MATERIALISM AND BRAND RESONANCE AS DRIVERS OF …. Doç. Dr. Ceyda... · Materıalism And Brand Resonance As Drivers Of Online Compulsıve Buying Behavior 93 uncontrolled, repetitive

The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies

International Journal of Social Science

Doi number:http://dx.doi.org/10.9761/JASSS3303

Number: 43 , p. 91-107, Spring I 2016

Yayın Süreci

Yayın Geliş Tarihi / Article Arrival Date - Yayınlanma Tarihi / The Published Date

29.01.2016 13.03.2016

MATERIALISM AND BRAND RESONANCE AS DRIVERS

OF ONLINE COMPULSIVE BUYING BEHAVIOR ÇEVRİMİÇİ KOMPULSİF SATIN ALMA DAVRANIŞININ YÖNLENDİRİCİ

UNSURLARI OLARAK MATERYALİZM VE MARKA REZONANSI Asst. Prof. Dr. Ceyda Aysuna TÜRKYILMAZ

Marmara University Faculty of Management

Dr. İlke KOCAMAZ


Prof. Dr. Aypar USLU


Abstract

Compulsive buying has been a widely researched medical phenomenon. In this

study compulsive buying behavior is examined from a marketing perspective and in the

online environment. When the relevant literature is reviewed it is revealed that little re-

search has been done on online compulsive buying behavior. This study aims to fill this

gap by trying to explain online compulsive buying considering the influences of materi-

alism and brand resonance on it.

In order to achieve this aim data were collected from a sample of 439 online

shoppers by a convenience sampling method.

The results revealed that success, happiness, centrality (all of the dimensions of

the material values scale), connection and community (2 of the 3 dimensions of brand

resonance) have statistically positive effects on online compulsive buying and brand loy-

alty has a negative one contrary to expectations. These results may shed light on online

shopping site owners to generate their strategies by better understanding compulsive

buyers and their behaviors.

In order to contribute to the gap in the relevant literature, further research

needs to be done on the under researched areas of online compulsive buying. For in-

stance, in this paper materialism is taken from a “values perspective”. Materialism may

be taken into consideration in further studies from a personality trait perspective as well.

Its effects on online compulsive buying behavior may be analyzed with the other per-

sonality traits together.

Keywords: Materialism, Brand Resonance, Compulsive Buying, Online Com-

pulsive Buying Behavior, Consumer Behavior

92

Ceyda Aysuna TÜRKYILMAZ & İlke KOCAMAZ & Aypar USLU

Öz

Kompulsif satın alma tıp literatüründe geniş yer edinmiş ve üzerinde pek çok

araştırma yapılmış bir konudur. Bu çalışmada kavram, “çevrimiçi” kompulsif satın alma

olarak ve pazarlama bakış açısıyla irdelenmiştir.

İlgili literatür incelendiğinde çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma konusunda

yapılan çalışmaların azlığı dikkati çekmektedir. Bu çalışma, çevrimiçi kompulsif satın

almayı materyalizm ve marka rezonansı kavramlarıyla açıklamaya çalışarak literatürde-

ki boşluğa katkı sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır.

Bu amaca ulaşabilmek için, 439 çevrimiçi alışveriş yapan müşteriden kolayda

örnekleme yöntemiyle veri toplanmıştır.

Yapılan analiz sonuçlarına göre materyalizm ölçeğinin boyutları olan başarının

(maddi varlıkların başarı getirdiği inancı), mutluluğun (maddi varlıkların mutluluk

getirdiği inancı) , merkeziyet (maddi varlıkların kişilerin yaşamının merkezi olduğu

inancı), marka rezonansının iki boyutu olan markaya bağlılık ve marka topluluğunun

çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma üzerinde anlamlı olumlu etkisi bulunduğu görülmüştür.

Bu faktörlerden çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma davranışını en çok etkileyen faktör

olarak marka topluluğu bulunmuştur. Marka topluluğunu sırasıyla başarı, bağlılık ve

mutluluk takip etmektedir. Beklenenin aksine, marka sadakatinin ise çevrimiçi kompul-

sif satın alma davranışı üzerinde olumsuz bir etkisi ortaya çıkmıştır. Araştırmanın

sonuçları çevrimiçi satış yapan internet sitesi sahiplerine kompulsif tüketicileri ve dav-

ranışlarını daha iyi anlayarak stratjilerini geliştirmeleri hususunda yol gösterici

olabilecek niteliktedir.

Çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma davranışının keşfedilmemiş alanları üzerinde

yapılacak ileriye dönük çalışmalar literatürde bu alandaki boşluğa katkı sağlar nitelikte

olabilecektir. Örneğin, bu çalışmada materyalizm bir “değer” olarak ele alınmıştır.

