Research Project Final Report Sample

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITYAdvanced Educational Program ∞∞∞∞ Research topic : A research about Customer Behavior of AEP students intake 59 towards Junk Food consumption.. This study

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Advanced Educational Program

∞∞∞∞

Research topic :

A research about Customer Behavior of AEP students

intake 59 towards Junk Food consumption.

Name : Nguyen T Phuong Anh

Le Thu Hang Nguyen Le My Hanh Nguyen Thanh Tung

Instructor : Ph D Pham Thi Thanh Thuy

Hanoi, 2018

Table of Contents

Chapter I: Introduction……… 4

1.1 Rationale……….4

1.2 Purpose………4

1.3 Popularity………4

1.4 Research question………5

1.4a Research methods………5

1.5 Literature review……….5

 Definition of Junk Food……….5

 Definition of Customer Behavior ……… ………6

 Previous research……….….….6

 Major finding abstract……….… 8

 Remainder of the report……….……… 8

Chapter II: Main Findings……… ….9

2.1 Customer Behavior ……….9

2.2 Health problems………22

2.1.1 Interview………22

2.2.2 Digestive system………24

2.2.3 Cardiovascular system……… 24

2.2.4 Appearance and metal………25

3.1 Summary……….25

3.2 Limitations……… 25

3.3 Opportunities for other researchers……….25

3.4 Suggestion……….… …………25

3.4.1 Preparing foodbox……….……….26

3.4.2 Inquiring applications……….……… 26

References……….……… 27

Appendix……….28

A Questionnaire……… 28

B Graph……….30

to find out the behavior of them when choosing and eating Junk Food.

1.2 PURPOSE

        The overall target of this research has been to increase AEP student’s awareness ofthe frequency level of eating Junk Food which causes a lot of health problems Byattempting to find out the demand & supply factors of AEP students in consuming JunkFood, our group conducted an Internet survey and interviewed some of AEP second-yearstudents This study focuses on AEP student’s behavior when choosing Junk Food inorder to know why they love eating Junk Food and effects of Junk Food on AEPstudent’s health Then, we might give some recommendations and advices to AEPStudents to improve their way of choosing junk food and also to better their eating habits

1.3 POPULARITY

        The area of research is narrowed down within National Economic University,

particularly in Advanced Educational Program The main object in this research is AEPStudents intake 59 who come from different areas in Vietnam but currently are studyingtogether in 2nd year in AEP There were some main reasons for our team to decide thisscope Initially, this scope observation is more convenient and easier to approach theparticipants because both of the researcher and the observed are studying at NEU Lastly,the AEP students come from many various areas where have the differences in culture,custom, etiquette, etc so they may have different eating habit, eating flavor as well aseating standard and it increases the diversity responses to expand the data collection infinding Customer Behavior of Junk Food consumption

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What is the Customer Behavior of AEP students on consuming Junk Food?

● What are the Effects of Junk Food on human Health?

1.4a RESEARCH METHODS

        In order to collect diversified data, we conducted an interview of some students inAdvanced Accounting 59B Class from Advanced Educational Program and created asurvey on the internet based on our questionnaires Its material information includes:

● The number of interviewees is 12 students However, we only choose 3-5appropriate respondents, which has fully answered the questionnaire with noconfusing answer

● The number of participants in our survey is 52 Each survey lasts in 1-2 minutes.All of analysis data collected

After collecting the data, we write a research report combining our understanding Inaddition, we also find information on the Internet, for example:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_food as well as a lot of various factual informationfrom AEP friends and analyze social network resources too, ashttps://www.facebook.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/ Therefore, we have the quiterich data collection to give the detailed result as most accurately as possible

1.5 LITERATURE REVIEW

Definition of Junk Food

While searching Junk Food on google, a lot of definitions are given For example,according to Dr Sunali Sharma, Dietician & Nutritionist, from Amandeep Hospital,

‘Commercial products including but not limited to salted snack foods, gum, candy,sugary desserts, fried fast food, and sweetened carbonated beverages that have little or nonutritional value but are high in calories, salt, and fats may be considered junk foods’.Another Junk Food definition is from Wikipedia ‘Junk Food is a pejorative term for foodcontaining a large number of calories from sugar or fat with little dietary fiber, protein,vitamins or minerals The term can also refer to high protein food like meat prepared withsaturated fat’ As a result, after considering a lot of definitions from different resources, itcan simply define that Junk Foodthat is food has low nutritional value but high fat, sugar

or salt, typically produced in the form of fast food or packaged snacks needing little or nopreparation

Definition of Customer Behavior

The term ‘Customer Behavior’ is considered by https://www.braze.com/ website:

