A Quantitative Assessment of Materialistic Value and its Relationship with Consumer Behavior in Indian Culture

The present study is aimed at attaining a better understanding of the consumer value of materialism. Two of the significant works on empirical manifestation of the abstract concept of materialism are those by Belk (1984) and Richins and Dawson (1992). However, notwithstanding their relevance to materialism in Western cultures, there was a need to examine and identify a scale satisfying validity and reliability criteria in urban Indian ambience. This study is envisaged to fulfill two objective - first, assessment of construct validity of the Richins and Dawson (1992) scale of materialism, and second, examination of the relationship with consumer behavior parameters of consumption innovativeness and attitude towards television advertising. The study revealed that the Richins and Dawson (1992) scale of materialism exhibits construct validity - high reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity. Further, Indian consumers having greater materialistic tendencies exhibit higher consumption innovativeness and display a positive attitude towards television advertising. The utilitarian value of the study is in the areas of diffusion of innovation and marketing communication