Yapılacak çalışmalarda materyalizm bir “kişilik özelliği” olarak da ele alınıp, matery-

alizmin diğer kişilik özellikleriyle birlikte çevrimiçi kompulsif satın alma davranışı

üzerindeki etkileri incelenebilecektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Materyalizm, Marka Rezonansı, Kompulsif Satın Alma,

Çevrimiçi Kompulsif Satın Alma Davranışı, Tüketici Davranışı

1. Introduction

Compulsive buying has been one of

the most prominently researched pheno-

mena in the psychiatry and psychology

disciplines. Longman’s Dictionary of Psyc-

hology and Psychiatry (Goldenson, 1984)

defines compulsion, as “a persistent, un-

controllable impulse to perform a stereoty-

ped, irrational act, such as washing the

hands 50 times a day. When the psychiatry

literature is reviewed it can be noticed that

compulsive buying is regarded as a disor-

der. In a medical definition compulsive

buying is explained as an impulse control

dysfunction, a mental disorder characteri-

zed by irresistible impulses to engage in

harmful or senseless behaviors (Palan, Mor-

row, Trapp and Blackburn, 2011).

Although compulsive buying is re-

garded as a disorder that has to be exami-

ned from a medical perspective, it has

many direct implications for the marketing

science as well. That is why it has been a

topic of interest for marketing academicians

in the latest years. According to Eren, Erog-

lu and Hacioglu (2012, p. 1371) after 1980’s

compulsive buying has become a crucial

issue for marketing. For instance, Faber and

O’Guinn (1988, p.99) who may be conside-

red as the marketing pioneers working on

this issue defined compulsive consumers as

“people who are impulsively driven to

consume, cannot control this behavior, and

seem to buy in order to escape from other

problems. In some studies compulsive bu-

ying is considered as an abnormal form of

consumer behavior (Johnson and Atmann,

2009, p.394; Edwards, 1992, p.54) due to its

Materıalism And Brand Resonance As Drivers Of Online Compulsıve Buying Behavior 93

uncontrolled, repetitive urges to buy items

that are not needed. According to Shiffman

and Kanuk (2000) compulsive buying is a

type of compulsive consumption that rep-

resents abnormal consumer behavior and is

regarded as the dark side of consumption.

Whether it can be considered nor-

mal or abnormal consumer behavior Ditt-

mar (2004), identified three core characteris-

tics of compulsive buying. These can be

summarized as: “the impulse is experien-

ced as irresistible, individuals lose control

over their buying behavior, and they conti-

nue with excessive buying despite adverse

consequences in their personal, social, or

occupational lives, and financial debt”.

On the other hand, digital techno-

logies have transformed and are at the focal

points of our lives. Internet changed

strongly the way we live our lives: the way

we listen to music, the way we communica-

te, the way we get information, the way we

shop etc. Due to this undeniable change,

consumers began to use the Internet exten-

sively in many areas of their lives. As a

consequence thereof, concepts such as onli-

ne consumer behavior, online shopping,

online buying etc. have emerged and recei-

ved much attention from the marketing

scholarly community in the last few deca-

des. Online compulsive buying is among

these concepts that are included in the lite-

rature as a result of the tremendous growth

of the Internet.

Examination of the relevant litera-

ture points out that besides its significance,

online compulsive buying is a little-studied

internet based behavioral disorder, and

literature offers very few data about it (Du-

roy, Gorse and Lejoyeux, 2014). Yet, little is

known about compulsive consumers’ be-

haviors in the online environment (Vicdan

and Sun, 2008). This paper aims to fill this

gap in the literature by trying to reveal the

effects of materialism and brand resonance

on online compulsive buying behavior. In

this regard, there are several contributions

of this paper: (i) due to the lack of studies in

the literature this paper aims to contribute

to this gap (ii) the paper tries to shed light

on an unexplored area which is the relati-

onship between online compulsive buying

and brand resonance (iii) checking if the

relationship between materialism and onli-

ne compulsive buying holds true for a de-

veloping country.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Online Compulsive Buying

As mentioned before compulsive

buying is mentioned as a disorder and

many definitions have been stated based on

this assumption. For instance, according to

Black (2007, p.14) “Compulsive buying

disorder (CBD) is characterized by excessi-

ve shopping cognitions and buying beha-

vior that leads to distress or impairment”.

Although it is considered as a disorder in

medicine, it has captured the interest of the

marketing academicians. Due to its close

relationship with human behavior it is re-

searched under the area of consumer beha-

vior.

