Factors Affecting Consumer Choice of Mobile Phones: Two Studies from Finland

Factors Affecting Consumer Choice of Mobile Phones: Two Studies from Finland
Heikki Karjaluoto Jari Karvonen Manne Kesti Timo Koivumäki Marjukka Manninen Jukka Pakola Annu Ristola Jari Salo

ABSTRACT. Mobile phone markets are one of the most turbulent market environments today due to increased competition and change. Thus, it is of growing concern to look at consumer buying decision process and cast light on the factors that finally determine consumer choices between different mobile phone brands. On this basis, this article deals with consumers’ choice criteria in mobile phone markets by studying factors that
Heikki Karjaluoto is Research Professor in Marketing; Jari Karvonen is Researcher in Marketing; Manne Kesti is Researcher in Marketing; Timo Koivumäki is Professor in Marketing; Marjukka Manninen is Researcher in Economics; Jukka Pakola is Researcher in Economics; Annu Ristola is Researcher in Marketing; and Jari Salo is Researcher in Marketing, all at the University of Oulu, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Finland. Address correspondence to: Heikki Karjaluoto, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Marketing, P.O. Box 4600, FIN-90014 University of Oulu, Finland (E-mail: [e-mail]). The financial support of the National Technology Agency of Finland is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank all the study participants. Journal of Euromarketing, Vol. 14(3) 2005 http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JEM  2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Digital Object Identifier: 10.1300/J037v14n03_04

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influence intention to acquire new mobile phones on one hand and factors that influence on mobile phone change on the other. With the use of a series of focus group interviews (Study 1) with 79 graduate students followed by a survey (Study 2) of 196 respondents, it was found that although the choice of a mobile phone is a subjective choice situation, there

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