Hypotheses
For our study, we predicted four hypotheses:
1.
H1: DePaul students are more likely to buy or rent textbooks from online retailers than buy or rent from the campus bookstore.
H0: DePaul students are less likely to buy or rent textbooks from online retailers than buy or rent from the campus bookstore.
Source: In the article, Web vs. Campus Store? Why Students Buy Textbooks Online, Foucault and Scheufele discovered a growing trend in online textbook retailers and reported that students who used or were familiar with various online retailers purchased and will continue to buy textbooks from online databases (2002).
2.
H1: DePaul students decide to buy or rent textbooks online over the campus bookstore because of the price differences.
H0: DePaul students do not decide to buy or rent textbooks online over the campus bookstore because of the price differences.
Source: The price of textbooks has tripled during the last few decades as prices have increased by an average of 6 percent per year. Although textbooks are considered highly profitable items for campus bookstores, the increased costs have influenced students' consumer behaviors and perspectives toward textbook purchases (Foucault & Scheufele, 2002; Mui & Kinzie, 2008).
3.
H1: Lowerclassmen will be more likely to buy or rent textbooks from the campus bookstore than upperclassmen.
H0: Lowerclassmen will not be less likely to buy or rent textbooks from the campus bookstore than upperclassmen.
Source: Although no previous studies have examined this hypothesis, we believe underclassmen will be unaware of possible alternatives to obtaining their textbooks because of the lack of experience in buying them, therefore they will purchase all of their needed books from the bookstore.
4.
H1: DePaul students are overall more likely to rent their textbooks.
H0: DePaul student are overall less likely to rent their textbooks.
Source: Due to high textbook costs and financial constraints, college students are now utilizing alternative methods to retrieve textbooks for their courses. Renting and buying from online databases are popular resources to help escape costly book fees (Foucault & Scheufele, 2002; Mui & Kinzie, 2008).