When the relevant literature is re-

viewed several studies inspecting the dri-

vers or correlates of compulsive buying can

be noticed. Although Dittmar (2005) points

out that in explaining the causes of compul-

sive buying, psychiatric and clinical pers-

pectives are the main approaches it can be

seen that many drivers of compulsive bu-

ying can be actually examined in the mar-

keting literature. Many marketing academi-

cians have tried to examine the several fac-

tors which give way to compulsive buying

behavior (Faber, 1992). For instance, in their

study Mowen and Spears (1999) examined

the role of big-five personality traits and

materialism on compulsive buying. Some

academicians investigated the relationship

between compulsive buying, materialism,

depression and temperament (Müller,

Claes,Georgiadou, Möllenkamp, Voth, Fa-

94


ber, Mitchell and Zwaan, 2014). In another

study, the relationship between celebrity

worship, materialism, empty self and com-

pulsive buying is analyzed (Reeves,Baker

and Truluck., 2012). Reviewing the previ-

ous research on compulsive buying Work-

man and Paper (2010) identified nine diffe-

rent categories of factors that are concluded

to be related with compulsive buying in

different studies. These categories can be

summarized as; personality traits, demog-

raphics, materialism, product categories of

compulsive buyers, affect intensity, norma-

tive evaluations and impulse control, credit

card usage, short-term consequences

(e.g.reduction of stress and tension, tempo-

rary restoration of self-concept) and long-

term consequences (e.g. marital and family

disruption, personal distress etc.).

On the other hand, Internet is so-

metimes considered as a “booster” of seve-

ral behavioral addictions (Rosse and Codi-

na, 2009) because it permits resurgence of

them like pathological gambling, online

gaming disorder, and online compulsive

buying (Duroy et al., 2014). In many studies

in the literature the relationship between

the Internet and compulsive buying has

been revealed. For instance, it is found out

that compulsive individuals connect to

online shopping sites longer and more

frequently, spending much of their times on

these sites (Lejoyeux, Mathieu, Embouazza,

Huet and Lequen, 2007).

According to Kukar, Ridgway and

Monroe (2009) Internet as a shopping chan-

nel has given the topic additional impor-

tance because of compulsive buyers' vulne-

rability to the dangers of online shopping

such as the ability to buy any time the urge

strikes. They have the ability to shop online

at any time they want and from anywhere

they search for. So this may increase the

likelihood of being compulsive. Also the

characteristics of online shopping like high

accessibility, attractive online displays,

discounts, offers and the high amount of

alternatives have been thought to trigger

and increase online compulsive buying

(Eastin, 2002). Due to the reasons stated

above online compulsive buying concept

may require greater attention. But as men-

tioned before little emphasis has been pla-

ced on this concept in the literature. Due to

the lack of studies related to online compul-

sive buying, the drivers or correlates of this

concept is not examined extensively. In one

of the rare studies related with this issue

Lee and Park (2008) studied the effects of

consumer conformity in e-compulsive bu-

ying. In another study, Monika, Schein-

baum and Schaefers (2016) developed a

motivation theory of online buyer behavior

to predict compulsive buyers' online or

mobile shopping motivations.

By examining the effects of materi-

alism and brand resonance this study aims

to contribute this area.

2.2. Materialism

One particular aspect related to

consumption that has gained widespread

attention is materialism (Srikant, 2013).

When the relevant literature is examined it

can be traced that materialism is not a new

phenomenon. It is believed that in the 1980s

the importance devoted to materialism saw

a great increase (Graham, 1999). Following

this, in the previous decades it began to

capture the attention of many academici-

ans. For instance, Belk’s (1985) seminal

research on this concept has been identified

as one of the mostly cited Journal of Con-

sumer Research articles in the 1990s (Cote,

Leong and Cote, 1991).

Belk (1984, p.291) considers materi-

alism as a consumer orientation that “ref-

lects the importance a consumer attaches to

worldly possessions. According to him at

the highest levels of materialism, such pos-

sessions assume a central place in a per-

son's life and are believed to provide the

greatest sources of satisfaction and dissatis-

faction in life either directly (as ends) or

indirectly (as means to ends)”. From this


point of view it can be said that materialis-

tic people believe that such possessions are

the sources of personal satisfaction, pleasu-

re, and happiness; symbols of success or

achievement; and representations of in-

dulgence and luxury (Peter and Olson,

2008; Solomon, 2009).

The literature identifies materialism

as a central organizing value that leads to a

number of value orientations. For instance,

Richins and Dawson (1992) stated these

values as acquisition as the pursuit of hap-

piness, possession-defined success, and

acquisition/possession centrality. “Centra-

lity is the general importance materialists

attach to possessions and the idea that pos-

sessions play a central role in their lives.

Happiness is the belief that owning the

right possessions leads to well-being, and

that one would be happier if one had more

and better things. On the other hand, suc-

cess that is the last sub-value of materialism

can be explained as, materialistic people

believe success can be achieved by the

things they own (Ahuvia and Wong, 2002).

