Consumer Behavior
...nd 4 years · The percentage of students that have attended Wayne State for 5 years is low (6.7%), possibly because the university offers mostly 4-year undergraduate degree programs · The percentage of students that have attended Wayne State for 1 year is relatively low (12.2%), possibly because we included interviews of students at the Oakland Center, an extension center which offers mostly evening classes to accommodate students that work full-time or who are further along in the degree program When Students Sell Back Textbooks · The majority of students (75.6%) sell back their textbooks during or after final exams · Less than one-fifth of the students surveyed (16.7%), sell their books before final exams · The Missing 7.8% of students either did not answer this question or reported that they did not know when they sell back their used textbooks Convenience of Textbook Buyback Process · The same number of students (34.4%), reported the textbook buyback process as somewhat inconvenient as those who reported the process as somewhat convenient · The amount of students that reported the process as very inconvenient (11.1%) was much lower than those that reported it as very convenient (6.7%) · The Missing 3.3% of students reported that they did not know the convenience of the textbook buyback process Satisfaction with the Quantity of Textbooks Bought Back · 47.8% of students were dissatisfied, to some degree, with the textbook buyback process · 38.6% of students were, to some degree, satisfied with the process · A very small percentage of students (3.3%) were very satisfied · The missing 2.2% either did not answer the question or reported that they did not know Satisfaction with the Amount of Money Given · The majority of students (80%) were dissatisfied, to some degree, with the amount of money given in exchange for their textbooks · A small percentage of students (12.2%), were actually satisfied with the amount of money given in exchange for their textbooks Length of Time Students Wait in Line to Sell Back Textbooks · The majority of students (74.4%), wait in line more than 5 minutes, but less than 20 minutes, to sell back their used textbooks · Over 50% of that 74.4%, wait in line between 5 minutes and 15 minutes, to sell back their used textbooks · 16.7% of students wait more than 20 minutes in line to sell back their used textbooks Satisfaction with the Amount of Time Spent Waiting in Line · 46.7% of students are dissatisfied, to some extent, with the amount of time spent waiting in line · 25.5% of students are satisfied, to some extent, with the amount of time spent waiting in line · The missing 2.2% did not report an answer to this question · A relatively large amount of students (25.6%) reported that they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the amount of time spent waiting in line Important to Know the Quantity Available for Buyback · 86.7% of students feel that it is important to know the quantity of textbooks available for buyback by the bookstore · Only a very small percentage of students (2.2%), felt that this was not important · The same percentage (2.2) of students reported that they did not know whether it was important or unimportant Important to Know the Price Offered for Textbooks · Over 97% of students felt that it is important, to some degree, to know the price offered by the bookstore for used textbooks · Of that 97%, 73.3% of students strongly agreed that it is very important to know the price offered for used textbooks · Only 2.2% reported that it was neither important nor unimportant A Self-Scan System Would be Very Convenient · The majority of students (82.2%), reported that a self-scan system would be very convenient · Of that 82.2%, over half reported that they strongly agree · 12.2% of students reported that they neither agree nor disagree that a self-scan system would be convenient · Only a very small percentage (3.3) reported that they somewhat disagree and none of the students reported that they strongly disagree Likelihood Students Would Use a Self-Scan System · The majority of students (83.3%), reported that they would be likely, to some extent, to use a self-scan system · A very small percentage of students (3.3%), reported that they would be unlikely, to -some extent, to use a self-scan system · The missing 4.4% reported that they did not know whether they would be likely or unlikely to use a self-scan system Limitations The reader should note that this study is based on a survey of undergraduate students at Wayne State University, a large-sized university in Detroit, Michigan. Time and personnel constraints limited the survey sample to 90 undergraduate students. Caution should be exercised in generalizing these results to other populations. After reviewing our survey results, we realized that there are several other questions that we should have asked. To get a clearer understanding of students preferences by major, we could have asked them to report their course of study. For example, some degree programs may require the same textbook for multiple courses, or it may be beneficial for students to keep their textbooks for future reference. We would have also asked if students live on campus or commute to Wayne State. This would have possibly given us an idea whether students who live off-campus feel that it is more inconvenient than those living on-campus. Due to the low response rate to the open-ended questions, we feel that we should have offered the participants some type of compensation in an effort to correct this. We feel that offering a small, inexpensive incentive would have encouraged the respondents to take more time to think about their answers. Although the survey proved adequate, we would have changed these few things in order to make it more complete. Conclusion After reviewing our results, we found several trends. First, we found that the majority of respondents perceive the textbook buyback process as either somewhat convenient or somewhat inconvenient (68.8%). These results show that there is plenty of opportunity for improvement and change to the current process. We also found that a large percentage of students interviewed would agree, to some extent, that a self-scan system would be convenient (82.2%). One of the elements of the questionnaire that returned a majority of unsatisfied results was the amount of money the students receive for their textbooks. Out of 90 students, 80% reported that they are either somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with this aspect of the textbook buyback process. When asked if they thought it was important to know the amount of money offered for their textbooks, prior to taking them to the bookstore, 97.8% of respondents agreed. When asked if it is important to know the quantity of textbooks being bought back, prior to taking them to the bookstore, 86.7% of respondents agreed. In addition, when asked how likely they would be to use a self-scan system, 83.3% of students responded that they would be likely to use it. In conclusion, a self-scan system would be beneficial to implement because it would allow students to see the amount of money given for their textbooks a...