Keyword

Psychological Variables, Demographic variables, Loneliness, Occupation Type, Marital Status, Compulsive Buying Behavior

Abstract

Garnering insights into the relation between the general demographic variables such as age, gender, occupation status and psychological imbalances of anxiety, depression, self-esteem levels and loneliness and their subsequent influence on compulsive buying levels in an individual from the marketing perspective was the impetus and main motivation behind undertaking this study.
Study was conducted over a 7-month period with a balanced homogeneous mix of randomly chosen respondents belonging to various occupations, ranging from an age band of 20 to 35 years. They were then administered a 5-Point Likert Scale questionnaire that incorporated demographic as well as psychological variables of loneliness, self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Responses were analyzed using frequency Analysis, principal component analysis, linear regression and cross tabulation to derive insights.
The study revealed that along with loneliness, which was a major constituent, occupation type and marital status also significantly contributed in determining whether or not an individual would be compulsive in his or her purchase behavior. 
The study is significant as it discusses Compulsive Buying Behavior from a marketing perspective in a developing young economy such as India and discusses the implications of the findings as well.


Full Text : PDF

References
  1. Akhtar-Danesh, N. & Landeen, J., 2007. Relation between depression and sociodemographic factors. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 1(1), p.4. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18271976 [Accessed August 1, 2018].
  2. Black, D.W., 2007. Compulsive buying disorder: a review of the evidence. CNS spectrums, 12(2), pp.124–132. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17342214 [Accessed December 1, 2016].
  3. Christenson, G.A. et al., 1994. Compulsive buying: descriptive characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 55(1), pp.5–11. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8294395 [Accessed December 1, 2016].
  4. d’Astous, A., 1990. An inquiry into the compulsive side of “normal” consumers. Journal of Consumer Policy, 13(1), pp.15–31. Available at: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/BF00411867 [Accessed December 2, 2016].
  5. Dittmar, H., 2005. A new look at “compulsive buying”: self-discrepancies and materialistic values as predictors of compulsive buying tendency. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24(6), pp.832–859. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2005.24.6.832.
  6. Divine, S., 2016. Compulsive Buying in American Culture: An Analysis of Contemporary Online Discourse. Available at: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/181418/Sarah Divine summa CDES
  7.  sp2016.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
  8. Gaspard, M., Burnett, M. & Gaspard, C., 2011. The Influence of Self–Esteem and Selected Demographic Characteristics on First Semester Academic Achievement of Students Enrolled in a College of Agriculture. Journal of Agricultural Education, 52(4), pp.76–86. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ956103.pdf [Accessed August 1, 2018].
  9. Index Mundi, India - Household final consumption expenditure per capita. Available at:
  10.  https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/india/household-final-consumption-expenditure-per-capita [Accessed August 9, 2018].
  11. Iqbal, N. & Aslam, N., 2016. Materialism, Depression, and Compulsive Buying among University Students. The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN, 3(2), pp.2348–5396. Available at: http://www.ijip.in [Accessed December 24, 2016].
  12. Kaur, S., 2018. Compulsive Buying Behaviour in relation to Self Control and Generalized Self Efficacy among Young Professionals,
  13. Al Khatib, S.A., 2012. Exploring the relationship among loneliness, self-esteem, self-efficacy and gender in United Arab Emirates College Students. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 8(1), pp.159–181. Available at: www.ejop.org [Accessed July 31, 2018].
  14. Kothari, H. & Chopra, G., 2015. Marketing Perspective on Compulsive Buying: A Theoretical Framework. Journal of Arts, 2829(4). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.18843/rwjasc/v6i4/04 [Accessed August 5, 2018].
  15. Maraz, A., Griffiths, M.D. & Demetrovics, Z., 2016. The prevalence of compulsive buying: a meta-analysis. Addiction, 111(3), pp.408–419. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/add.13223 [Accessed December 24, 2016].
  16. Maraz, P., 2015. Kökönyei, G., Griffiths, M. D. & Demetrovics, Z. (2015). Measuring compulsive buying behaviour: Psychometric validity of three different scales and prevalence in the general population and in shopping centres. Psychiatry Research, 225, 326 –. Psychiatry Research, 225, pp.326–334.
  17. Mikołajczak-Degrauwe, K. et al., 2012. Does personality affect compulsive buying? An application of the Big Five personality model. Psychology - Selected Papers, (February 2015), pp.132–144.
  18. Miltenberger, R.G. et al., 2003. Direct and retrospective assessment of factors contributing to compulsive buying. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34(1), pp.1–9. Available at:
  19.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12763389 [Accessed December 1, 2016].
  20. Mohanraj, M.P., 2017. Consumers’ Compulsive Buying Behaviour – An Empirical Study M. Prasanna Mohanraj School of Business, Alliance University. Great Lakes Herald, 11(1), pp.1–18. Available at:
  21.  https://www.greatlakes.edu.in/herald/pdfs/march-2017/article-1.pdf [Accessed August 5, 2018].
  22. Neto, F., 2014. Socio-Demographic Predictors of Loneliness Across the Adult Life Span in Portugal. Interpersona: An International Journal on Personal Relationships, 8(2), pp.222–230. Available at:
  23.  http://interpersona.psychopen.eu/article/view/171 [Accessed July 31, 2018].
  24. O’Guinn, T.C. & Faber, R.J., 1989. Compulsive buying: A phenomenological exploration. Journal of Consumer Research, 16(2), p.147.
  25. Pandey, S. & Devasagayam, R., 2015. The effect of deals and moods on compulsive buying in young adults: A comparison of an indulgence culture and a restraint culture. Journal of Customer Behaviour, 14(3), pp.257–270. Available at: 
  26. http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article&issn=1475-3928&volume=14&issue=3&spage=257 [Accessed August 5, 2018].
  27. Steiger, J. & Muller, a, 2015. Compulsive buying. Psychotherapeut, 55(5), pp.429–439.
  28. Thornhill, K., Kellett, S. & Davies, J., 2012. Heterogeneity within compulsive buyers: A Q-sort study. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 85(2), pp.229–241.
  29. Uniyal, S., 2017. Why Indian women are getting addictive to shopping: A study to introspect! International Journal of Commerce and Management Research, 3(3), pp.58–60.
  30. Uniyal, S. & Sharma, P.K., 2017. Addictive Shopping Behaviour of Indian Women-A Theoretical Aspect (With Special Reference to Apparel and Jewellery Shopping). IOSR Journal of Management, 19(2), pp.34–36. Available at: www.iosrjournals.org [Accessed August 5, 2018].
  31. Workman, L. & Paper, D., 2010. Compulsive Buying: A Theoretical Framework. The Journal of Business Inquiry, 9(1), pp.89–126. Available at: http: www.uvu.edu/woodbury/jbi/articles.
  32. World Bank, T., Consumption | Country: India | The World Bank. Available at:
  33.  http://datatopics.worldbank.org/consumption/country/India [Accessed August 9, 2018].
  34. Yang, K. & Victor, C., 2011. Age and loneliness in 25 European nations. Ageing and Society, 31(8), pp.1368–1388. Available at: http://www.journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0144686X1000139X [Accessed July 31, 2018].
  35. Yeong Ng, J.C. & Kalhour, M., 2015. Compulsive Buying Behavior as a Way to Cope. Journal of International Management Studies, 15(2), pp.7–14.