National culture, materialism and consumption behaviour
The impact of a person's level of materialism on their consumption behaviour has often beenexamined at the cultural level. Literature suggests that the materialism defining one's culturedetermines one's behaviour in purchasing products on the basis of their materialisticassociations as reflected in brand names, prices and exclusivity. Little research, however, hastaken into account the potential variation in individual materialism within these cultures andhow such characteristics ultimately affect preferences for particular aspects of the product.Using a framework embedded in random utility theory, we decompose the evaluation ofproducts in terms of a brand's materialistic associations, and conspicuous attributes, both ofwhich may be more pertinent for consumers to communicate and reflect their own individuallevel of materialism. We test this framework in two product categories, luxury cars andsunglasses. We find support for our hypotheses that materialistic individuals prefer brandnames with materialistic associations. There is some confirmation that individual materialisminfluences the importance and preference for conspicuous attributes of the product, such aswhether a materialistic brand name is printed on the frame of one's sunglasses. Pertinent tothese insights is the attention and inclusion of individual materialism beyond that of culturaldimensions in explaining consumption behaviour.
Year of publication: |
2005
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Authors: | Delaney Jacqueline ; Burke Paul ; Gudergan Siggi |
Publisher: |
University of Western Australia |
Saved in:
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