In another study conducted by Atay, Sirgy,

Cicic and Husic (2009) materialism was

conceptualized as a three-factor construct:

happiness (the belief that material possessi-

ons bring happiness to life, success (the

belief that possessions symbolize achieve-

ment and success) and distinctiveness (the

belief that possessions make people feel

distinctive). Due to it’s widely acceptance

in the academic literature in this study Ric-

hins and Dawson’s construct of materialism

was preferred.

Depending on the context of defini-

tions of materialism Watson (2003) claimed

that materialistic people are more likely to

spend or in other words they are spenders.

The researcher pointed out that individuals

with high levels of materialism are more

prone to be spenders than savers.

If materialistic people tend to spend

rather than to retain their money in order to

acquire material possessions (Christopher,

Marek and Carroll, 2004), it can be expected

that it is positively associated with compul-

sive spending. Since online environment

provides many advantages and ease for

consumers, it may be assumed that it moti-

vates consumers to spend more and com-

pulsively. Thus it is expected that materia-

lism with all its sub values (success, happi-

ness and centrality) has a positive effect on

online compulsive buying. All these relati-

onship may be summarized as follows:

H1a: Happiness (the belief that ma-

terial possessions bring happiness to life)

has a positive effect on online compulsive

buying.

H1b: Success (the belief that posses-

sions symbolize success) has a positive

effect on online compulsive buying.

H1c: Centrality (the belief that pos-

sessions play a central role in people’s lives)

has a positive effect on online compulsive

buying.

2.3. Brand Resonance

Brands are maybe one of the most

valuable assets of the companies today.

Consumers’ attachments with brands pro-

vide several benefits to the companies. The-

refore, companies pay greater attention and

money on branding activities and strate-

gies. Nowadays maybe one of the most

important concepts related with branding is

brand resonance. According to Kotler and

Keller (2006) the brand resonance model

considers brand building as an ascending,

sequential series of steps from bottom to

top. The researchers summarize these steps

as follows:

“1) Ensuring identification of the

brand with its target customers and an as-

sociation of the brand in their minds with a

specific product class or customer need,

2) Firmly establishing the totality of

brand meaning in the minds of customers

by strategically linking a host of tangible

and intangible brand associations,

96


3) Eliciting the proper customer

responses in terms of brand related judg-

ment and feelings,

4) Converting brand response to

create an intense and active loyalty relati-

onship between customers and the brand”.

Depending on the literature and the

previous studies Rindfleisch, Wong and

Burroughs (2006) stated that brand reso-

nance consist of several actions and activi-

ties beginning from simple repeat purcha-

ses to deep emotional ties.

In today’s fierce competitive envi-

ronment it is not so easy to reach the hig-

hest level of brand resonance because there

are several steps to be taken in order to

reach that level. For instance, Rindfleisch et

al. (2006) recognizes three different mani-

festations of brand resonance named as;

brand loyalty, self-brand connection and

brand community. Brand loyalty can be

defined as “the biased (non-random) beha-

vioral response (purchase) expressed over

time by some decision-making unit with

respect to one or more alternative brands

out of a set of brands and is a function of

psychological processes” (Jacoby 1971,

p.25). In another definitions it is defined as:

“the attachment that a customer has to a

brand” (Aaker, 1991, p.39) or “a deeply

held commitment to rebuy or re-patronize a

preferred product or service consistently in

the future, despite situational influences

and marketing efforts having potential to

cause switching behavior” (Oliver, 1997,

p.392). From these definitions it can be

concluded that Aaker’s definition focuses

on attitudinal dimensions of brand loyalty

while Oliver’s definitions focuses on the

behavioral aspects. On the other hand,

brand connection can be explained as a

personal or special attachment to a brand

(Escalas and Bettman, 2003) and finally

brand community can be described as “a

specialized, non-geographically bound

community, based on a structured set of

social relations among admirers of a brand”

(Muniz and O’Guinn,2001).

In fact these three concepts are so-

mehow different from each other. For ins-

tance, if brand loyalty is regarded as a be-

havioral concept than it is expected that

loyal consumers tend to exhibit repeat

purchases. On the other hand, consumers

who have special emotional connections

with brands do not necessarily have to ma-

ke repeat purchases. Here their budget may

be a restrictive factor. For instance, an indi-

vidual may have emotional connections

with Porche but he/she may not afford to

buy it. But if there are no restrictive factors

brand commitment, brand connections and

brand loyalty would lead consumers to

repeat purchase in the behavioral sense.

From this point of view, it may be conclu-

ded that as a result of brand resonance re-

peat purchases may contribute to compul-

sive buying (Lee and Workman,2015).

Considering the opportunities that

online environment provides, people who

have high levels of brand resonance would

be more willing to buy compulsively. For

instance web advertising, discounts, conve-

nience of online shopping, the vast amount

of alternatives etc. would trigger consumers

to spend much and compulsively. Therefo-

re it is assumed that with all its aspects

brand resonance will have a positive effect

on online compulsive buying. These relati-

onships are summarized as follows:

H2a: Brand loyalty has a positive ef-

fect on online compulsive buying.

