Examining the Causal Relationships between Materialism, Status Consumption and Life Satisfaction

AYBEGUM GUNGORDU, KADRI GOKHAN YILMAZ, TUBA YUMUSAK

Abstract


The purpose of this study is to explore the causal relationships between materialism, status consumption and life satisfaction. Status consumption scale (Eastman et al, 1999), short form of the material values scale (Richins, 2004) and life satisfaction scale (Mai and Tambyah, 2011; expanded from Richins and Dawson, 1992) were used in this study. We carried out surveys on 464 consumers. We used reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and structural equation modeling. Consequently, we found that there is a negative and significant relationship between materialism and life satisfaction; there is a positive and significant relationship between materialism and status consumption and there is a positive and significant relationship between status consumption and life satisfaction. 


Keywords


Materialism; Life Satisfaction; Status Consumption; Structural equation modeling.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ahuvia, A. C., Wong, N. Y. (2002). Personality and values based materialism: Their relationship and origins. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 12(4), 389-402.

Baudrillard, J. (2015). Tüketim Toplumu (The Consumer Society), İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.

Bauman, Z. (2013). Azınlığın Zenginliği Hepimizin Çıkarına mıdır? (Does the richness of the few benefit us all?), İstanbul, Ayrıntı Yayınları.

Bearden, W. O., Netemeyer, R. G. (1999). Handbook of Marketing Scales: Multi-Item Measures for Marketing and Consumer Behavior Research, Second Edition, Sage Publications.

Belk, Russell W. (1984). Three Scales to Measure Constructs Related to Materialism: Reliability, Validity, and Relationships to Measures of Happiness. In Thomas C. Kinnear (Ed.), Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 11, pp. 291-297). Provo, UT; Association for Consumer Research.

Belk, R. W. (1985). Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material World, Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (3), 265-280.

Belk, R. W. (2001). Materialism and you. Journal of research for consumers, 1(1), 291-297.

Bentler, P. M. (1992). On the fit of models to covariances and methodology to the Bulletin, Psychological Bulletin, 112, 400-404.

Bocock, R. (2009). Tüketim (Consumption), Dost Kitabevi, Ankara.

Bollen, K. A. (1989). A new incremental fit index for general structural equation models, Sociological Methods and Research, 17, 303-316.

Budiman, A., O’Cass, A. (2007). Studying the effects of materialism, religiosity and status consumption on subjective well-being: an Indonesian perspective, ANZMAC Conference.

Burroughs, J. E, Rindfleisch, A. (2002). Materialism and well-being: a conflicting values perspective, Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (3), 348-370.

Byrne, B. M. (2010). Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS Basic Concepts Application and Programming (Second Edition), Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

Eastman, J.K., Fredenberger, B. Campbell, D., Calvert, S. (1997). The relationship between status consumption and materialism: a cross cultural comparison of Chinese, Mexican and American students, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 5 (1), 52-65.

Eastman, J. K., Goldsmith, R. E., Flynn, L. R. (1999). Status consumption in consumer behaviour: scale development and validation, Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 7 (3), 41-52.

Engel, K. S., Moosbrugger,H., Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the Fit of Structural Equation Models: Tests of Significance and Descriptive Goodness-of-Fit Measures, Methods of Psychological Research, 8(2), 23-74.

Featherstone, Mike (2013). Postmodernizm ve Tüketim Kültürü (Postmodernism and Consumer Culture), Üçüncü Baskı, İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.

Fournier, S., Richins, M. L.(1991). Some Theoretical and Popular Notions Concerning Materialism. In F. W. Rumin (Ed.), “To Have Possessions:a Handbook on Ownership and Property (special issue)”, 6(6), 403-414.

Ger, G., Belk, R. W. (1996). Cross-cultural differences in materialism. Journal of economic psychology, 17(1), 55-77.

Goldsmith, R. E., Clark, R. A. (2012). Materialism, Status Consumption, and Consumer Independence, The Journal of Social Psychology, 152(1), 43-60.

Hair, JF., Anderson, Re., Tatham, Rl., Black, Wc. (1998). Multivariate data analysis. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice-Hall.

Heaney, J.G., Goldsmith, R. E., Jusoh, W. J. W. (2005). Status Consumption among Malaysian Consumers: Exploring Its Relationships with Materialism and Attention-to-Social-Comparison-Information, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 17(4), pp.83-98.

