Addictive buying in West Germany: An empirical study

Subsequent to a previous article in JCP (Scherhorn, 1990) outlining a theoretical approach to addictive buying, the authors report on the results of their empirical study of addictive buyers in West Germany. The study indicates that addictive buying is clearly one kind of addiction which may be substituted by other addictions, may take the place of another addiction, or even alternate with other forms of addiction. At the same time, there is substantial evidence that there are special key experiences to which the propensity to addictive buying can be traced. Addictive buyers have been subjected to a specific form of distortion of autonomy: They have felt that for parents, relatives, or neighbours, material goods (money, property, consumer goods) seemed to be more relevant and more important than they themselves. Thus, they have acquired a strong predisposition for using consumer goods as a favourite means of compensating for the lack of self-esteem from which they suffer. This predisposition, however, is reinforced by the fact that consumption and buying increasingly take on the role of a socially favoured means of compensation.     

Does self-esteem matter? A framework depicting role of self-esteem between dispositional mindfulness and impulsive buying

There is a continuum from ordinary to excessive impulsive buying tendencies (IBT), and low self-esteem appears to be one of the major underlying motivators of this behavior that needs to be explored and controlled. Based on the results of two independent studies, the present study makes a novel attempt to demonstrate the possible relation between mindfulness, self-esteem, IBT and impulse buying behavior. The present work emphasize on the beneficial effects of mindfulness in enhancing self-esteem, which can curb impulsive tendencies and behavior. The effect of mindfulness on self-esteem and IBT is corroborated with two studies (n = 344/n = 328). The results from study 1 revealed that dispositional mindfulness (measured with Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale–Revised scale) is related to IBT through self-esteem. The study 2 using serial mediation demonstrates that dispositional mindfulness (measured using Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale) relates to impulsive buying behavior through self-esteem and IBT. The findings of the present study highlight the importance of self-esteem in the relationship between mindfulness and impulse buying. This research offers a framework that can enable individuals to control their sudden urge to make impulsive purchases, using the positive effects of mindfulness and enhanced self-esteem.     

An Integrative Model of the Influence of Parental and Peer Support on Consumer Ethical Beliefs: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem,Power, and Materialism

What causes adolescents to develop consumer’ ethical beliefs? Prior research has largely focused on the negative influence of peers and negative patterns of parent–child interactions to explain risky and unethical consumer behaviors. We take a different perspective by focusing on the positive support of parents and peers in adolescent social development. An integrative model is developed that links parental and peer support with adolescents’ self-worth motives, their materialistic tendencies, and their consumer ethical beliefs. In a study of 984 adolescents, we demonstrate support for a sequential mediation model in which peer and parental support is positively related to adolescents’ self-esteem and feelings of power, which are each associated with decreased materialism as a means of compensating for low self-worth. This reduced materialism is, in turn, associated with more ethical consumer beliefs.     

The Psychology of Impulse Buying: An Integrative Self-Regulation Approach

Impulsive buying grossly violates the assumptions of homo economicus. A variety of perspectives on impulse buying are presented, which have been put forward in consumer, economic, social, and clinical psychology. These include heuristic information processing, time-inconsistent preferences, personality traits and values, self-identity, emotions, conscious self-control, and compulsive buying. These perspectives may sometimes lead to contradictory or paradoxical findings. For instance, impulse buying is often associated with joy and pleasure but has also been found related to negative emotions and low self-esteem. Our argument is that impulsive buying can be understood in terms of psychological functioning, in particular as a form of self-regulation. Regulatory focus theory is then used to bring the various perspectives together by classifying each as a promotion focus strategy (e.g., seeking pleasure) or a prevention focus strategy (e.g., avoiding feelings of low self-esteem). Finally, the question is discussed whether consumers can and should be protected against impulsivity. Our assertion is that regulation against misleading practices that play on the vulnerabilities of impulsive buyers could be sharpened and that information provision to consumers and retailers aimed at strengthening consumers’ self-regulatory capacities may mitigate adverse consequences of impulse buying.     

