Consumer culture and post-purchase behavior

Abstract

The concept in this study has been derived from different theories from different disciplines. Utility theory by economists, is, every consumer expects some kind of utility from goods or services. Prospect theory has probably done more to bring psychology into the heart of economic analysis than any other approach. Expected utility theory focuses on how decisions under some uncertain situations should be made (a prescriptive approach), whereas prospect theory focuses on certainty of the situation and how decisions are actually made in such conditions (a descriptive approach). The aim of the current study was to determine whether Post-Purchase Regret that is caused among consumers due to internal feelings, which in our case was Compulsive Buying as a result of the Materialistic and Status oriented values prevalent among the people, that affects Post-Purchase Regret which could also caused by Unplanned Buying resulting from external factors. This post-purchase regret is mostly the result of compulsive or unplanned buying, a consumer might not had in mind to buy a certain product but occasionally because of product packaging, sales promotion or even just to make him/herself feel better, compulsively buys a product even though their finances are not capable enough to undergo such purchases. Changing social dynamics in developing countries might create negative circumstances for individuals, such circumstances might lead to compulsive buying being an escape solution for the individual, a condition similar to consumers in the western world. Despite the cultural differences, consumers from developing countries share some common tendencies and behaviors with consumers in advanced economies with respect to compulsive buying. The increasing prevalence of compulsive buying in different cultures indicates that it is not solely a Western problem. Due to the potential negative consequences of compulsive buying with regards to the evidence available in the developing countries, it is imperative to research on compulsive buying within the Pakistani context to find out whether the instances of compulsive buying are currently present in Pakistan or not, and if so, whether it has spread on a large scale as to effect the lives of the consumers in a negative way as it did in the western world or not. A sample of 308 college students filled the questionnaires for this study. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) we found a significant impact of materialism; passion defined success, acquisitions as the pursuit of happiness and acquisition centrality, on compulsive buying leading to a significant impact on Post-Purchase Regret.