원문정보
초록
영어
Compulsive buying, specified as widespread maladaptive consumer behavior that is characterized by continuing repetitive purchasing has become a critical issue in the areas of psychology and consumer research (Dittmar, 2005; O’Guinn and Faber, 1989). With the advent of mobile phones, this abnormal buying behavior has extended from offline and online stores to mobile app shopping stores. In fact, about 87% of consumers tend to use their mobile phones for shopping purpose and spend longer hours and twice as much as money on shopping in mobile shopping applications compared to offline and online stores (Nielsen, 2014; Statista, 2018). Moreover, compulsive buyers are generally believed to demonstrate high levels of fashion interest and frequently purchase fashion products (Park and Burns, 2005; Mitchell et al., 2006). Despite the extensive shopping behavior occurring in mobile fashion shopping applications, little research investigated compulsive buying within the environment of mobile fashion applications. Hence, our study aimed at examining compulsive buying behavior in the mobile fashion shopping app environment. Specifically, our primary purpose was to investigate influence of materialistic value dimensions (i.e., acquisition importance, possession defined success and acquisition as the pursuit of happiness), self-depreciation and use intensity of the mobile fashion applications on compulsive buying of fashion products. Secondary purpose of our study was to test interaction effects of use intensity of the mobile fashion applications as a moderator. We tested our hypotheses in a sample of Korean consumer panel through online survey. Consistent with preceding literature, our results indicated two-dimensionality of materialistic values in cross cultural contexts by merging possession defined success and acquisition as the pursuit of happiness into a single construct. Our hypotheses results showed that materialistic value dimensions, self-depreciation and use intensity of the mobile fashion applications had significantly positively associated with compulsive buying of fashion products. Additionally, high and low intensity of mobile fashion application use performed moderating roles in the relationship between acquisition as the pursuit of happiness and success, self-esteem and compulsive buying of fashion products. Our study presents useful insight for policy makers and marketers to understand harmful consequences of compulsive buying to society as well as businesses. We additionally provide a few suggestions on educating consumers about detrimental outcomes of excessive buying.