Search results

Although extant literature exists on luxury consumption, limited studies have focused on motivation and values to consume luxury brands among athletes. The study aims to uncover the motivations that guide athletes’ decision-making processes to consume luxury brands.

The study utilized the theory of prestige consumption to develop a model. The model posits that bandwagon, snob and veblen motivations guide athletes to seek social and conspicuous values in their consumption of luxury brands. A survey-based questionnaire approach was used to collect data from 343 athletes from Turkey by considering brands from different product categories.

Findings indicated that bandwagon and veblen motivations are associated with social and conspicuous values. The findings also suggested that bandwagon, snob and veblen motivation are positively associated with luxury consumption intentions. Also, the social and conspicuous values of athletes determine their intentions to consume luxury. The mediating effects of social and conspicuous values are also confirmed.

The study's findings are first to empirically examine the influence of motivations on social and conspicuous value among athletes. The results show that the luxury consumption motivations of the athletes have a strong role in their intention to purchase luxury products. The findings also offer novel managerial implications.

Peer pressure and popularity are important issues for teenagers, potentially affecting teenagers’ attitudes toward luxury products. In turn, peer pressure and popularity can potentially be affected by self-concept clarity (how clearly teens view themselves). The authors empirically aim to investigate these relationships using data from a sample of Brazilian teens and find that self-concept clarity has a significant effect on peer pressure, popularity and social consumption motivation, which, by itself, directly affects attitudes toward luxury items.

The total sample consisted of 558 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 (grades 7 through 12). Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The results of the study suggest that teenagers’ social consumption motivations positively affect attitudes toward luxury.

The paper first explicitly examines the impact of peer pressure and popularity on attitude toward luxury among teenagers.

With a focus on the purchasing behaviour of parents buying luxury brands of infant apparel, this paper considers the concepts of buying roles, conspicuous consumption/social consumption motivation, and materialism. A survey of 134 mothers who had purchased luxury brands of clothing for their infants found that parents are motivated by the good quality and design associated with the luxury brands. The relationship between the amount of money spent by parents on luxury brands of infant apparel and social consumption motivation was not significant. However, interviewees who spent more on luxury clothing brands for their infants were determined to be more materialistic. It is thus recommended that marketers should emphasise the good quality and design of their luxury brands of infant apparel. In addition, marketers should promote the materialistic values of purchasing luxury brands of infant apparel, showing that buying luxury brands of infant apparel may be a route to happiness, rather than being a route for impressing others.

Although malls have been a topic of interest to marketing researchers for at least 35 years, the attraction between malls and Generation Y consumers has received little interest from marketing academics. This study focuses on the attitudes that the older segment of Generation Y consumers (19‐25) have toward a mall, and on their consumption motivation. Key findings include that Generation Y consumers are more likely to be objectively rather than socially motivated to consume. The findings also suggest that objective motivations to consume predict an individual consumer's perception of a shopping mall's ambience, layout, and his or her involvement in the shopping process. Social motivations to consume predict perceptions of a mall's ambience, design, variety, and excitement, as well as the consumer's desire to stay and intent to return to the mall. Managerial implications include using objective information, such as price‐oriented promotions, when trying to attract older Generation Y consumers.

With US$ 320 bn spent on luxury fashion in the Middle East and a growing digital consumer presence, local start-ups must form an integrated online relationship with millennials in order to recruit and retain a viable customer base. Nonetheless, these elements are yet to be extensively and properly researched as the literature is still scarce vis-à-vis this area.

A mixed qualitative approach was adopted using both in-depth interviews and focus groups. Two qualitative studies were conducted, with a total of 13 elite respondents and 28 consumer respondents from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) using semi-structured interviews. Four focus groups were also conducted in both countries with six participants each group for triangulation of the findings.

The findings enhance current understanding pertaining to Gen Ys' motivations when selecting and engaging online with a luxury fashion start-up brand. The study suggests a detailed strategic framework that can be used in an integrated omni-channel approach. It also discusses the different touchpoints that play a role in influencing luxury consumption across different motivation stages.

The literature relating to digital strategies for luxury fashion start-up brands in the Middle East is still nascent. This study fills a considerable gap in the literature related to such brands that are aiming to stay relevant amidst the growing impact of the digital landscape on luxury fashion brand shoppers in the Middle East.

The increased income and modernity have greatly impacted Chinese consumers’ attitudes and purchasing behavior, making them more sophisticated than ever before. The purpose of this paper is to examine the interrelationship among social stratification, materialism, post-materialism, and consumption values contributing uniquely to understanding Chinese consumers in the context of drastic economic and social changes.

Survey method was used to test the proposed model and answer the research questions. The data were collected in Shanghai, the largest city on the eastern coast of China. A multi-stage random sampling strategy was employed to acquire a representative sample of the population in the city. A total of 2,910 completed questionnaires were used for data analysis.

The results show that objective social status has a negative effect on post-materialism, whereas subjective social status has a positive effect. Social status does not seem to have a significant effect on materialism. Post-materialism also has a strong positive effect on the consumption orientations of emotional value and social value.