H2b: Self-brand connection has a

positive effect on online compulsive bu-

ying.

H2c: Community has a positive ef-

fect on online compulsive buying.

3. Methodology

3.1. Research Instrument

The main objective of this paper is

to investigate the effects of brand resonance

dimensions and materialism dimensions on

online compulsive buying. In order to achi-

eve this objective data has been collected by

http://jopeninnovation.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40852-015-0004-x#CR1

http://jopeninnovation.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40852-015-0004-x#CR44


means of a questionnaire. The questionnai-

re had three sections. It started with a filter

question to eliminate the ones who have

never shopped online in their lives before.

The first part of the questionnaire consisted

of items generated from different scales that

measure happiness, success, centrality,

brand loyalty, self-brand connection, com-

munity and online compulsive buying.

Materialism was measured by the short

version of the material values scale develo-

ped by Richins (2004). The scale consisted

of five items measuring success, five items

measuring centrality and five items measu-

ring happiness. On the other hand, brand

resonance manifestations – brand loyalty,

self-brand connection and brand commu-

nity – were measured by three different

scales. Brand loyalty was measured with a

scale of four items developed by Chaudhuri

and Holbrook (2001). Brand connection was

measured with a five-item scale generated

by Escalas and Bettman (2003), brand

community was assessed by Keller (2003)’s

four-item measure of brand community.

Finally online compulsive buying was mea-

sured by a seven-item scale developed by

Lee and Park (2008). In the questionnaire, 5

point Likert scale “1=Strongly Disagree” to

“5=Strongly Agree” was employed to mea-

sure all the items in the first part of the

questionnaire.

The second part of the questionnai-

re contained demographic questions aiming

to define the demographic profile of the

respondents and last part of the question-

naire consisted of questions aimed to define

the Internet usage/online shopping habits

of the respondents.

All the items of the questionnaire

were generated from scales in English the-

refore they were translated in Turkish and

after the translations they were back trans-

lated and compared with the original forms

to be sure that no mistakes were made du-

ring translations. As for the face validity,

the scales in the questionnaire have been

assessed by two colleagues studying on

consumer behavior and branding. After

that a pilot study was conducted on a

sample of 30 respondents and some minor

corrections were made regarding the wor-

ding of the items accordingly.

Following the aim of the study and

depending on the reasons stated in the lite-

rature review the proposed research model

is as follows:

Figure-1: Proposed Research Model

Materialism

Happiness

Success

Centrality

Brand Resonance

Brand Loyalty

Self-Brand Connection

Community

Online

Compulsive Buying

H1a, H1b, H1c

H2a, H2b, H2c

98


3.2. Sampling and Data Collection

Data for this study was collected

from online shoppers on by convenience

sampling method. During a three-week

period (between December 21, 2015 - Janu-

ary 10, 2016) 448 respondents completed

the survey that was mailed to them electro-

nically. After eliminating the inconsistent

questionnaires 439 usable questionnaires

remained to be included in the analysis.

Data obtained from the questionnaires were

analyzed through IBM SPSS 21.0 statistical

program.

3.3. Sample’s Profile

203 of the respondents (46.2%) were

female and 236 were male (53.8%). The

average age was 30.5 years (with a 8.59

standard deviation) ranging from 21 to 72

years. 95% of the respondents were single

while, 4% married and 1% divorced. App-

roximately 24% the respondents (23.9%)

had a household income level of more than

4500TL. 49% of the respondents were uni-

versity, and 47% high-school graduates.

34% of the respondents stated that

they were using the Internet for 6-8 years

while 31% said that they were using Inter-

net for 9-11 years. Most of the respondents

(77%) pointed out that they were shopping

online at least twice a month.

According to the respondents the

items that were stated to be bought most

frequently (with a descending frequency

level) were as follows: bus/airplane tickets

(60% of the respondents stated that they

bought this item). It was followed by bo-

oks/music/film (36%), ready to wear pro-

ducts (34%), food (27%) and electronics

(23%) respectively. The other products that

were stated to be frequently bought online

were gifts/flowers, holiday tickets, sport

equipment, personal care products etc.

4. Analysis

4.1. Factor Analysis

As the initial step of the analysis

process, in order to determine whether the

variables of the study have multiple dimen-

sions or are unidimensional; an exploratory

factor analysis was employed to material

values, brand resonance and online com-

pulsive buying scales.