Holt, D. B. (1995). How Consumers Consume: A Typology of Consumption Practices, Journal of Consumer Research, 22, 1-16.

Inglehart, Ronald. (1981). Post-Materialism in an Environment of Insecurity, American Political Science Review, 75,880-900.

Kilsheimer, J. C. (1993). Status Consumption: The Development and Implications of a Scale Measuring the Motivation to Consume For Status, The Florida State University, Phd. Dissertation, UMI.

Laciner, S. (2013). Yükselen Orta Sınıf ve Yeni Türkiye (Emerging Middle Class and the New Turkey), Star Newspaper, http://haber.stargazete.com/yazar/yukselen-orta-sinif-ve-yeni-turkiye/yazi-798259

LeelakulthanitFF, O., Ralph, D., Walters, R. (1991). Investigating the Relationship between Marketing and Overall Satisfaction with Life in a Developing Country, Journal of Macromarketing, 11, 3–23.

Lynn, M., Haris, J. (1997). The Desire for Unique Consumer Products: A New Individual Differences Scale, PsychMarke, 14, 601-616.

Mai, N. T. T., Tambyah, S. K. (2011). Antecedents and Consequences Of Status Consumption Among Urban Vietnamese Consumers. Organizations & Markets in Emerging Economies, 2(1).

Marsh, H. W., & Hocevar, D. (1985). Application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept: First-and higher order factor models and their invariance across groups. Psychological bulletin, 97(3), 562.

Mason, R. S. (1981). Conspicuous Consumption: A Study of Exceptional Consumer Behavior, Faruborough: Gower.

Susan Y. McGorry, (2000), Measurement in a cross-cultural environment: survey translation issues, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 3(2), 74 - 81

Moschis, George P., and Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr. (1978). Consumer Socialization: a Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, Journal of Marketing Research, 15, 599-609.

Odabasi, Y. (2013). Tüketim Kültürü Yetinen Toplumdan Tüketen Topluma (Consumption Culture), İstanbul.

O’Cass, A., Frost, H. (2002). Status brands: examining the effects of non-product related brand associations on status and conspicuous consumption, Journal of Product and Brand Management, 11 (2), 67-88.

O’Cass, A., McEwen, Hmily (2004). Exploring consumer status and conspicuous consumption, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 4 (1), 25-39.

Orçan, M. (2008). Osmanlı’dan Günümüze Modern Türk Tüketim Kültürü (Modern Turkish Consumer Culture from Ottoman to Nowadays), İkinci Baskı, Ankara: Harf Eğitim Yayıncılığı.

Richins, Marsha L. (1987). “Media, Materialism, and Human Happiness.” In Melanie Wallen dorf and Paul Anderson (Eds.), Advances in Consumer Research (Vol. 14, pp. 352-356). Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

Richins, M. L., Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale Development and Validation, Journal of Consumer Research, 19 (2), 504-521.

Richins, M. L. (2004). The material values scale: Measurement properties and development of a short form. Journal of consumer Research, 31(1), 209-219.

Roberts, J. (2000). Consuming in a culture: College students, materialism, status consumption and compulsive buying. Marketing Management Journal, 10(2), 76–91.

Sirgy, M. J (1998). Materialism and quality of life, Social Indicators Research, 43, 227-260.

Tiltay, M. A., Torlak, O. (2011). Materyalist Eğilim, Dinî Değerler, Marka Bağlılığı ve Tüketici Ahlakı Arasındaki İlişkiler (The Relationship between Materialistic Attitude, Religious Values, Brand Loyalty and Consumer Ethics), İş Ahlakı Dergisi (Turkish Journal of Business Ethics), 4 (7), 93-130.

Veblen, Thorstein (1899), The Theory of the Leisure Class, The Macmillan Co., New York.

Wang, J., Wallendorf, M. (2006). Materialism, Status Signaling and Product Satisfaction, J Acad Market Science, 34(4):494-505.

Wright, Newell D., Larsen, Val. (1993). Materialism and life satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction, and Complaining Behavior, 6, 158–165.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

Copyright© 2015 Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management. All rights reserved.

ISSN 2395-2210

For any help/support contact us at editorial@scitecresearch.com, jrbem@scitecresearch.com.