China was chosen as the research context in this study. As a booming emerging market, China provides an intriguing platform to examine social stratification and materialism. At the macro level, China is developing a new social structure due to the drastic social and economic changes. At the individual consumer level, as China moves further into a market-oriented economy, traditional Chinese values have changed rapidly. Western consumption values and phenomena such as overspending and conspicuous consumption have begun to take hold in China, especially among young people. It is critical for business managers to understand the shift of consumption values among Chinese in order to successfully capture this market.

A cursory review of past literature reveals that researchers have examined materialism primarily along two avenues: one puts materialism within a macro framework involving political interest or civic engagement (e.g. Davis et al., 1999; Inglehart, 1990); the other one takes a micro perspective exploring the impact of materialism on consumer attitudes and behavior (e.g. Park and Rabolt, 2009; Xiao and Kim, 2009). However, little research has been conducted linking the two approaches. The present study intends to examine the interrelationship among social stratification, materialism, post-materialism, and consumption values. Hopefully, it will shed some light on the connection between macro environment and micro consumer behavior. Furthermore, the current research provides evidences for the emerging transformation to a post-materialistic marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of materialism and brand consciousness in determining the luxury consumption among the young Indian consumers.

In order to measure materialism, brand consciousness, attitude toward luxury brands and purchase intention, pre-established scale items were used to design the self-administered questionnaire. A valid sample of 342 respondents was collected through mall intercepts, in-store intercepts, luxury brands exhibitions and festivals and international airports. The relationship was tested using regression analysis.

The findings support that the materialism and brand consciousness are positively related to the luxury consumption in India and play an important role in predicting the behavior of the young luxury buyers. The Indian youth is buying expensive luxury brands as symbols of status success and wealth in order to fulfill their materialistic goals. The desire to own and possess the well-known and expensive brand names demonstrates the importance the consumers attach to the social and symbolic value of the luxury brands.

The study reveals that the young Indian luxury buyers choose to buy brands that are most advertised. Creative advertisements enhancing luxury brands’ symbolic and social value can be effective. The study has implications for the international luxury brands, as they are expensive, well known and famous among the global consumers.

The key contribution of the study is the establishment of materialism and brand consciousness as important antecedents in the development of attitude toward luxury brands among the young Indian consumers.

This paper aims to compare the levels of status consumption for Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y (Millennials).

With an email sample of 220 adult consumers living in the southeast USA, this study measures status consumption, generational cohort, and demographics.

The study finds significant differences in the level of status consumption by generational cohort. The average level of status consumption was highest for Generation Y, followed by Generation X and then Baby Boomers. In looking at the significance of these differences between individual cohorts, there was a significant difference between Generation Y and Baby Boomers. This suggests that while there are differences in the level of status consumption by generation, this difference is only significant between Generation Y and Baby Boomers. This paper then examines if this relationship between generational cohort and status consumption is impacted by demographic variables, such as gender, income, and education. The results illustrate that, holding generation constant, there is no significant relationship between gender, income, or education with status consumption. There is also no significant interaction between generational cohort and the demographic variables of gender, income, and education. This suggests that the relationship between generational cohort and status consumption is due only to generation and is not being impacted by other demographic variables.

Limitations of the study include that it was a convenience sample of predominately white, educated, and younger adult respondents. Additional research is needed to specifically examine ethnic group differences and cohorts prior to the Baby Boomers.

For luxury marketers they need to consider generational cohort, rather than other demographic variables, when segmenting their market.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature by examining if there are differences in the motivation to consume for status based on generational cohort, focusing on the cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Additionally, this paper proposes that generational cohort is a better means to segment the status consumer than other demographic variables.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how reality television (RTV) influences the socialization of teenage consumers in a developing country. While the influence of television on consumer behaviour has been researched extensively in developed countries, the effect of RTV on consumer socialization has not, particularly in the context of developing countries.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was used to develop the theoretical model, constructs and measurement variables. The data were then analysed, and the hypotheses tested and confirmed using structural equation modelling.

RTV has a positive influence on the socialization of teenage consumers in a developing country. Teenagers’ consumption-related cognition, attitude and values are strongly affected by RTV. Furthermore, their consumption-related attitude is affected by consumption-related cognition and values. Social structural variables (parental control, peer-group influences, gender differences and social class differences) have an effect on teenagers’ RTV involvement and consumer-socialization process.

Current consumer-socialization literature identifies the role of TV in consumer socialization. However, there is very little extant literature about the role of RTV in consumer socialization, particularly from a developing-country perspective. Furthermore, in the present literature, consumption-related cognition, attitudes and values are considered outcomes of consumer socialization; however, this has not been empirically tested regarding teenagers’ involvement in RTV and its consumer-socialization outcomes. This research considers the involvement of teenagers with RTV, and the influences of various social structural variables from a developing-country perspective.

Hong Kong is often portrayed as a society where conspicuous consumption rules. We wanted to find out whether this peculiar consumer behavior would still be transparent among Hong Kong people who have emigrated to Canada. Through a survey, we tested the subjects’ propensity towards conspicuous consumption (as measured by two established scales) and attempted to find relationships between the dependent variables and a person’s ethnic identification as well as the strength of the person’s ethnic social ties. We failed to find support for the proposition that conspicuous consumption is related to a person’s ethnicity. Offers explanations and directions for future research, and also serves as a warning to the marketer that blindly accepting stereotypes could be erroneous in a practical as well as moral sense.