‘Customer Behavior refers to any action that a customer takes related to your company,but as marketers, we are particularly interested in actions that we can track and learn from

to build relationships’ To clearly understand this definition, imagine that beforepurchasing a product, people will consider about price, quality, packaging, or purposeusing that product, so all of that is what the firms want to know about their customers,consumers to develop their products and carry out advertisements Customer Behaviorcan be understood that is the thoughts and the feelings of consumers in buying andconsuming process including all of user actions: purchasing, using and product handling

Previous research

Before this investigation is carried out, many authors studied about various subject ofJunk Food with different opinions However, most of them focused on the effects of JunkFood on human’s health, the same thing of those authors is their main point in health,while a few other authors studied about consumer attitudes or consumer behavior

For instance, Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia (2012), Junk Food in Schools and

Childhood Obesity Their research estimates the effects of junk food availability on BMI,

obesity, and related outcomes among a sample of fifth-graders and instrumental variablesregressions that leverage variation in the school’s grade span It found that the expansion

of BMI and obesity does not significantly depend on the increase junk food purchases.Main purpose of this study is finding how junk food impacts on BMI and obesity among

a fifth-grade cohort and do not mention anything related to consumer attitude or behavior.Through calculation, statistics and analysis, Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia provedthe effects of junk food on children’s health is real and quite serious because the eatingjunk food is increasing tremendously, but it does not mean the increase of eating junkfood is the reason making BMI index and obesity in the fifth-grade raise

On the one hand, Icek Ajzen (2015), Consumer attitudes and behavior: the theory of

planned behavior applied to food consumption decisions His study was conducted to

explain how the theory of planned behavior approach to food consumption decisions Hecompared the difference as well as the similarity between two methods: the multi-attribute and subjective expected utility (SEU) models These methods are used to predictintentions and behavior purchase or use of a single brand or product and as well as inrelation to choose among different brands or products of consumer based on the plannedbehavior theory The main finding of this research is to confirm the correctness of thistheory: “The consumer behavior is a function of intention to perform the behavior inquestion; the intention is based on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioralcontrol with respect to the behavior; and these factors are determined, respectively, bybehavioral, normative, and control beliefs”

Health or the Customer Behavior of AEP students on consuming Junk Food, ourinvestigation is to find the relationship of Customer Behavior and Health What JunkFood Customer Behavior of AEP students is, how their Customer Behavior related totheir Health and how Junk Food affected to human health are all main points It can beclaimed that customer behavior and health do not affect very directly but they haveinteraction, the standard of eating Junk Food behavior impacts on AEP student’s health in

a quite direct way This study also is to let AEP students understand about their eatingJunk Food behavior of themselves in order to change their eating behavior that is betterfor health

Nevertheless, like other researches, this investigation also has some advantages anddisadvantages that are necessary to mention There are 3 outstanding advantages: AEPstudent ‘s eating behavior evaluation, the increase of awareness and a lot of suggestions,recommendations, advices Firstly, this study gives the objective and concrete evaluationabout eating behavior among AEP students because all of data are investigated involuntariness, honesty and reality It can affirm that 52 participants are actual AEPstudents because the survey link is secure only in AEP groups, so the statistic is perfectlyrealistic in order to confirm the customer behavior of AEP students accurately Secondly,with many information of its about health, it can increase the AEP student ‘s awareness inconsuming Junk Food This study shows the effects of junk food on their health,especially the effects on appearance, digestion and cardiovascular diseases - the problemsare not easy to see but always are human’s concerns The last advantage is worthsuggestions, recommendations and advices to AEP students change their eating habit,behavior and improve their health, get a better body The suggestions, recommendationand advices in this research are carefully selected from many health magazines as well asscientific newspaper and health professors too (www.everydayhealth.com,www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au, www.livestrong.com ) - the reliable resources, so audiencesmight believe

Beside the advantages, the biggest disadvantage is limited scope Due to short timeperiod, the survey is just opened in 2 weeks and the number of participants is few Itmeans despite objective, the observed is not various so the opinion is not diverse too.Another limitation is age Because of carrying out among AEP students who are betweenthe ages of 18-22, it seems that the opinion about consuming junk food of the olderpeople will be different In each different occasion or different condition, situation, therewill have several eating behaviors, so it will give different results of customer behaviorresearch in the larger scope Similarly, maybe the older, people tend to choose morehealthy food and be interested in health, not many old people are excited about junk foodlike young people Lastly, the disadvantage of study is about effect of junk food Becausejunk food effects usually need to observe in a long time, the effects mentioned in reportrecently is relative The effects of junk food do not appear immediately after eating, itoften is small signs that cannot see easily The symptoms caused by diseases about junkfood just become clearly when the disease is more and more serious

