The necessity consumption practices by young adults in Finland

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify which consumption practices young adults regard as necessary. Recently, necessity consumption has not attracted the interest of consumer researchers, even though it serves as an important concept for studying the fundamentals of consumption.Design/methodology/approachThe data are based on consumption diaries in which young adults reported their consumption practices during one week and then rated the degree to which they experienced each of these practices as a necessity or luxury on a seven‐point scale. The data collection was conducted in January 2011. The sample consisted of 55 Finnish university students and the total number of practices they reported in the diaries was 3,847. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.FindingsThe results show that young adults experienced almost 60 per cent of their consumption practices as necessary. However, the boundaries between necessary consumption and luxury consumption appeared to be fluid. Accordingly, five groups of consumption practices were identified on the basis of their necessity/luxury ratings, and three of these groups included necessity practices of different levels.Originality/valueThe results show that young adults define necessity consumption differently in different situations. Also, the importance of social activities was evident in all three groups of necessity practices. To conclude, the authors suggest that the developed empirical model should be tested further in different contexts, especially regarding the situational factors, as it provides a fruitful starting point for studying necessity consumption.