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Despite growing concerns over the increasing incidence of compulsive buying among young consumers, scant research attention has been focused on this darker side of consumer behavior among adolescent consumers. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of compulsive buying as a coping mechanism in early adolescents.

The present study is the first to experimentally manipulate a common and important stressor in the lives of adolescents, academic stress, and measures its impact on compulsive buying among a sample of 12‐13 year old seventh graders. Next, the authors investigate whether gender moderates the stress‐compulsive buying relationship.

The present study finds that early adolescents increasingly turn to compulsive buying in an attempt to cope with heightened levels of academic stress. Surprisingly, gender was not found to moderate this relationship. Both boys and girls were found to respond to higher levels of academic stress with higher incidences of compulsive buying. Results suggest that compulsive buying is a common coping strategy for adolescents from both genders.

The results of this study suggest that compulsive buying is a common coping strategy in early adolescents. Additionally, both boys and girls were found to use compulsive buying as a means to cope with stress associated with school. Whether compulsive buying can be considered an adaptive or maladaptive coping strategy when dealing with stress requires further study be conducted in this area of research.

The paper makes several unique and important contributions to the literature. First, it describes one of few studies to investigate compulsive buying in early adolescents – a hard to reach population. Second, it is the only study to experimentally manipulate stress levels to investigate its impact on compulsive buying. Third, the study's findings in regard to gender's impact (or lack thereof) on the stress‐compulsive buying relationship suggest that compulsive buying begins early in adolescence and is a common coping strategy for both boys and girls. How young people cope with common stressors such as school has important implications for their mental and physical well‐being.

Although much research focuses on the compulsive buying behavior theory, little attention has been paid to evaluation and diagnosis of compulsive buying in Eastern Europe. This is surprising, given an increasing prevalence of consumerism in many transitioning economies. Young consumers are particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to adapt the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale to the Eastern European, specifically Polish cultural and language environment, and to validate it within a group of young Polish consumers, as well to assess the compulsive buying prevalence and the relationship between the compulsive buying and its precursors.

The Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale was selected for adaptation to the Polish context as it represents one of the best methodological and substantive compulsive buying measures in literature. The research is composed of two studies. Study 1 uses an in-person survey of young consumers (N = 504). A wide range of statistical procedures and latent variable modeling was used in the analysis. Study 2 (N = 756) uses an online survey to evaluate the correlation and relationship between the compulsive buying measure and its precursors, including consumers’ traits and states, by implementing a multiple indicators and multiple causes model.

The results of the two studies confirm that the adapted scale represents a valid and reliable measure of compulsive buying tendency in Poland, with the identified incidence rate of compulsive buying among Polish young consumers ranging from 11% in Study 1 to 11.6% in Study 2. In comparison with the results of other studies using the same measure, the current research findings reveal a similarity with the compulsive buying prevalence in China (10.4%; He et al., 2018), Brazil (9.8%; Leite et al., 2013) and slightly exceed the level found in western societies (e.g. 8.9% in the USA; Ridgway et al., 2008). The results of Study 2 indicate that compulsive buying in Poland is induced by low self-esteem and high levels of materialism, depression, anxiety, stress and negative feelings.

The present research offers a methodological and substantive contribution by adapting and testing the original version of the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale within an Eastern European transitional market; specifically Poland. In addition, the study offers an empirical contribution to the international research on compulsive behavior, including its precursors, as seen in young consumers.

This research offers important public policy implications and highlights ethical implications for business organizations. In particular, the findings of this study offer suggestions for enhancing policies and processes of programing appropriate social and educational campaigns that can save young consumers from the negative consequences of compulsive buying.

The transitional status of the Polish economy and other Eastern European countries has given rise to compulsive buying behavior, especially among young consumers. This emerging consumer behavior trend in Eastern Europe is still underexplored and underreported; hence, there exists a strong need for exploring and measuring such behavior across different Eastern European markets.

Compulsive buying continues to be a maladaptive behavior that draws the attention of both scholars and marketers. The present study aims to investigate the determinants of compulsive buying, which are conceptualized as impulsive and obsessive–compulsive buying, and the mediation effect of brand attachment.

Using purposive sampling, a self-administered questionnaire was completed by 600 young consumers in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results show that materialism, utilitarian value, and brand attachment are positively related to impulsive buying, while materialism, hedonic value, and brand attachment have a positive effect on obsessive–compulsive buying. In addition, brand attachment is found to mediate the effect of materialism and utilitarian value on both compulsive buying.

