– Investigating hypothetical consumer behavior in buying stolen, pirated

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TASK EIGHT 

Here is the Methods section from a paper investigating hypothetical consumer behavior in buying stolen, pirated, or counterfeit goods from the black market. Read it and then answer the questions on pages 294-295.

Consumer Decisions in the Black Market for Stolen or Counterfeit Goods Casola, L., Kemp, S., and Mackenzie, A. (2009). Journal of Economic Psychology, 30, 162-171.

Method 

1 A total of 80 (36 male) participants were recruited at the University of Canterbury (51 participants) and from the general population (29 participants).

2 Participants from the general public were recruited in four different malls of the local city, representing four different socio-economic levels as indicated by land values. 

3 The overall age range was between 15 and 68 years of age, with a mean of 27 (SD = 13).

4 All participants completed the same questionnaire. 

5 The final sample contained 53 current students and 27 non-students. 

6 All participants were given two $1 “scratch-and-win” lottery tickets in recognition of their help. 

7 The bulk of the questionnaire consisted of nine black market scenarios.

8 Participants were asked to rate each scenario in terms of how unacceptable they perceived it was for the agent in the scenario to make a purchase from the black market. 

9 Participants circled a value between 1 and 7 on a rating scale where a score of 1 corresponded to “completely acceptable,” a score of 4 was “reasonably acceptable,” and a score of 7 was “not at all acceptable.” 

10 The nine scenarios varied (3 x 3) the need of the agent and the original source of the goods offered in the market. 

11 The need of the agent could be survival; a need to save money; or not otherwise being able to afford the good.

12 The original sources of 294 ACADEMIC WRITING FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS the goods (victims) were an individual; an organization or society. 

13 Two examples of scenarios were:

14 “In the days following the Tsunami in Indonesia, isolated places have a food scarcity. 

15 Ragu has no food to feed his family. 

16 He has been approached by black market dealers who have offered him food in exchange for money.

17 Considering the food has been procured from the burglary of a private home, how acceptable do you think it is for Ragu to buy such food?” (Survival need, individual victim). 

18 “Michael is a student with a passion for music who has been approached and offered state of the art electronic stereo equipment at half the price it sells for in the local stores.

19 Assuming that Michael could not otherwise afford such equipment, and that he is aware that the goods have been stolen from a large international electronic manufacturer, how acceptable do you think it is for Michael to buy such equipment?” (Cannot afford need, organization victim). 

20 Half the questionnaires included scenarios in which all the consumers were depicted as male while in the other half they were always female. 

21 The only difference between these two questionnaires was the implied gender of the names and the pronouns used. 

22 The order of presentation of the scenarios was varied across participants. 

23 Finally, a demographic section asked participants their age, gender, occupation and income. 

Copyright Elsevier. Used with permission. 

1. Which of the moves described in Table 19 can you find in the method description? 

2. Do you think the level of detail is sufficient or insufficient? In other words, is there enough information to allow the study to be adapted or replicated by others? If not, what would you need to know?

3. Do you think the sample scenarios are needed? Should the authors have described how the final sample was derived? 

4. How is the information organized? What subheadings could you add to help readers? Where would you place them? 

5. What verb tense dominates? Why did the authors choose this tense? Could another tense have been chosen? 

6. How do the authors maintain a good flow of ideas in the first paragraph? Do they follow this same strategy in the final paragraph? 

7. Does active or passive voice dominate? Why is this the case? 

8. What verb tense (past or present) and voice (active or passive) dominates in the Methods sections of the papers that you analyzed? Why? 

9. You have been asked to lead a discussion focusing on the method used in this paper. What points would you make? 

10. Analyze 3-5 papers from your reference collection in terms of the move structure in the Methods sections. Are the moves the same as those proposed by Peacock or are there others?