Dr.Hab., Associate Professor K.N. Efremenkov¹
PhD, Associate Professor I.A. Efremenkova^1
1Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Smolensk

Objective of the study was to identify the peculiarities of consumer behavior of students of physical education and sports universities of Russia.
Methods and structure of the study. The economic behavior of students in 2017-2019 was studied based on the results of the questionnaire survey of the 1st-4th-year full-time students of the Russian physical education and sports universities (n=486, including 15% of 1st-year students, 25% - 2nd-year students, 36% - 3rd-year students, and 24% - 4th-year students). The main sociological survey method was a house-to-house survey through such social networks as VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and messengers Viber, WhatsApp.
At the first stage, we determined the amounts and sources of the student budget; analyzed the daily consumption patterns of the students of Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism; studied the students’ preferences for goods and services; identified the size and content of students’ consumption. At the second stage, we analyzed the students’ employment in study-free time: the percentage of working students, their goals and motives, income level, pros and cons of combining work and study.
According to the findings, physical education and sports university environment poses a number of requirements in the economic life of Russian students, among which the most important are as follows:
- sports activity requires expensive outfit, sports equipment and gear, etc. (15,000 RUB per year on average);
- frequent competitions and training camps oblige students to include in their small budget the necessary funds for transportation and meals (about 6,000 RUB per year).

Keywords: consumer behavior, student consumption, student budget.

References

1. Avakyan A.A. Faktory aktivnogo ekonomicheskogo povedeniya sovremennoy rossiyskoy molodezhi [Factors of active economic behavior of modern Russian youth]. Fundamentalnye issledovaniya. 2012. No. 11-2. pp. 345-348.
2. Vasilenko I.V., Tkachenko O.V. Ratsionalnost v potrebitelskom povedenii molodezhi krupnogo rossiyskogo goroda [Rationality in consumer behavior of young people in large Russian city]. Humanities, socio-economic and social sciences. Krasnodar: Nauka i obrazovanie, 2016. pp. 40-45.
3. Volodin V.M., Mikhneva S.G. Ekonomicheskoe povedenie molodezhi v usloviyakh modernizatsii rossiyskogo obshchestva [Economic behavior of youth in modernization of Russian society].Obshchestvennye nauki. Sotsiologiya. 2012. No. 3 (23). pp.  121-125.
4. Knyazev P.A. Ekonomicheskoe povedenie rossiyskoy molodezhi v period mirovogo finansovogo krizisa [Economic behavior of Russian youth during global financial crisis]. Teoriya i praktika obshchestvennogo razvitiya. 2010. No. 2. pp. 165-170.
5. Serova K.I. Osobennosti potrebitelskogo povedeniya studencheskoy molodezhi: sotsiologicheskiy analiz [Features of student consumer behavior: sociological analysis]. Scientific electronic library «KiberLeninka». published on Saturday, 2 June 2018. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/faktory-potrebitelskogo-povedeniya-stu.... Date of access: 16.03.2020.
6. Shubaeva V.G, Naumov V.N. Ekonomicheskoe povedenie molodykh rossiyan v sovremennykh usloviyakh: empiricheskoe issledovanie [Economic behavior of young Russians in modern conditions: empirical study]. Finansy i biznes. 2017. No. 1. pp. 94-103.