4.1.1. Factor Analysis for Material

Values Scale

To reveal the dimensions of mate-

rial values scale exploratory factor analysis

with Principle component factoring and

varimax rotation was conducted. In order

to test the appropriateness of the data for

factor analysis Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure

of sampling adequacy and Bartlett test of

sphericity tests were employed. Results of

the tests mentioned were satisfactory poin-

ting out that data is adequate for conduc-

ting factor analysis (KMO=,892; Bartlett test

= Approx.Chi-Square=1643,744; df=91;

Sig=0,000).

First of all, the diagonals of the anti-

image correlation matrix were examined

and it is concluded that all the values are

higher than 0,50 supporting the idea that

each item of the scale is appropriate for the

factor analysis. Factors with eigenvalues

over one were retained while the items

with factor loadings below 0.50 were dis-

carded (Hair, Anderson, Tahtam and Black,

1998).

As a result, one item was elimina-

ted because of insufficient factor loadings

and two items were deleted due to the re-

sults of the reliability analysis and three

factors emerged with approximately 56%

(%55,980) total variance explained level.

The names of the factors are consistent with

the literature: Success, centrality and hap-

piness. The reliabilities of the factors were

assessed by Cronbach’s Alpha values. As

can be seen from the table Cronbach’s alpha

levels of the factors are acceptable (Nun-

nally,1979). The results of the factor analy-

sis are summarized in Table-1.


Table-1: Results of the Factor Analysis for Materialism

Factor

Loading

% of

Variance Eigenvalues

Cronbach’s

Alpha

Factor-1: Success

22,820 4,349 ,868

The things I own say a lot about how well I am

doing in life ,715

I admire people who own expensive homes, cars

and clothes. ,672

Buying things gives me a lot of pleasure. ,659

Some of the most important achievements in life

include acquiring material possessions. ,654

I like to own things that impress people. ,615

Factor-2: Happiness

18,983 1,359 ,892

My life would be better if I owned certain things

I don't have. ,709

I wouldn't be any happier if I owned nicer

things. ,681

I would be happier if I could afford to buy more

things ,637

It sometimes bothers me quite a bit that I can't

afford to buy all the things I'd like ,628

I have all the things I really need to enjoy life. ,614

Factor-3: Centrality

14,177 1,010 ,871

The things I own aren't all that important to me. ,760

I try to keep my life simple as far as possessions

are concerned. ,742

(KMO=,892; Bartlett test =Approx.Chi-Square=1643,744; df=91; Sig=0,000).

4.1.2. Factor Analysis for Brand

Resonance

Same steps were followed for the

factor analysis of brand resonance. Results

of the tests conducted before the explora-

tory factor analysis were all satisfactory

(KMO=,890; Bartlett test = Approx.Chi-

Square=2733,710; df=78; Sig=0,000).

The values of the diagonals of the

anti-image correlation matrix supported the

inclusion of all the items in the factor analy-

sis. Factor loadings and the results of the

reliability analysis were all satisfactory

including values within the acceptable ran-

ge. As a result no items were eliminated in

the factor analysis and three factors were

obtained. This outcome was similar with

the literature. The total variance explained

was approximately 68%. The results of the

exploratory factor analysis for brand reso-

nance are summarized in Table-2.

100


Table-2: Results of the Factor Analysis for Brand Resonance

Factor

Loading

% of

Variance Eigenvalues

Cronbach’s

Alpha

Factor-1: Connection

26,298 5,656 ,874

I can identify with the brands I use. ,836

I feel personal connections with the brands I

use. ,796

The brands I use generally reflects who I am. ,757

I consider the brands I used to be “me”. ,721

Next time I shop, I would be willing to pay

more for my current brand than other brands. ,587

Factor-2: Community

23,422 2,185 ,847

I feel like I almost belong to the same place

with other users of the brands I use. ,823

I really identify with people who use the

brands I use. ,785

I feel a deep connection with others who use

the brands I use. ,781

The brands I used are generally used by people

like me. ,702

I can use the brands I use to communicate who

I am to other people. ,533

Factor-3: Brand Loyalty

18,484 1,025 ,825

The next time I shop, I plan to buy the same

brands I currently use. ,856

I intend to keep buying the same brands for the

foreseeable future. ,832

In general, I am committed to the brands I

currently use. ,813

(KMO=,890; Bartlett test = Approx.Chi-Square=2733,710; df=78; Sig=0,000).

4.1.3. Factor Analysis for Online

Compulsive Buying

The results of the factor analysis for

online compulsive buying point out the

unidimensional structure of the variable. In

other words, there is only one factor expla-

ining the 51,933% of the total variance

(KMO=,853; Bartlett test = Approx.Chi-

Square=1057,400; df=78; Sig=0,000). The

statements under the online compulsive

buying factor are summarized in Table-3.

Table-3: Results of the Factor Analysis for Online Compulsive Buying

Factor-1: Online Compulsive Buying

I felt others would be horrified if they knew my online

spending habits

I bought things online even though I couldn't afford

them.


