Malaysian consumers' perceived importance and knowledge of household furniture materials.

• Main Authors: Mohamed, Shukri, Yaakob, Sam Shor Nahar, B., Mohd Khairon, Ahmad, Ashriq Fahmy, A. R., Bazillah, H., Ahmad Aizuddin
• Format: Article
• Language: English; English
• Published: Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia 2011
• Online Access: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/23921/1/Malaysian%20consumers.pdf; http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/23921/; http://www.forestry.gov.my/‎

Furniture is one of the common items found in a household. Consumers deciding on a household furniture purchase are usually overwhelmed with a range of shape, size, style colour and material choice. The objective of this paper is to investigate consumers' perceived importance and knowledge of materials used to manufacture household furniture. The type of materials preferred by the consumers was also identified. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data for the study. The respondents were recruited at four different sites in Peninsular Malaysia, two in urban and rural areas each, with the aim of obtaining a broad representation of the consumers. Results indicated that respondents rated the type of material a household furniture item is made of as an important purchase decision attribute. Female respondents generally rate material more importantly than males. Knowledge of the consumers, and subsequently their preference, of the material used to manufacture household furniture is mostly limited to wood and rattan.