The study provides new insights into brand management literature by examining the predictors of impulsive and obsessive–compulsive buying. Moreover, brand attachment is found to be a significant mechanism that induces negative buying behavior. However, due to the growth of online shopping, future research should consider different types of retailers to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter in the modern business landscape.

Being one of the few studies to address both impulsive and obsessive–compulsive buying behaviors among consumers, this study highlights the essential role of brand attachment as a mediator in the contemporary setting. Moreover, the interrelationships between self-congruence, materialism, hedonic value, utilitarian value, brand attachment, and compulsive buying behavior are examined in a holistic manner.

As an effort to identify the underlying determinants of compulsive buying, this study seeks to examine fashion orientation, a fashion‐related variable, as a direct antecedent of compulsive buying and as an indirect antecedent of compulsive buying through credit card use.

Using a convenient sampling method, women aged over 20 years living in the Seoul metropolitan area were selected as the sample. Out of 380 distributed, 267 useful questionnaires were returned. Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results of this study showed that fashion interest significantly influenced compulsive buying directly and also indirectly by influencing credit card use.

This study has significance in terms of being the first one to explore the relationship between fashion orientation variables and compulsive buying, offering a new perspective on compulsive buying.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of excessive use of social networking sites on online compulsive buying, and whether this effect is mediated by the dimensions of money attitude (i.e. power-prestige, distrust and anxiety) in young Malaysian adults.

A correlational cross-sectional, questionnaire-based design was adopted. A total of 1,155 university students completed an online survey. A parallel multiple mediator model was then developed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling.

Excessive use of social media had a positive effect on money attitude dimensions and online compulsive buying. Also, power-prestige and anxiety dimensions of money attitude mediated the positive effect of excessive use of social networking sites on online compulsive buying.

Several implications for the parents of young adults, institutions of higher learning as well as banks that provide services to these youths have been suggested.

Little is known about the effect of excessive use of social media on compulsive online buying and the mechanisms behind it. This study contributes to the literature by testing the mediating role of money attitude in the effect of use of social networking sites on online compulsive buying.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate compulsive consumption within a product specific context (compulsive buying of clothing) using a hierarchical model adapted from Mowen and Spears.

Previous researchers found that compulsive buyers tend to be young females who purchase clothing. Edwards' general compulsive buying scale was modified to measure compulsive clothing buying. The scale was then pre‐tested for reliability and validity. Following the pre‐test, data were collected from 228 undergraduate females to assess the relationships between compulsive clothing buying and several variables previously found to be associated with general compulsive buying: neuroticism, materialism, and fashion interest.

Path analysis results revealed significant relationships between neuroticism and materialism, neuroticism and compulsive clothing buying, materialism and fashion interest, and fashion interest and compulsive clothing buying. The path between materialism and compulsive clothing buying was not significant.

The present study examined the compulsive buying of a specific product, therefore it may be valuable to study other populations to determine whether young female compulsive clothing buyers continue the behavior as they age, or potentially, begin compulsively buying products other than clothing.

This is the first known study to examine compulsive buying in a product specific context.

This article investigates the role that brands play in influencing the behavior and purchase decisions of compulsive buyers and whether this role differs for noncompulsive buyers, resulting in four research propositions.

In-depth interviews, conducted with ten compulsive and ten noncompulsive buyers, reveal several interesting differences between the groups.

The findings reveal several interesting differences between compulsive buyers and noncompulsive buyers. Noncompulsive buyers seem to appreciate and focus mainly on functional benefits of branded products and avoid buying unbranded products, whereas compulsive buyers value emotional and social benefits but often decide to buy “more and cheaper” items to achieve variety in their purchases. Noncompulsive buyers develop brand trust in, attachment to and higher willingness to pay for their favorite brand than for other brands, whereas compulsive buyers even struggle to name a favorite brand. Furthermore, compulsive buyers engage in more brand switching than noncompulsive buyers.

While this research provides the first, in-depth findings, a large-scale survey research is called for to provide statistically valid tests of the authors ' propositions.

The findings indicate that compulsive and noncompulsive buyers seek different benefits of brands. Stressing the good quality should be particularly effective for noncompulsive buyers, whereas compulsive buyers will be triggered more effectively by claims about the emotional benefits. This finding has obvious implications for brand communication strategies but also raises an important ethical dilemma. The findings further indicate that compulsive buyers react to branded products in ways that may hurt brands with high brand equity. These, therefore, have an incentive to help compulsive buyers overcome this problem, rather than encouraging them in their buying behavior.

