FACTOR ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE FOR MOBILE PHONE NETWORK (A CASE STUDY OF CAPE COAST POLYTECHNIC)

ABSTRACT This research tries to determine the “hidden” factors which ultimately influence the choice of mobile phone network in Cape Coast Polytechnic (study area). Principal Component method of Factor analysis is used to achieve the set objectives. There are six mobile phone network providers (MTN, Vodafone, Tigo, Airtel, Globacom and Expresso) in Ghana. All these operators try to improve their marketing strategies in order to attract more customers or subscribers to increase their market share. A total of 500 respondents were drawn from students, teaching staff and administrative staff in Cape Coast Polytechnic by proportional allocation. There is no restriction in age and gender but it is required that a respondent belongs to one of these three groups. The study made use of research instrument in order to measure attributes of the networks. A 14 item likert scale was used with 5 levels of agreement in the questionnaire. The study shows that more male respondents participated in the study mostly are in the age group of 18-24 years old. Cronbach‟s alpha shows that the data collected is consistent (reliable), while the Kaiser Meyer Olkin test and Bartlett‟s test of sphericity show significant results that factor analysis is appropriate in the data gathered. Therefore, factor analysis is applicable. It is found that “long time usage” is the most important attribute followed by “wider coverage” and “good advert”. Surprisingly, “lower tariff” and “games of chance” happened to be the less important attributes. The most regularly used mobile phone network in Cape Coast Polytechnic is MTN followed by Tigo. Vodafone is the third most regularly used network, while Expresso is the least patronized network. Three factors were extracted, factor one is social responsibility factor (or customer care factor), factor two is reception benefit factor and factor three is relationship benefit factor. These three (3) factors identified, best summarizes the people‟s choice of mobile phone network in Cape Coast Polytechnic.