An Analysis on the Perception and Situational Factors in Using Vending Machine among Universities’ Students in Malaysia

Abstract

This main objective of this research is to further analyse the perception and situational factors in using vending machine among universities’ students in Malaysia.  There were two parts in this study, the first part was to investigate the perception of Malaysia’s universities’ students in using vending machine.  The second part was to analyse the situational factors that influence universities’ students in Malaysia in using vending machine.   This research was conducted using quantitative method through a set of constructed questionnaire survey.   The target respondents for this research were students from different universities in Malaysia.  The questionnaire survey was distributed in several universities, such as Taylor’s University, Sunway University, Monash University and others, mainly to the universities’ students who use vending machine.   The sample size was 313 respondents who fairly selected by using non-probability sampling method such as convenience sampling and snowball sampling method. Overall, the results of the first part study illustrated there is a positive but weak relationship between perception and universities’ students in using vending machine.   In other words, it means that a positive perception does not leading to increase the usages of vending machine.   The second part results illustrated that among all the situational factors, physical surroundings and task definition showing higher possibilities and influences towards universities’ students’ level of certainty in using vending machine.

Keywords: Perception, Situational Factors, Vending Machine, University students