Usage of The 1Malaysia Book Voucher: Book Purchasing Decisions Among Undergraduates of The University of Malaya

Abstract

This is a study on the University of Malaya’s undergraduates’ decisions on book purchasing using the 1Malaysia book voucher. For this study, a qualitative research was done in the form of four focus group discussions among the undergraduates. The discussions were on four aspects: how useful was the book voucher to students, what motivated them to purchase the books based on Philip Kotler’s and Alison Baverstock’s marketing mix factors (product, price, place, promotion, people and period of time), what were the problems that hindered them from utilising the book vouchers for their academic studies and what suggestions can be made to increase usefulness of the voucher for their studies. Before the introduction of the book voucher, students relied on library books, photocopied books, notes from their lecturers, second hand books and online notes. With the 1Malaysia book voucher, do the students now purchase their academic books? The focus group sessions were audio recorded and transcribed. The data were divided into themes, coded and analysed using Microsoft Excel. The findings showed that the book vouchers were useful and that they were mostly used for their studies. Also, product and place were the most dominant factors they looked for before they made their purchases with their vouchers. There were complaints about the timing of the distribution of the voucher, which was nearly the middle of the second semester instead of the beginning of an academic session. The most popular suggestion in improving the usage of the voucher is to either remove the expiry date or lengthen it. The purpose of this study is to provide better feedback so that the vouchers will certainly be of great benefit in the dissemination of knowledge in tertiary education.