Why do retail consumers buy green apparel? A knowledge-attitude-behaviour-context perspective

Consumers' increased knowledge and awareness of environmental issues have not translated into a pervasive rise in purchasing green apparel, resulting in a phenomenon known as the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’. The current study seeks to explicate this gap by examining the drivers of green apparel buying behaviour. Towards this end, the study examines the association of environmental knowledge, green trust, and environmental concern with environmental attitude and green apparel buying behaviour. It further investigates the association of labelling desire and labelling satisfaction with this type of buying behaviour as well. In addition, the study uses the theoretical lens of the knowledge-attitude-behaviour model and attitude-behaviour-context theory to anchor its hypotheses. Cross-sectional data from 387 Japanese consumers analysed to test the conceptual model revealed that green trust, environmental attitude, and labelling satisfaction are positively associated with green apparel buying behaviour. Furthermore, green trust, environmental concern, and environmental attitude partially mediate the proposed associations, while age and gender moderate the association between environmental knowledge and environmental concern. The study's empirical insights thus lay the foundation for future research in this area and provide strategically relevant inferences for green apparel marketers and retailers.     

Determinants of consumers' repeat online buying of groceries

Abstract

This study developed and empirically tested a model for understanding what factors determine repeat buying behaviour of already experienced online grocery consumers. Data were collected from 198 consumers who currently buy groceries via the Internet. The obtained Lisrel results suggest that consumers' attitude towards online grocery buying is positively affected by perceived offline physical effort and negatively affected by offline shopping enjoyment. Multi group analysis shows that the strength of these relations differed across several consumer characteristics. Also, it was found that a perceived high Internet grocery risk does not form an action barrier for consumers who already have a positive attitude towards online grocery buying. The results also indicate that consumers may hesitate from repeat online buying if they are faced with high online complexity. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

The Impact of Buying Environment Characteristics of Retail Websites

This article identifies the extent to which buying environment characteristics, which are not directly related to price or product information, are currently available on online apparel websites and whether e-tail stores which use high levels of buying environment characteristics on their websites have a beneficial association with financial performance. A content analysis of 96 online apparel websites was employed. The overall extent to which current online websites provide buying environment characteristics appears to be low and providing more information in relation to the five characteristics was positively related to company profitability.     

The addictive trait in buying behaviour

Subsequent to two reports in JCP on empirical studies of “compulsive consumption’ (Faber & O'Guinn. 1988a; Valence, d'Astous. & Fortier, 1988) the author presents the conceptual foundations of an ongoing West German study of addictive buying. He argues that it is consistent with psychological knowledge, and will lead to additional insights, to speak of addictive instead of compulsive buying and consumption. Addictive buying, like other addictions, is viewed as an attempt to compensate for a distortion of autonomy incurred in childhood, and reinforced in adolescence and adulthood, as a reaction to key experiences which seem to occur increasingly in contemporary industrial societies.     

Intrinsic factors affecting impulsive buying behaviour—Evidence from India

The goal of this research is to examine the effect of five intrinsic factors, namely, personality, culture, materialism, shopping enjoyment tendency, and impulsive buying tendency on impulsive buying behaviour. Using structural equation modeling, responses from 508 consumers in the different parts of India’s National Capital Region were analysed and results showed that while the three constructs of materialism, shopping enjoyment tendency, and impulsive buying tendency had significant positive relationship with impulsive buying behaviour, the cultural construct of collectivism and two personality constructs of extraversion and conscientiousness too showed significant relationship.The study assumes immense significance because it not only presents useful insight regarding the behaviour of Indian consumers in an ever developing retail sector in India, but also considering the fact that this is the first time an attempt has been made to assess the simultaneous impact of these five intrinsic factors on impulsive buying behaviour. Importantly, the findings also revealed that the influence of intrinsic variables on impulsive buying behaviour did not vary across gender.     

