Consumer legal literacy, values and consumerism practices among members of consumer association in Malaysia

Abstract

Self-protection is an important component that has been outlined under the Malaysian National Consumer Policy (NCP). It is essential to achieve government’s vision through promoting the community of consumers who are constantly aware and knowledgeable of their rights and responsibilities. Respondents are comprised of members of consumer association (GPS) found in Institute of Higher Education. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of consumer legal literacy, values of the consumers and their consumerism practices in the marketplace. A total of 400 respondents among the members of GPS have been selected through systematic sampling technique and the data were collected using a survey. It was found that the respondents were more aware of their rights rather than their responsibilities. Respondents also have poor in knowledge regarding logos and consumer legal literacy. While the value that possessed by the respondents is focused on the environmental values and consumerism practices are more likely to seek information. Based on profiling of the respondents, it can be concluded that the characteristics of respondents who should have given emphasis to are the member of GPS, aged between 18-20 years, studying at public universities, pursuing in Arts, member with less than one year of membership and only being ordinary members in the association. Accordingly, the results of this study can be beneficial to the government, consumer organizations and universities in the development of policy, conducting educational activities, improves the current learning modules so that consumerism programs in the future could be upgraded.