Studenci jako uczestnicy badań konsumenckich
Students as participants of consumer research

Summary/Abstract: The issue of conducting consumer research based on student samples has been discussed in scientific journals on economics and management since the 1970s. The large scale of experiments and surveys involving students, as well as the relatively common perception this social group as research representatives of other groups (e.g. adults or generation Y), raise methodological doubts. Students are not typical consumers, therefore they should not be the first or the only choice of researchers, as has often been the case. The aim of the paper is to define both the opportunities and limitations connected to using student samples in consumer research, and to show the scale of this phenomenon in studies conducted in Poland. A content analysis (supported by a frequency analysis) of 64 articles from ‘Handel Wewnętrzny’ (‘Internal Trade’) journal from 2009–2018, containing research results in which students were either the only research group or one of two groups, was carried out. The results of the analyses partly confirm the methodological problems signaled in foreign literature. In Poland, there is no overuse of student samples in scientific research. The problem lies rather in the lack of diligence in the description of research methods and the generalization of research results to broadly defined populations (e.g. young consumers).

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