I bought something online when I knew I didn't have

enough money in the bank to cover it.

I bought something online in order to make myself feel

better.

I felt anxious or nervous on days I didn't shop online.

I made only the minimum payments on my credit cards.

If I have any money left at the end of the pay period, I

just have to spend it online.

(Total Variance Explained= 51,933%, Eigenvalues= 3,635; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0,826)

Note: Since only one factor was extracted factor loadings cannot be displayed)

4.2. Multiple Regression Analysis

In order to test the effects of mate-

rialism and brand resonance dimensions on

online compulsive buying a multiple reg-

ression analysis is conducted. But before

this analysis a correlation analysis was per-

formed to reveal the correlations between

the independent variables. The results of

the Pearson correlation analysis is summa-

rized in Table-4.

Table-4: Results of the Pearson Correlation Analysis

Success

happi-

ness

centra-

lity

connec-

tion

commu-

nity loyalty

Success Pearson Correla-

tion 1 ,484(**) ,512(**) ,300(**) ,378(**) ,275(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,013

N 403 403 403 397 401 403

happiness Pearson Correla-

tion ,484(**) 1 ,397(**) ,174(**) ,283(**) ,356(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000 ,000 ,026

N 403 403 403 397 401 403

centrality Pearson Correla-

tion ,512(**) ,397(**) 1 ,422(**) ,163(**) ,472(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,021 ,001 ,000

N 403 403 403 397 401 403

connection Pearson Correla-

tion ,300(**) ,174(**) ,422(**) 1 ,618(**) ,452(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,021 ,000 ,000

N 397 397 397 397 395 397

commu-

nity

Pearson Correla-

tion ,378(**) ,283(**) ,163(**) ,618(**) 1 ,157(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,001 ,000 ,002

N 401 401 401 395 401 401

loyalty Pearson Correla-

tion ,275(**) ,356(**) ,472(**) ,452(**) ,157(**) 1

Sig. (2-tailed) ,013 ,026 ,000 ,000 ,002

N 403 403 403 397 401 403

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

102


Table-4 points out that although

there are correlations between independent

variables; there is no multicollinearity since

all the correlation levels are below 0.70. All

the VIF scores in Table-5 are below 10 indi-

cating that multicollienarity is not a prob-

lem (Hair, et.al, 1998:193).

Table-5: Results of The Multiple Regression Analysis

Dependent Variable:

OnlineCompulsive Buying

Unstandardized

Coefficients

Stand.

Coeff.

Independent Variables B Std.

Error Beta t Sig. (p) VIF

Success 0,159 0,058 0,168 2,747 0,006 1,699

Happiness 0,081 0,058 0,078 1,409 0,016 1,393

Centrality 0,060 0,046 0,074 1,320 0,018 1,415

Connection 0,112 0,059 0,129 1,915 0,046 2,057

Community 0,174 0,061 0,177 2,827 0,005 1,786

Loyalty -0,126 0,052 -0,130 -2,418 0,016 1,310

R=0,476; R2=0,421; Adjusted R2= 0,415; F =7,850; p =0,000

The results of the multiple regres-

sion analysis point out that success, happi-

ness, centrality, connection, community

have statistically significant positive effects

on online compulsive buying. Thus, it can

be concluded that H1a, H1b, H1c, H2b and H2c

are accepted as expected. Among these

variables, community has the greatest im-

pact on online compulsive buying (βcom-

munity =0.177). It is followed by success,

connection happiness and centrality respec-

tively (βsuccess =0.168, βconnection =0.129,

βhappiness =0.078 and βcentrality =0.074).

In the literature, there are many studies that

examine the effects of materialism and

compulsive buying. These studies have

proved the strong effect of materialism on

compulsive buying (Raudsepp and Parts,

2015; Richins and Dawson, 1992; Zerah,

2015; Harnish and Bridges,2014; Bushra and

Bilal, 2014). Due to the lack of studies on

online compulsive buying no other study

was detected that examining the effects of

materialism on online compulsive buying.

So that the results of these hypotheses cont-

ribute this gap by taking this relationship to

an online context. Also the hypotheses

related to the relationship between brand

resonance and online compulsive buying

are among the first that try to investigate

this relationship. So that it is difficult to

find evidence from the literature whether to

support or contradict to these findings.

On the other hand, unlike anticipa-

ted brand loyalty is found to have negative

effects on online compulsive buying. It was

proposed in H2a that brand loyalty had a

positive effect on compulsive buying. But

the results of the regression analysis poin-

ted out that it had a statistically significant

negative effect on online compulsive bu-

ying resulting in the rejection of this hypot-

hesis.

Interpretation of the overall results

points out that approximately 42% of the

variation of online compulsive buying can

be explained by the independent variables

listed above (success, happiness, centrality,

connection, community and loyalty

(R=0,476; R2=0,421; Adjusted R2= 0,415).