Social determinants of panic buying behaviour amidst COVID-19 pandemic: The role of perceived scarcity and anticipated regret

Panic buying behaviour is inherently undesirable due to its detrimental impact on community's resources and disruptions to supply chain systems. The prevailing COVID-19 pandemic has seen a resurgence of this phenomenon across the world, leaving supermarkets in stockout situations. While panic buying is largely reasoned as a psychological reaction to an extreme event, it is also a socially relevant behaviour as our perception of a crisis can be shaped by our observations and interactions within the society. The social determinants of panic buying behaviour, particularly on how these factors heighten one's perception of scarcity, and trigger panic buying behaviour, are studied. A theoretical model is developed to explain panic buying behaviour in a social context by synthesizing various social and behavioural theories, and the inter-relationship among the latent constructs is analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. Accordingly, an online survey was administered and analysis of the data confirmed that non-coercive social influence, social norm and observational learning directly influence one's perception of scarcity. Additionally, perceived scarcity can motivate panic buying behaviour directly or indirectly through feelings of anticipated regret. This study has contributed to the limited literature on panic buying. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of panic buying will aid policymakers and businesses in developing intervention or support strategies to cope with such behaviour.     

Religious influences in unrestrained consumer behaviour

Religion is known for transforming human behaviour in many ways. This research investigates the influence of religiosity on two unrestrained buying constructs; impulsive and compulsive buying. The focus of this paper is on both intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions of religiosity. The first study provides important insights into the differential impact of these two dimensions of religiosity on unrestrained buying constructs. The second study explores the underlying mechanism of the relationship between extrinsic religiosity and unrestrained buying behaviours. Results show a negative relationship of intrinsic religiosity and a positive relationship of extrinsic relationship with unrestrained buying constructs. We also found that this relationship for extrinsic religiosity is mediated by susceptibility to interpersonal influence and moderated by long-term orientation. This research explains the differential impact of religion on unrestrained buying behaviour.     

When Leadership Goes Unnoticed: The Moderating Role of Follower Self-Esteem on the Relationship Between Ethical Leadership and Follower Behavior

The authors examined the effects of ethical leadership on follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and deviant behavior. Drawing upon research related to the behavioral plasticity hypothesis, the authors examined a moderating role of follower self- esteem in these relationships. Results from a field study revealed that ethical leadership is positively related to follower OCB and negatively related to deviance. We found that these relationships are moderated by followers’ self-esteem, such that the relationships between ethical leadership and OCB as well as between ethical leadership and deviant behavior are weaker when followers’ self-esteem is high than low. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.     

Who buys from farmers’ markets and farm shops: The case of Germany

In this article, we analyze the influence of sociodemographic factors and consumer attitudes toward direct marketing products and sources (outlets) on the frequency of buying food from farmers’ markets and farm shops. By conducting an intercept survey with pedestrians in 2011 and 2012, we interviewed a total of n = 550 consumers. The target regions of the study were the Eastern German federal states. The study uses two ordered logit regression models to investigate consumers’ shopping behaviour at farmers’ markets and farm shops separately. We find that different factors significantly influence consumers’ buying behaviour at the two direct marketing outlets. Specifically, both a more favorable view toward the freshness of directly marketed foods and the intention to support local producers are positively related to consumers’ purchase frequency from farmers’ markets. In contrast, consumers’ purchase frequency from farm shops is significantly influenced by their perception of the cost of the products, confidence in food producers of directly marketed products, perception of the safety of the food and perception of the accessibility of farm shops. The study results indicate that considering consumer behaviour separately for different direct marketing channels for food rather than considering the entire category of local food outlets may provide new and valuable insights.     

Who pays your debt? An important question for understanding compulsive buying among American college students

Compulsive buying, defined as the inability to control purchasing behaviour, is higher among college‐aged students than it is among the general public. The present study examined the factors related to compulsive buying among college students and how those factors differ as a function of who paid the majority of their debt: themselves or their parents. A total of 628 undergraduates from the US completed a questionnaire containing items to measure compulsive buying, personality and financial responsibility. Results revealed that variables predictive of compulsive buying varied depending on the amount of credit card debt that the student was personally responsible for paying. Findings have implications for reducing compulsive buying in college students.     

