Young Buyers: Shopping Enjoyment and Obsessive-Compulsive Buying

Ayaz Ali Samo ,Hamid Shaikh ,Maqsood Hussain Bhutto ,Fiza Rani ,Fayaz Samo ,Tahseen Ahmed Bhutto

doi:10.7176/ejbm/11-3-15

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between hedonic shopping motivations and obsessive-compulsive shopping behavior from youngsters’ perspective. The study is based on the survey of 615 young Chinese buyers (mean age=24) and analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings show that adventure seeking, gratification seeking, and idea shopping have a positive effect on obsessive-compulsive buying, whereas role shopping and value shopping have a negative effect on obsessive-compulsive buying. However, social shopping is found to be insignificant to obsessive-compulsive buying. The study has a number of implications. Marketers should display more information about latest trends and fashions, as young buyers are found to shop for ideas and information. Managers should design the layouts with more exciting and impressive features, as these buyers are found to shop for adventure and gratification. Salesmen should take greater care into consideration while offering them to buy products such as gifts, souvenir etc. for their dear ones, as these buyers are less likely to enjoy buying for others. Moreover, business managers should less rely on discount promotions, as this consumer segment is found to be less likely to shop for discounts and bargains. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the relationship between hedonic shopping motivations and obsessive-compulsive buying of young Chinese buyers, which is found to be lacking in the literature so far according to the best of authors’ knowledge. Keywords: Hedonic shopping, Obsessive-compulsive buying, Young consumers, China. DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/11-3-15

Highlights

We used Smart PLS 3.0 software to analyze the data. This is because PLS-Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is effective software in our study for prediction-oriented goal as our study investigates the predictive relationship between hedonic shopping motivations and obsessive-compulsive buying rather than confirmatory
The results demonstrate a significant relationship between obsessive-compulsive buying and hedonic shopping motivations such as gratification seeking, adventure seeking, idea shopping, role shopping, and value shopping do exist for www.iiste.org these consumers except for social shopping
Three hedonic motivations namely: gratification seeking, adventure seeking, and idea shopping are found to be positively significant to obsessive-compulsive buying

Summary

Introduction

It allows consumers to receive hedonic value such as instant sensory stimulation (Babin et al, 1994) or immediate gratification (Elliott, 1994). These factors might have contributed to the enhancement of obsessive-compulsive buying behavior which stems from anxiety, stress, and depression (McElroy et al, 1994). Thereby, compulsive buyers often go shopping obsessively for hedonic purposes in order to escape from adverse feelings and enjoy positive feelings instead (Rindfleisch et al, 1997, Roberts et al, 2006); express their improved selfimage as well as social image (Dittmar, 2007, Escalas and Bettman, 2005, Kukar-Kinney et al, 2012). Obsessive-compulsive buyers are found to seek sensation and arousal (Bridges and Florsheim, 2008)

Objectives

Methods

Results