Conspicuous Consumption Behavior: Cultural Dimensions, Implications, and Future Research

Introduction

The global economy is currently experiencing high volatility with the economic recession challenging the consumer market in all countries. This economic and marketing situation has had a significant effect on business globally, including in emerging markets such as those found in the Asian countries. We can see the effect of this recession primarily in international business activities where there has been a reduction in import and export activities for certain products in certain markets. However, despite such economic trends, there is an increasing requirement for prestige goods, especially imported ones from both the local and global consumers. As a consequence many new luxury brands have emerged on the market, more than ever before (Kuisma, 2008). This global phenomenon has also had an impact on many Asian consumers who are now more alert to luxury products, which may be a result of the influence of advertising that shows the prestige qualities and characteristics of the products. For example, this trend is highly noticeable in emerging markets such as India, China, and Brazil (Souiden, M’Saad & Pons, 2011).

In our study, conspicuous consumption is defined as a condition in which people buy prestige products to show off their status and wealth to others in their society. According to Souiden et al. (2011), this behavior may also help to enhance their self-concept through the consumption of the branded item. Luxury or prestige purchases can also be in the form of services such as spa and health centre vacations, and luxury travel. Thus, the objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of conspicuous consumption and its effect on consumer behavior. In specific, we explore the effects of cultural values on this behavior by using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions to provide some useful information regarding consumer spending power and purchasing behavior toward conspicuous products from a cultural perspective.

The motivation behind conducting this study is to understand the growing interest in luxury products even among consumers suffering financial difficulties. This behavior may partially be explained by their desire to display wealth and social status, and thus enhance their self-concept through the consumption of branded items (Souiden et al., 2011). Therefore, there is a need to understand why they behave conspicuously by analyzing their behavior through a cultural lens. Another motivation is that the literature on conspicuous consumption has not referred explicitly to differences between Western and non-Western values, perhaps because this behavior originated in Western culture. Therefore, there is a need to analyze it from the perspective of a non-Western culture. In addition, it also essential to substantially review and extend the concept in view of the changing global social order (Chaudhuri & Majumdar, 2006) and cultural differences (Riquelme, Rios & Al-Sharhan, 2011).