Abstract

ZAMPIERI GROHMANN, Márcia et al. The relation between materialism and consumer style: Is there a difference in male/female behavior?. Contad. Adm [online]. 2012, vol.57, n.1, pp.185-214. ISSN 0186-1042.

Gender is an important variable in order to understand consumer behavior , and so, it has been used as a moderating factor in the relation between materialism (antecedent construct) and consumer style -understood as brand importance, compulsive buying behavior and influence of others in the buying process (consequent constructs). Richins (2004) model was used to measure materialism, and consumer style was measured by the McCarty et al. (2007) study. A descriptive and quantitative investigation was made with 390 Brazilian consumers where model adjustment, through confirmatory factorial analysis, was satisfactory. Six positive causal relation hypotheses were proved by means of structural equations. Results showed that materialism is related to brand importance (β=0.329); and also to compulsive buying (β=0.485) and to the influence of others (β=0.137). Other results are that materialism-brand importance relation is stronger in women whereas the materialism-compulsive buying relation is stronger in men. The hypothesis of materialism and influence of others relation being stronger for women was not confirmed. The research allows to conclude that materialism is an antecedent of consumer style and that there is a difference in perception for men and women.

Keywords : materialism; gender; behavior; consumer; consumer style.

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