5. Conclusion and Discussion

Digitalization in general and the In-

ternet in particular have transformed our

lives dramatically in the last century and

this is only one facet of the tremendous

transformation that our societies are actu-


ally going through. This and other changes

such as the apparently increasing inclina-

tion towards higher levels of materialism

and compulsive consumption have come to

dominate our lives more than ever in his-

tory. Materialism is a construct that has

been dwelled upon more widely in the

marketing literature in the last few decades.

“Since 1992, more than 100 empirical stu-

dies have examined materialism, and co-

untless articles in the popular press have

discussed materialism in contemporary US

society” (Richins, 2004). A large body of

literature indicates the positive relationship

between compulsive buying and materia-

lism already (e.g. Dittmar, 2005; Rose, 2007;

Mueller et al., 2011b). In this study this was

extended to an online context in a develo-

ping country.

Brand resonance is one of the most

important issues for the companies. Con-

sumers who have high levels of brand re-

sonance provide many benefits to compa-

nies (e.g. loyalty, repeat purchases, positive

word of mouth etc.) as it seems to be natu-

ral for consumers with high levels of brand

resonance to also make high levels of repeat

purchases. Considering the several advan-

tages the Internet and online shopping pro-

vide it was assumed that individuals with

high levels of brand resonance will be more

compulsive while they are shopping online.

In this regard, the study is aimed to

reveal the effects of the dimensions of ma-

terialism and brand resonance on online

compulsive buying behavior. According to

the results of the multiple regression analy-

sis success, happiness, centrality, connec-

tion and community were found to have

statistically positive effects on online com-

pulsive buying. Thus, H1a, H1b, H1c, H2b and

H2c were accepted. In other words, indivi-

duals who may think that possessions bring

success and happiness to their lives and

consider them as the center of their lives are

more prone to online compulsive buying.

Since possessions are very important for

them they may be more willing to benefit

from all the opportunities they encounter to

own these possessions. In this regard, onli-

ne environment with all its advantages

(advertising, discounts, convenience of

online shopping, price advantages etc.)

trigger individuals to have the material

things they admire. The results pertaining

to materialism were similar to the results of

the previous studies (Raudsepp and Parts,

2015; Richins and Dawson, 1992; Zerah,

2015; Harnish and Bridges,2014; Bushra and

Bilal, 2014). But the results of this study also

proved that this relationship exists even in

a developing country and also in an online

environment.

Among the factors that had effects

on online compulsive buying community

has the greatest impact on online compulsi-

ve buying, followed by success, connection,

happiness and centrality respectively.

Brand loyalty has come out to have

a negative effect on online compulsive bu-

ying, this was an unexpected outcome. In

the hypothesis formulated it was assumed

that brand loyalty would positively affect

online compulsive buying due to the belief

that loyal customers would make repeat

purchases and the benefits of the Internet

would encourage them to buy more and

more. But the results were contradictory to

this assumption. The reason for that could

be the fact that loyal customers tend to have

the inclination to stick to a couple of brands

that they are loyal to and ignore the rest of

the online buying opportunities. In other

words, the Internet might not trigger their

compulsive buying behavior for the brands

that they are not loyal to. They would deli-

berately and rationally search for the

brands that they admire and loyal to. So

that would prevent them to behave com-

pulsively even in front of the impulses of

online environment.

Overall, approximately 42% of the

104


variation of online compulsive buying can

be explained by the independent variables

of success, happiness, centrality, connec-

tion, community, and loyalty.

Regarding the research limitations,

data were collected using the convenience

sampling method which makes it more

difficult to generalize the research results.

The results of the study may be

helpful for online shopping site owners to

generate their marketing strategies by bet-

ter understanding the compulsive buyers’

behaviors. For instance, they could place

much emphasis on messages or promotio-

nal activities focusing on materialism. In

this regard, instead of focusing on the attri-

butes of the products/brands, marketing

messages may be related to the material

benefits that consumers would get when

they possess the brands. The brand owners

may use happiness and success (as the di-

mensions of materialism) themes in their

messages to trigger materialistic consu-

mers. For instance, messages such as “Suc-

cessful people use these brands” would

motivate materialistic consumers to have

these brands. Also for materialistic consu-

mers marketing activities that use hedonic

appeals (e.g.status, prestige etc.) may be

useful. They could also use online brand

communities and may work hard to create

successful connections between the custo-

mers and the brands in order to motivate

compulsive buying behavior.

Due to the lack of studies on this

topic, further research investigating the

unexplored areas of the concept is neces-

sary. For instance, in this paper materialism

was examined from a values perspective. It

could also be taken into consideration from

a personality trait perspective as well. Its

effects on online compulsive buying beha-

vior may be analyzed with other persona-

lity traits together.

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