مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد وابستگی برند و خرید اجباری – الزویر ۲۰۱۹

Compulsive buying refers to a phenomenon that promotes excessive consumerism which may hurt the brands’ reputation in the long run. This study examines the influence of actual and ideal self-congruence on brand attachment and two dimensions of compulsive buying behavior (i.e. impulsive and obsessive-compulsive buying). Based on a survey of 427 respondents, it is evident that self-congruence directly affects brand attachment, where actual self-congruence is a stronger predictor of brand attachment. Both actual and ideal selfcongruence do not directly affect obsessive-compulsive buying. This indicates that brand attachment fully mediates the relationships. However, actual self-congruence directly affects impulsive buying but ideal selfcongruence does not. This indicates that brand attachment partially mediates the relationship between actual self-congruence and impulsive buying and fully mediates the relationship between ideal self-congruence and impulsive buying. Interestingly, the direct effect of actual self-congruence on impulsive buying is negative. Academic and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.

Introduction

Compulsive buying refers to a condition when consumers have the tendency to conduct repetitive buying excessively and display a shortfall of impulse control over buying. This form of behavior includes both obsessive-compulsive and impulse-control disorders (Ridgway, KukarKinney, & Monroe, 2008). Compulsive buying has been of interest to consumer researchers in recent years (e.g. Darrat, Darrat, & Amyx, 2016; Kukar-Kinney, Scheinbaum, & Schaefers, 2016; Ridgway et al., 2008). Gallagher, Watt, Weaver, and Murphy (2017) note that although shopping has been regarded as a necessity and harmless, compulsive buying may lead to many undesirable consequences, including severe personal debt and damaged family relationships. Previous research has investigated the factors that lead to compulsive buying behavior. For instance, Achtziger, Hubert, Kenning, Raab, and Reisch (2015) show that lower levels of self-control are associated with higher levels of compulsive buying. Other research shows that hedonic motivation is related to compulsive buying (Kukar-Kinney et al., 2016). Our research puts forward self-congruence as the driver of compulsive buying. Self-congruence was chosen because firms have been using the actual and ideal self-concept to communicate and attract consumers to their brands (Malär, Krohmer, Hoyer, & Nyffenegger, 2011).