The role of time preference and credit card usage in compulsive buying behaviour

College students represent a lucrative market for businesses selling a wide array of goods and services, including credit. One area of concern regarding credit debt is its association with compulsive buying behaviour. This study analysed compulsive buying behaviour within an economic framework using a college student sample. Data were collected from 7342 students enrolled in a major Midwestern university. Regression analysis revealed that income, rate of time preference, money attitudes, credit card usage and gender were significantly related to compulsive buying. This study provides useful information for developing, or revising, university policies regarding financial education and counselling, as well as curriculum considerations.     

A Model for Fair Trade Buying Behaviour: The Role of Perceived Quantity and Quality of Information and of Product-specific Attitudes

In a sample of 615 Belgians a model for fair trade buying behaviour was developed. The impact of fair trade knowledge, general attitudes towards fair trade, attitudes towards fair trade products, and the perception of the quality and quantity of fair trade information on the reported amount of money spent on fair trade products were assessed. Fair trade knowledge, overall concern and scepticism towards fair trade, and the perception of the perceived quantity and quality of fair trade information, influence buying behaviour directly and indirectly through product attitudes. Interest in fair trade products, price acceptability and product liking have a significant impact on fair trade buying behaviour. Product interest is the most important variable influencing buying behaviour. Implications for the campaigns of governments and for the marketing strategy of fair trade organisations are offered.     

中国零售环境下参考价格影响因素的初步研究——以家用电器产品为例

文章以参考价格的研究文献为理论基础,在中国零售环境下针对家电产品研究了影响消费者参考价格形成的一些因素.研究结果显示:在中国零售环境下针对家电产品,消费者的参考价格指数:与产品或品牌的售价正相关;与现场其他产品或品牌的相对价格负相关;在消费者购买高价产品时,与消费者对品牌的喜好正相关;在消费者购买低价产品时,与消费者的价格搜寻活动正相关;与需求紧迫性无显著相关关系.此外,年龄、学历和月收入都对消费者的参考价格指数有影响.最后对研究结果进行了讨论.     

包容型领导对员工建言行为的双重作用机制研究

基于资源保存理论,文章从个体层面和团队层面分别探讨了包容型领导对员工建言行为的影响。来自6个城市105个团队领导和329名员工的配对调查数据结果显示,包容型领导能显著正向影响员工建言行为。在团队层面,包容型领导有助于团队关怀型伦理氛围的形成,团队关怀型伦理氛围直接正向影响员工建言行为,关怀型伦理氛围在包容型领导和员工建言行为之间起到中介作用。同时在个体层面,包容型领导有助于促进员工组织自尊的形成,组织自尊直接正向影响员工建言行为,组织自尊在包容型领导和员工建言行为之间起到中介作用。     

Values,socially conscious behaviour and consumption emotions as predictors of Canadians’ intent to buy fair trade products

Over the last two decades, a growing concern about ethical behaviour has been observed among consumers. Ethically minded consumers are more inclined towards the consumption of ethical goods, such as green products and fair trade (hereafter, ‘FT’) products, organic products and local products. Establishing the motives that predict FT consumption behaviour provides ground for understanding how consumers make purchase decisions. This research postulates that the intention of buying FT products is influenced by socially conscious behaviour, consumers’ values and emotions. The study, conducted among 268 Canadian consumers, shows that the high intention of buying FT products is linked to high levels of pride, enthusiasm, satisfaction, happiness and joy related to FT product consumption. The FT consumption experience provides consumers with hedonic gratification. It shows that the higher the levels of self‐centred, equality and social justice values are, the higher the intention of buying FT products. An increase in socially conscious behaviour generates an increase in intention of purchasing FT products. The research contributes to a preliminary analysis of the role of emotions in this field and calls for the development of cognitive‐affective models of purchase and consumption behaviour. Understanding the dimensions of hedonic values and the significance of pleasure experience is essential to the development of the theory and practices of FT consumption.