Abstract
This study investigates the mediated moderating relationship of self-concept clarity, materialism, and social consumption motivation in the context of Covid-19 pandemic based on the terror management theory. The findings suggest that Malaysian consumers have high self-concept clarity about their materialistic orientation. This materialistic orientation may be of hedonistic-utilitarian nature that is internally directed for self-satisfaction and not exclusively directed externally in material consumption to portray an image to others. Furthermore, this study posits that cultural factors like collectivism and uncertainty avoidance delimits the applicability of terror management theory in Malaysia, suggesting that the development of the theory draw heavily from Western ideology of individualism not directly relevant in the Asian context. Finally, this study offers an understanding of the self-concept clarity from the Asian context, addressing the the appeal by Dunlop (2017) to investigate the construct of self-concept clarity particularly in non-Western context.
Highlights
The consumption pattern of Malaysian consumers has continuously changed and is simultaneously propelling the growth of the country’s economy (Sulaiman, et al, 2018)
The results indicated that social consumption motivation is driven by self-concept clarity and materialism while the fear of Covid-19 dampen this effect
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we investigated whether the fear of the virus confers significant thread to life such that it triggers an extenuating process of self-preservation in what is described as terror management (Greenberg et al, 1986)
Summary
The consumption pattern of Malaysian consumers has continuously changed and is simultaneously propelling the growth of the country’s economy (Sulaiman, et al, 2018). This study investigates the consumption of social goods (Fitzmaurice & Comegys, 2006) and its relationships with materialism and self-concept clarity of Malaysian consumers amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The individual with vaguely defined or ambiguous self-concepts, as indicated with low SCC, tends to depend on and be highly susceptible to external situation influences (Campbell et al, 1996) such as peer pressure, mass media, social consumption motives, and other beliefs like materialism that can impact human behaviours and decision-making processes (Kernis et al, 2000). Song et al (2020) highlighted the positive relationship between the thread of death in light of Covid-19 and materialism where, consumer use goods acquisition to enhance their sense of security like the need of belonging through social conformity consumption. Based on terror management theory, in the face of existential threat, the fear of Covid-19 is posit as having a positive moderating effect on the relationship between materialism and social consumption motivation: H4: Fear of Covid-19 positively moderates the relationship between Materialism and Social Consumption Motivation
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