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Anti-Consumption and Materialism in Consumer Behaviour: a Value

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Anti-Consumption and Materialism in Consumer Behaviour: a Value Anti-Consumption And Materialism In Consumer Behaviour: A Value Orientation Perspective By Sadia Yaqub Khan A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Cardiff University Consumer Behaviour Analysis Research Group Marketing and Strategy Section of Cardiff Business School Cardiff University February 2017 DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed ………………………………… Date …28th February 2017…………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Cardiff University Signed ………………………………… Date …28th February 2017…………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. Signed ……………………………… (candidate) Date …28th February 2017………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed …………………………………………… Date …28th February 2017……………………… II DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to none other than my mother Qaisra, my father Yaqub, my twin sister Fatima, my brothers Ali and Imran, my husband Usama and love of my life Meerab, my daughter. Alahamdulillah I am blessed to have you all in my life. I owe this thesis and much more to all of you. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I am forever grateful to Allah (God) for giving me the opportunity and potential to pursue my PhD and for all the blessings I am showered with. I would also like to thank my parents Qaisra Yaqub Khan and Muhammad Yaqub Khan for believing in me and supporting me in every decision of my life. Also special thanks to my brothers Muhammad Ali Khan and Imran Ali Khan for going against all odds and encouraging and facilitating me to pursue all my dreams. A very special thanks is also extended to my elder brother Muhammad Ali Khan who spent days reading my work and guiding me through out the process of PhD. Moreover, I would like to thank my husband Usama Ahmad for always being there for me. I would also like to express my very greatest appreciation to my twin sister and my best friend Dr. Fatima Yaqub Khan, my inspiration, guide and support throughout the years. Thank you for always being there for me and understanding my silence. I would never have been able to accomplish anything without your love, support and help. Additionally, I would like to thank my daughter Meerab Fatima, who completed my life and gave me a reason to work even harder. Her presence made this journey joyful and this world worth loving even more and I cannot thank Allah enough for blessing me with such a wonderful family. I know I wouldn’t have accomplished any of this without all of these people and their love. No words seem enough to express my gratitude towards them all. Secondly I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Mirella Yani-De-Soriano for her valuable guidance throughout the process of PhD. I am also grateful to Professor Ken Peattie and Dr Stephanie Slater for providing me with valuable feedback on my work. Finally a very special thanks is extended to my examiners Professor Victoria Wells and Dr. Ahmad Jamal for their enlightening feedback that helped me improve my thesis and made it an exceptional piece of writing. IV ABSTRACT Starting from the premise that both anti-consumption and materialism are prevalent concepts in developed economies, this study firstly empirically explores if anti-consumption attitudes and materialistic attitudes are opposite to each other. Secondly, it examines how consumers in developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, find a balance between these contradictory attitudes, and if this balance could be used to classify these consumers into unique and distinct segments. A theoretical framework is proposed based on the literature from anti- consumption, materialism, values, environmental consciousness, authenticity and wellbeing. Subsequently, correlations and regressions are conducted on survey data (N=288) from British consumers, to explore if values, environmental consciousness, authenticity and wellbeing have an inverse relationship with anti-consumption attitudes compared to materialistic attitudes. This is done to empirically assess whether the anti-consumption attitude is in fact opposite to materialistic attitude. Next, cluster analysis, using the two attitudes, was conducted on the data in order to explore if contemporary consumers hold different combinations of anti-consumption attitudes and materialistic attitudes and to see if these combinations could be used to classify consumers into a typology with different segments. Additionally, One-way ANOVA, post- hoc tests, discriminant analysis and chi2 tests were employed to rigorously validate this typology of consumers. Value orientations, environmental consciousness, wellbeing, authenticity, age and education are used as external variables for the validation of the typology. The thesis principally concludes the following: 1) anti-consumption and materialistic attitudes are opposite to each other as a) values that act as antecedents of anti-consumption attitude are opposite to values that act as antecedents of materialistic attitude,:b) environmental consciousness is a positive predictor of anti-consumption attitude and a negative predictor of materialistic attitude and, :c) the relationship of values, environmental consciousness, authenticity and wellbeing with anti-consumption attitude is opposite to that of materialistic attitude; 2) contemporary consumers can be classified into four unique segments in terms of the specific balance they acquire between their anti-consumption and materialistic attitudes. These segments are labelled as anti-consumers, materialistic consumers, dualistic consumers and disinterested consumers. The four groups in the typology exhibit different psychographic and demographic profiles according to the specific combination of anti-consumption and materialistic attitudes that they exhibit. V The findings from this thesis provide empirical support to the notion that anti- consumption is opposite to materialism, thereby responding to the call for empirical research (Lee and Ahn, 2016). More importantly, the development and validation of a typology of contemporary consumers in this thesis brings new understanding of consumers in the 21st century, thus adding to the existing knowledge in consumer behaviour and marketing. Marketers can benefit from the findings of this study as they can develop strategies for each segment in order to cater to their specific needs. Policy-makers striving to attain sustainability can benefit from this knowledge as they can determine which values to promote so as to sway people to consume in a sustainable way. Keywords Anti-consumption, materialism, attitudes, sustainability, consumer typology. VI Table of Contents DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... II DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................IV ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES.................................................................................................. XII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... XIV LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................ XV CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................... 6 1.2.1. Materialism at the heart of consumer culture ........................................... 6 1.2.2. Importance of sustainability in the present time ....................................... 9 1.2.2.1. Anti-consumption as a vital element of sustainability ............................................... 11 1.2.3. Anti-consumption and materialism: contradictory yet prevalent in current culture ................................................................................................................ 12 1.3. RESEARCH GAP .................................................................................................... 15 1.4. RESEARCH PURPOSE, QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES ..................................................... 21 1.5. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE RESEARCH .......................................................................... 25 1.6. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ..................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER 2 AN INITIAL UNDERSTANDING OF ANTI-CONSUMPTION AND MATERIALISM ...................................................................................................... 34 2.1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 34 2.2. WHAT IS MATERIALISM:
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