Journal of International Business and Cultural Studies The Perception of Materialism, Page 1 (original) (raw)

Materialism of Mature Consumers in China and USA: A Cross-Cultural Study

2000

The mature consumer segment is growing in number and income level in both China and the US. It is therefore increasingly important for global marketers to develop an understanding of the consumer behavior of this segment as well as any cross-cultural differences in this behavior. This paper focuses on the materialism of mature consumers in China and the US and

Cross-cultural differences in materialism

Journal of Economic Psychology, 1996

Materialism was explored in twelve countries using qualitative data, measures of consumer desires, measures of perceived necessities, and adapted versions of the Belk (1985) materialism scales with student samples. The use of student samples and provisionary evidence for cross-cultural reliability and validity for the scales, make the quantitative results tentative, but they produced some interesting patterns that were also supported by the qualitative data. Romanians were found to be the most materialistic, followed by the U.S.A., New Zealand, Ukraine, Germany, and Turkey. These results suggest that materialism is neither unique to the West nor directly related to affluence, contrary to what has been assumed in prior treatments of the development of consumer culture.

Materialism in Consumer Behavior and Marketing: A Review

In recent years, materialism has become an increasingly important topic in consumer behaviour and marketing. However, several scholars have questioned the existing materialism conceptualizations, by extension the various materialism measures. In this paper, materialism literature is reviewed extensively. This conceptual paper comprises of four sections. First, materialism is discussed as a socio-cultural phenomenon as well as an individual phenomenon. Second, materialism as an individual phenomenon based on Larsen et al. (1999) conceptual framework is discussed. Third, various materialism conceptualizations in consumer behaviour and marketing literature have been reviewed. Furthermore, ten different materialism measurement scales were discussed. Also, their drawbacks are mentioned. Based on the review, it is concluded that existing materialism conceptualizations and measures have several shortcomings. Consequently, in the fourth part, a newer materialism conceptualization proposed by Shrum et al. (2012) is discussed. Additionally, the advantages of the newer definition of materialism over prevailing definitions are explained.

What is materialism? Testing two dominant perspectives on materialism in the marketing literature

Management & Marketing, 2015

Materialism is defined as the importance an individual attaches to worldly possessions, which has been considered as an important construct in consumer behavior and marketing literature. There are two dominant perspectives on individual materialism in the marketing literature that focus on (1) personality traits or (2) individual personal values. However, several scholars have questioned the aforementioned materialism conceptualizations. Therefore, the present study directly compares the constructs of personality materialism and value materialism. Structural equation modeling was employed to address the following issues: (1) what are the key conceptual dimensions of materialism, (2) how much do they overlap, and (3) what is their discriminant validity in predicting outcomes linked to materialism. We suggest these two dominant perspectives on individual materialism are two distinct constructs, as they shared only 21 percent of common variance. Furthermore, we stress the multi-faceted...

What's Materialism? Testing Two Dominant Perspectives on Materialism in Marketing Literature

Materialism is defined as the importance an individual attaches to worldly possessions, which has been considered as an important construct in consumer behavior and marketing literature. There are two dominant perspectives on individual materialism in the marketing literature that focus on (1) personality traits or (2) individual personal values. However, several scholars have questioned the aforementioned materialism conceptualizations. Therefore, the present study directly compares the constructs of personality materialism and value materialism. Structural equation modeling was employed to address the following issues: (1) what are the key conceptual dimensions of materialism, (2) how much do they overlap, and (3) what is their discriminant validity in predicting outcomes linked to materialism. We suggest these two dominant perspectives on individual materialism are two distinct constructs, as they shared only 21 percent of common variance. Furthermore, we stress the multi-faceted nature of materialism, with an emphasis on future research directions related to materialism in marketing.

Materialism among adolescents in urban China

Young Consumers: Insight and …, 2006

This study provides empirical data to test a proposed theoretical model on adolescents' endorsement of materialistic values that is based on model of consumer socialization of children and Kasser, Rayan Couchman and Sheldon's (2004) model of materialistic value orientation. A survey of 730 adolescents aged 11 to 19 in Beijing was conducted in March 2003 using Richins and Dawson's (1992) materialism scale. Results indicated that Chinese young people scored 3.9 on a 7-point scale of materialism. The proposed model accounted for 15 percent of the variance of adolescents' materialism scores.

A cross-cultural investigation of the materialism construct:: Assessing the Richins and Dawson's materialism scale in Denmark, France and Russia

Journal of Business Research, 2004

Richins and Dawson's materialism scale is a widely applied measurement instrument in marketing research. However, like many marketing scales, the materialism measure has not been adequately validated in cross-national settings. The purpose of this study is to test the measurement equivalence of the materialism scale among western and eastern European consumers-specifically, in Denmark, France and Russia. The results of the analysis show that, while a reduced version of the scale is reasonably well suited to the Danish sample, it does not display adequate fit with either the French or Russian data. The inability to establish measurement equivalence leads us to conclude that a new scale may be necessary to measure materialism in cross-cultural contexts. D