Influence of Materialism on Compulsive Buying Behavior: General Similarities and Differences Related to Studies on Young Adult Consumers in Poland and US

Abstract

Although materialism has a robust relationship with compulsive buying in the US and Western Europe, consumer theories suggest that materialism might also significantly predict compulsive buying in developing economies of Eastern Europe. The present study diagnoses this relationship from perspective of the Polish socio-economic-cultural settings and compares it with the US research findings from perspective of general similarities and differences. Data was collected on representative sample of 504 Polish young adult consumers, while the sources of US studies were previous findings. Detailed analyses and comparisons revealed that Polish consumerism trends exceed those in western cultures (US), consequently young consumers in Poland expose much stronger relationship between materialism and compulsive buying than their peers in US. Moreover, the examined relationship, from the perspective of two theoretically contrasting consumer groups, indicated a higher level of strength among the compulsive buyers and a lower level of strength, but still present, in the group of Polish noncompulsive consumers.