Considering the harmful effects of compulsive buying behavior on a person’s well-being, manufacturers and retailers should take corporate social responsibility in this situation and help society deal with it, using both proactive and reactive methods. For example, to facilitate the early identification of this type of behavior, retailers might stimulate customers to think about their purchasing motivations and inform them about the risks of compulsive buying. They could initiate the development, support or sponsorship of a “Shop Responsibly” campaign to help customers avoid such buying behaviors. Not only would these efforts increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, but they could boost the public image of the firm as a responsible organization that cares for societal well-being.

This is the first study to investigate how compulsive buyers approach brands and whether they approach brands differently from noncompulsive buyers. It can draw attention to and encourage future research in this important area.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate money attitudes and credit card usage, between compulsive and non‐compulsive buyers, of young Australians. It also serves to validate the money attitude scale (MAS) using an Australian sample.

Data were collected using a mall intercept method in a major shopping complex in Perth, Western Australia. A self‐administered questionnaire was distributed and recorded a response rate of 18 per cent.

Compulsive buyers are more likely to perceive money as a source of power and prestige. They are also more frequent users of credit cards and are more likely to bargain hunt. There are no differences between compulsive and non‐compulsive buyers for the dimensions of time retention, distrust, and anxiety of the MAS.

The study has only captured young adult Australians and should not be generalized across other demographics and national consumers. Studies on compulsive behaviour of online shopping and a comparison between fashion and non‐fashion related variables could also be explored.

Firms should consider using advertising campaigns that portray images of status and prestige in order to appeal to young adults. They could utilize aggressive in‐store promotion and selling techniques and highlight the discount or best buy slogans. For the credit card companies and banks, word‐of‐mouth through family and friends are better promotional tools to attract users. Marketers and policy makers are recommended to incorporate consumer education programs for young adults to build skills to counter financial problems.

This is the first Australian study that examined money attitudes, credit card usage and compulsive behaviour. Further the MAS scale is validated with the addition of the “bargain hunting” variable.

This paper aims to examine the presence of impulsive and compulsive buying among consumers. It studies the various factors that affect and moderate the impulsiveness and compulsiveness of buying.

Literature review resulted in four constructs – social media influence, social media preferences, hedonic motivation and shop in COVID-19. On conducting factor analysis in statistical package for the social sciences, the variables were divided under the influence of social media, social commerce, electronic word of mouth (EWOM) of social commerce, hedonic happiness, hedonic fun and shopping in times of COVID-19. Structural equation modeling is conducted in AMOS (statistical software) for a diagrammatic representation of the relationship between the variables. Regression analysis is used to re-affirm the above relationship. Testing of hypotheses is done with the help of the chi-square test.

All six latent variables are significantly related to impulsive and compulsive buying. However, the regression analysis shows social media influence as the strongest predictor for impulse buying and hedonic happiness for compulsive buying. Also, the presence of the pandemic COVID-19 leads to impulsive buying as well as compulsive buying in the apparel and accessory segment.

Marketers should capitalize on spontaneous buying in both forms – impulsive buying and compulsive buying. Social media influencers, as well as more consumer engagement on social media, can promote impulsive buying. However, compulsive buyers will be more attracted towards great in-store experiences or hedonically driven advertisements, as they do not just shop for buying the product; they shop for the experience of shopping.

This study uncovers the difference in factors that affect impulsive and compulsive buying. Though both behaviours seem points of the same scale, they are inherently different and can be predicted with social media influence and hedonic happiness.

The purpose of the current study was to compare and contrast various marketing‐ and consumer‐related attitudes and behavior across the baby boomer (those born between 1946‐1964) and baby buster (those born between 1965‐1976) generations. Study results suggest that baby busters, compared with baby boomers, are more favorably predisposed toward marketing and advertising. It was also found that the two generations differ in their understanding of the domain of marketing. These findings have important implications for marketing practitioners and academics alike. Possibly the most significant finding of the present study was the generally elevated levels of compulsive buying found across both generations. Using Faber and O’Guinn’s compulsive buying clinical screener, we found that 7 percent of baby boomers and 11 percent of baby busters were classified as compulsive buyers. These are considerably higher than earlier estimates of the incidence of compulsive buying and warrant further investigation.