The effect of customer review and technological innovation on perceived risk in parental childcare decision-making

Abstract

Parents are the decision makers in childcare selection although they are not the primary users of the service. They are responsible to carefully assess possible risk, so that the children would be under quality, safe and reliable care. This study aims to determine the effect of customer review and technological innovation on perceived risk among parents in childcare service purchase decision. The data were collected from 385 respondents from four regions (northern, southern, eastern and western) of Peninsular Malaysia, and analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results confirm that customer review does not significantly affect parents’ perceived risk. In contrast, technological innovation significantly affected perceived risk. These findings imply that customer review is not an important factor to parents who make childcare decision. However, the presence of technological innovation such as online platforms that enable parents to seek childcare information and compare available services are imperative in risk-driven childcare decision-making. As a results, developing an apps or websites that catalogue childcare services would enable childcare providers to supply needed information and ease parents in making alternative evaluations and purchase decision. This study presents a novel contribution in extending current understanding of parents’ behaviour as consumers in childcare service industry