EFFECT OF RETAIL THERAPY ON COMPULSIVE BUYING AND COMPULSIVE HOARDING: ASSESSING THE MODERATING EFFECT OF PERSONALITY TRAIT

H M Rakib ul Hasan,Mijeong Noh 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회 2016 Global Marketing Conference Vol.2016 No.7

The concept of retail therapy which refers to “the phenomenon in which consumers buy things to make themselves feel better” (Kacen, 1998) has been used by the U.S. retail firms in marketing (Kang & Johnson, 2010). Previous studies found that retail therapy concept was associated to consumption behaviors including compulsive buying (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992; O’Guinn & Faber, 1989). Frost et al. (1998) found that compulsive hoarders show compulsive buying tendencies. O’Guinn and Faber (1989) found that compulsive buyers are more likely to confirm compulsivity as a personality trait with a low self-esteem. Lack of research into association of retail therapy to compulsive consumer behaviors motivated us to pursue this study which investigate relationships among retail therapy, compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding, and to examine the moderating effect of consumers’ personality traits on the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding. Our research questions are: (1) How retail therapy is related to compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding? and (2) Which personality traits moderate the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding? Based on the literature review, the following hypotheses were proposed. H1: Retail therapy is positively related to compulsive buying; H2: Compulsive buying is positively related to compulsive hoarding; H3: Retail therapy is positively related to compulsive hoarding & H4: Personality trait moderates the relationship between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding. The researchers used 12 items to measure retail therapy (Kang, 2009), 6 items to measure compulsive buying (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992), 9 items to measure compulsive hoarding (Frost, Sketekee, & Grisham, 2004) 8 items of Big Five Inventory (Rammstedt & John, 2007) and 15 item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) (Ames, Rose & Anderson, 2006) to measure personality trait based on 7‑point Likert scales (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). The online survey was conducted with college students enrolled at a major Midwestern University. A total of 354 undergraduate and graduate students’ responses were used to analyze data. A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to evaluate the measurement of each construct. The factor loadings were above of 0.60, indicating acceptable convergent validity. Reliabilities with Cronbach’s alphas for retail therapy,compulsive buying, compulsive hoarding and personality trait construct were 0.96, 0.81, 0.90 and 0.81 respectively, exceeding the suggested level of 0.70. Simple linear regression was performed to test hypotheses. The results revealed that F statistic (F(1, 352)=126.53, p =.000) was significant and regression coefficient was statistically significant. Therefore, H1 was supported and consistent with previous findings (Faber & O’Guinn, 1992). The regression coefficient for the path from compulsive buying to compulsive hoarding was statistically significant (F(1, 352)=77.15, p=.000). Therefore, H2 was supported and consistent with Frost et al. (1998)’s study. The retail therapy contributed significantly to the prediction of compulsive hoarding with the statistically significant regression results (F(1, 352)=20.28, p=.000), supporting H3. From the principle component analysis with varimax rotation, four factors were extracted from 23 personality trait measurement items which are labeled as “authority-leadership narcissism”, “self-esteem narcissism”, “positive disposition”, and “negative disposition”. All factor loadings were above 0.60 for their respective factors. Then, the researchers divided one single group into four personality trait groups, using these four factors. 4%, 27.1%, 53.7% & 15.3% participants represented “authority-leadership narcissism”, “self-esteem narcissism”, “positive disposition” & “negative disposition” group respectively. Simple regression analysis was performed to test H4. The regression coefficients for positive disposition group (F(1, 188)=13.19, p=.000) and negative disposition group (F(1, 52)=5.01, p≤.05) were statistically significant. H4 was partially supported. The results indicated that people from two groups characterized by positive/negative personality tend to engage in compulsive hoarding to alleviate their negative feelings or mood. Anyone with narcissistic personality with a high self-efficacy may not be engaged in compulsive hoarding even when a therapeutic treatment is made through shopping. They tend to purchase products for changing their moods, but their therapeutic behavior doesn’t lead to compulsive hoarding, which causes sufferings in the end. The low self-esteem has been presented with people being engaged in compulsive behaviors (Marlatt et al., 1988). These findings can help apparel marketers develop the strategies to upgrade their sellingenvironment entertaining so that their customers’ moods are repaired and customers feel satisfied through therapeutic shopping behavior. This study has a limitation that prevents us from generalizing the results to the young consumer population due to sample size to college students.

Diagnostic analysis of US fashion brand’s Bangladeshi outsourcing

H. M. Rakib Ul Hasan,Mijeong Noh,Adah Ward Randolph 한국마케팅과학회 2022 마케팅과학연구 Vol.32 No.2

The purpose of this paper is to examine Bangladesh’s performance as an outsourcing destination from the perspectives of buyers and suppliers involved in a representative US apparel company which has outsourced from Bangladesh. This study employed a sequential mixed method research design which consisted of quantitative evaluation and qualitative interviews. The sample was comprised of three buyers and three suppliers in the Phillip’s Van-Heusen (PVH). From the results of quantitative evaluation, it was found that Bangladesh has a greater advantage in the cost and quality clusters than Vietnam. The interviews revealed that the US buyers have some concerns in geographic location, trade restrictions, country’s political situation, warranty policies, and currency exchange situations. To strengthen Bangladeshi capability, Bangladeshi government’s investment to improve facilities, nomination of supplier’s backward linkage, improvement of manufacturing capacity, running improvement programs, negotiation to reduce tariff, and building mutual trust between buyers and suppliers were suggested. These diagnosis results provide the US buyers and the Bangladeshi suppliers with not only valuable information on the current status of Bangladesh’s performance but guidance to successful strategies for improvement of outsourcing performance.

Moderating effect of personality traits on relationships between retail therapy, compulsive buying, and hoarding for fashion products

Mijeong Noh,H. M. Rakib ul Hasan 한국마케팅과학회 2017 Journal of Global Fashion Marketing Vol.8 No.3

The goal of this research was to examine the relationships between retail therapy, compulsive buying and hoarding, and subsequently to investigate the moderating eff ect of consumers’ personality traits on the relationships between retail therapy and compulsive buying and between retail therapy and compulsive hoarding. A sample of 354 undergraduate and graduate students was used to examine the relationships. Participants who purchased fashion products to alleviate negative feelings (retail therapy) scored high on being compulsive buyers, and consumers who were involved in compulsive buying were inclined to hoard fashion products. Participants indicating a narcissistic authority-leadership personality were not engaged in compulsive buying even though they indicated they participated in retail therapy. Participants with a positive disposition, negative disposition, and a narcissistic high self-esteem personality were engaged in compulsive buying. Findings confi rmed the connection between retail therapy and compulsive buying and hoarding. Fashion educators might want to discuss these connections with their fashion students as this group may be susceptible to these types of consumer problems