Srikant Manchiraju

The Compulsive Online Shopping Scale (COSS): Development and Validation Using Panel Data

The Internet is one of the most influential forms of mass media having revolutionized human behavior, with people spending more and more time online. However, excessive Internet use, which is also termed as “Internet Addiction”, can have negative consequences for an individual as well as the society in which they reside. This type of addiction is classified as behavioral addiction (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association 2013). However, a group of American Psychiatric Association (APA) working members deemed insufficient research to consider additional behavioral addictions (e.g., compulsive buying) to be included in psychiatric nosology. Henceforth, one of the goals of this study is to shed light on what is considered “compulsive online shopping” to further support future DSM behavioral addiction classification modifications. The second goal of this study was to develop a compulsive online shopping scale (COSS) that is consistent with addiction criteria established in the DSM-5. And finally, we explored a few characteristic features related to compulsive online shoppers; both demographically and psychologically.

Predicting environmentally responsible apparel consumption behavior of future apparel industry professionals: The role of environmental apparel knowledge, environmentalism and materialism

Abstract The present study explored several critical constructs related to environmentally responsible apparel consumption, which include environmentalism, materialism and knowledge of environmental issues pertaining to apparel products. The research focused on apparel merchandising and design students (n = 233) as future industry professionals who will soon be driving industry decisions in apparel production and consumption. A proposed research model was subject to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The model explained 58% of the variance in environmentally responsible apparel consumption behavior. Environmental apparel knowledge positively influenced environmentalism, and, in turn, environmentalism had a significant positive influence on environmentally responsible apparel consumption behavior. On the contrary, environmental apparel knowledge did not significantly influence materialism, and, in turn, materialism was not related to environmentally responsible apparel consumption behavior. Practical implications and limitations of the present study are also discussed.

What is materialism? Testing two dominant perspectives on materialism in the marketing literature

Abstract Materialism is defined as the importance an individual attaches to worldly possessions, which has been considered as an important construct in consumer behavior and marketing literature. There are two dominant perspectives on individual materialism in the marketing literature that focus on (1) personality traits or (2) individual personal values. However, several scholars have questioned the aforementioned materialism conceptualizations. Therefore, the present study directly compares the constructs of personality materialism and value materialism. Structural equation modeling was employed to address the following issues: (1) what are the key conceptual dimensions of materialism, (2) how much do they overlap, and (3) what is their discriminant validity in predicting outcomes linked to materialism. We suggest these two dominant perspectives on individual materialism are two distinct constructs, as they shared only 21 percent of common variance. Furthermore, we stress the multi-faceted nature of materialism, with an emphasis on future research directions related to materialism in marketing.