A comparison of consumers´ perceptions of insecurity -A case study comparing Spain and Panama-

Abstract:

The consumer perception of insecurity plays an important role on how individuals see the reality of urban spaces. In this thesis the shopping center, the area around and the way consumers choose to go to the shopping center is in focus of interest. Spain and Panama are two examples of different markets with different security issues, for instance, in Madrid a security issue is a smartphone being stolen in contrast with Panama, where people are worried about being wounded in an assault. Thus, how individuals see the reality differs in terms of previous experiences which generates different values of insecurity perception.

The thesis uses qualitative data obtained through 40 short interviews in two shopping centers, one in Madrid and the other in Panama. The thesis is focused on responding to the different types of insecurity perception, mainly how different insecurity perceptions affect consumer interactions with shopping centers in Spain and Panama respectively.

The results of the thesis show that insecurity perception is an important aspect for the demand. This might indicate that the variable is important for future analysis, but this needs to be studied by more examples.