analysis. Major findings were as follows: 1) In the level of consum r problem were in the middle level and the level of MEP were higher than that of TRP. The attitude on consumption-orientation was so negative, while attitude on consumerism was positive. The level of consumer knowledge was in the middle level. The urban low-income consumers searched a little and depended on credit and peddler in the low level. 2) Consumer problem perceived by urban low-income consumers differed significantly according to attitude on consumerism, credit pattern, monthly charge of peddler purchase. The MEP depended on attitude on consumerism and monthly charge of peddler purchase, and the TRP was affected by credit pattern and attitude on consumerism. Resulting from MCA, the most influencial variable was attitude on consumerism and credit pattern in the consumer problem, and attitude on consumerism in the MEP, and credit pattenr in the TRP.