Major finding abstracts

To collect realistic data, our group conducted a survey on the internet and alsointerviewed some AEP students to find out Customer Behavior on consuming Junk Food.The total number of respondents is 52, including 71.2% females’ participation and theother is males It can find the majority of survey participants on the internet is female, so

it normally evaluates that women tend to prefer to consume junk food and are moreinterested in food than men Looking at the statistic, 100% AEP student’s intake 59 isstill eating junk food every day Unfortunately, although they eat huge amount of junkfood, they do not have a clear idea of certain standards of eating Junk Food, for example:the level of cleanness or the different variety of junk food, etc In 52 responses, 75%respondents love eating Junk Food due to the taste of its It indicates that they tend tosimply enjoy the original taste of each junk food meals However, they seem to pay lessattention to the quality of junk food or the risk its may cause on health Anothernoteworthy point, a lot of reasons given when AEP students intake 59 eating junk food isits convenience, but in fact shown in survey, 25% for 13 respondents spending 30-45minutes in a Junk Food meal and some even spend >45 minutes The figures also showthat many Junk Food consumers do not actually know what junk food is, even thoughthey eat it regularly The results of survey and interview seems to affirm AEP student’sintake 59 do not really understand the exact definition of junk food as well as its badeffects on both their appearance and health

Remainder of the report

The study has two major findings: customer behavior of AEP student’s intake 59 onconsuming junk food and the effects of junk food on their body – appearance and health.From this two main points, the body of the research is divided into 6 sections to clearlyclarify Firstly, section 1 will discuss about the junk food customer behavior of AEPstudent’s intake 59 by analyzing information and statistics in the survey Secondly, insection 2, from the existing, the finding will be explained and demonstrated Thirdly, insection 3 our group will use relevant data and analysis from section 2 and also someoutside references Next, in section 4, our group will display some of the instrumentalvariables estimation and also draw the conclusion of our research The information insection 5 will be given from the previous interview, focusing on the health information,indicate the reason why students love eating junk food and why do they still continueeating junk food after getting health problems (digestive system, cardiovascular system).Lastly, after showing the effects of junk food, the advices and recommendations insection 6 are given in order to help AEP student to change the eating habit and to have ahealthier lifestyle

Chapter II: Main Findings

In this section, the most important findings will be presented and will be organizedaround the research question In total, males account for 28.8% and females account for71,2% of the total number of respondents This result shows us that females tend toconsume Junk Food more than males, they love Junk Food and care about it much morethan male students This because Junk Food has been a favorite thing for women in along time

2.1 Survey on Customer Behavior of AEP Students intake 59 in Junk FoodConsumption

2.1.1 What is Junk Food?

Figure 1 What is Junk Food?

According to the charts above, 65.4% of AEP Students intake 59 think Junk Food is fastfoods like hamburger, pizza… In the second place, 61.5% of them think that Junk Food issweet stuffs such as snack, candy, cake… There are 11.5% believe Junk Food belongs tofood that has low calories which include salad or fruit Additionally, another numberabout 9.6% answer they don’t know what Junk Food is Moreover, a small number thinkthat Junk Food is not one of the answers above This is a very good sign because almostevery student know what Junk Food is It helps them to know what the components areinside their food, how much calories or fat that food consists of, is it healthy or not, what

to eat and not to eat at a specific meal in a day

2.1.1 Have you ever eaten Junk Food?

Figure 2 Have you ever eaten Junk Food?

In this chart, it can easily see that all the students who took the survey have eaten Junk Food at least once in their life This means Junk Food is very popular among AEP

Students intake 59

2.1.2 Do you regularly eat Junk Food?

Figure 2 Do you regularly eat Junk Food?

It can see that from the chart that 63.5% students eat Junk Food 2-4 times a week At ahigher rate, almost a quarter of the answer eat Junk Food from 5 to 6 times per week It isvery surprising that the number of AEP Students intake 59 who eat Junk Food everydayaccounts for only 3.8% The amount of answers in which they eat 1 or 2 times a month orrarely eat Junk is quite low, only at 1.9% Last of all, only 5.8% said that they never eatJunk Food

To sum up, a large number of AEP Students intake 59 eat Junk Food at 2-3 times perweek and a very small proportion of them eat every day In general, students of intake 59

do not eat much Junk Food in a week

2.1.3 What kinds of Junk Food do you usually eat/buy?

Figure 3 What kinds of Junk Food do you usually eat/buy?

As the graph above shows, a huge number of students (73.1% of them) choose to eat fastfood at some famous brands like KFC, Lotteria, McDonald, etc This is dangerousbecause these kinds of food are normally very high in calories and fat , which are veryharmful to their body and their heart Coming in the second place, beverages such asBubble tea, Soft drink, etc are bought by majority of AEP students whenever they feel tohave a cheat meal Accounting for half of the answers is packed-version food whichincludes chocolate, snacks, candies, etc The last option is house-made food like cupcake,cookies, Korean foods with 32.7% students votes, almost half of those who choose fastfood to eat when they think of Junk Food

To conclude, it seems AEP students are eating too much harmful food like fast food,beverages due to their convenience, cheap price rather than safe, well-prepared house-made food This is mainly caused by their lack of time in a day; they have to balancebetween school, part-time job, homework and other activities so they do not have time toprepare a proper meal to eat or bring along

2.1.4 When do you usually eat Junk Food?

Figure 4 When do you usually eat Junk Food?

The graph shows that AEP students’ intake 59 eat Junk Food the most at brunch (63.5%),which is usually late morning to early afternoon One of the reasons is the schedule,classes start quite early in the morning and in the afternoon, therefore they cannot havetheir breakfast on time About 20% lower votes is the choice for having Junk Food atlunch (42.3%), this mostly because the break time between classes in the morning and theafternoon is too short then Junk Food is their best option in order to not be late for thefollowing classes Eating Junk Food at dinner has 25% vote, more than at breakfast at13.5% vote The smallest percentage of votes (7.7%) is having Junk Food at other time ofthe day

In conclusion, AEP student’s intake 59 eat Junk Food mostly at brunch and lunch This isdue to their amount of break-time at school Choosing Junk Food to be a quick andconvenience solution as a meal, so that they can attend other classes on time The votesfor eating at dinner drop massively because of their fear of getting overweight Thenumber of students eats Junk Food at breakfast is even smaller because they have alreadyknown Junk Food do not contain enough nutrients and energy for a whole new day

2.1.5 In which occasion do you usually eat/buy Junk Food?

Figure 5 In which occasion do you usually eat/buy Junk Food?

From the graph above, almost 60% of students answer the survey that they eat/buy JunkFood when spending a whole day at school, this is reasonable from the figure 5 due totight schedule and small amount of break-time Less than 10% is happened when theyhave to stay at home alone (51.9%) They eat Junk Food while studying or in their leisuretime Hence, the number of clients buying Junk Food when they have discount codes fortheir favorite dishes is at 42.3%, this means students are very economical in using theirmoney Almost 40% students eat/buy Junk Food when the schedule is dense with thesame reason why students stay all day at school In the fourth place is at some specialevents (30.8%) for example: birthday parties, gatherings etc In addition, there are 5.8%students eat/buy Junk Food at other occasions

To summarize, AEP student’s intake 59 usually eat or buy Junk Food while having a tightschedule, spending all day at school and having leisure time at home The numberslightly drops in discount codes because almost every kinds of Junk Food is quite cheap

so that students can buy with hardly any difficulties, this also means they are very

2.1.6 How long does your Junk Food meal last?

Figure 6 How long does your Junk Food meal last?

The graph shows that almost 40% of the respondents spend between 15 to 30 minutes oneating their Junk Food meal This is understandable since they usually have meals duringtheir school day Whilst, the students who eat their meal from 30 to 45 minutes is almostthe same percentage number as those who spend less than 15 minutes on a Junk Foodmeal The smallest percentage is counted for the number of students who spend morethan 45 minutes In conclusion, AEP student’s intake 59 mostly eat their Junk Food meal

in 15-30 minutes so they can rest and continue studying, hence Junk Food is a kind offood which easy to prepare and to consume so it does not take a long time to eat.However, eating Junk Food may cause consumers some serious digest problems since it

is similar to consuming fast food

Figure 7 Where do you usually buy Junk Food?

Look at the graph it can easily see that students usually buy Junk Food at conveniencestores or the nearest stores to their places (59.6%) The second place is at fast food chainswith 57.7%, followed up with the percentage of buying online at 40.4% Less than 10% isthe answer of buying at vender stores and only 19.2% of the students buy at expensiverestaurants

In summary, AEP students intake 59 buy Junk Food at convenience store and neareststore like Circle K, Vinmart or any store nearby because Junk Food is sold in those storethe most Next is fast food chains with many options for them to choose from Inaddition, ordering food online is very common nowadays due to the popular of deliveringapps on smartphone and Internet Students also buy Junk Food at vender stores in thestreet on their way home Last but not least is buying Junk Food at restaurants, buy thesekinds of food took time to prepared and a huge amount of money Hence, AEP studentstended to look for other stores provided food with a reasonable price

Figure 8 Where do you usually eat Junk Food?

From the chart, it can be observed that eating Junk Food at home and on campus arealike library, classroom takes over 62.5% of all choices However, the number of studentswho eat Junk Food at working places and public places such as park, bus stop, parking…

in only at about 25%

To sum up, there is a significant number of students eat Junk Food at home and oncampus because they can eat it in their leisure time and break time between classes oreven during their classes The smaller number eating at public places because of thehygiene quality in those places is not guaranteed In working places, eating food duringwork is forbidden so students avoid eating in those scenarios