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CREDIT CARD USE: DO BRAND EQUITY AND MATERIALISM INFLUENCE IMPULSIVE BUYING BEHAVIOR?

O USO DO CARTÃO DE CRÉDITO: O VALOR DA MARCA E MATERIALISMO INFLUENCIAM NO COMPORTAMENTO IMPULSIVO DE COMPRA?

ABSTRACT

Purpose -

This study aims to identify factors, such as materialism and brand equity, that can influence impulsive buying behavior associated with the use of a credit card.

Design/methodology/approach

- We adopted the survey method, collecting 384 structured face-to-face questionnaires, focusing on the footwear industry. We collected the data in the state of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil, covering the seven mesoregions of the state. Confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, ANOVA, T test and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data.

Findings

- In this study, we find that brand equity does not impact impulsive buying behavior, but the credit card positively impacts impulsive buying behavior.

Research limitations/implications

- The research was executed just in one province, so future research could be developed in other’s places and cultures

Practical Implications

- This study can help scholars and managers of footwear industry understand impulsive buying behavior of its consumers.

Original value

- This study shows the relationship between credit card use, materialism and impulsive buying behavior constructs.

Keywords:
Impulsive behavior; Brand equity; Credit card; Materialism

RESUMO

Objetivo

- Este estudo visa identificar fatores, como materialismo e Valor da marca, que podem influenciar o comportamento de compra impulsivo associado ao uso do cartão de crédito.

Desenho / metodologia / abordagem

- Adotamos o método survey, com a coleta de 384 questionários estruturados face a face, com foco na indústria calçadista. Os dados foram coletados no estado do Rio Grande do Sul - Brasil, abrangendo as sete mesorregiões do estado. Análise fatorial confirmatória, estatística descritiva, ANOVA, teste T e Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (SEM) foram utilizados para analisar os dados.

Resultados

- Neste estudo, descobrimos que o valor da marca não impacta o comportamento de compra impulsivo, mas o uso do cartão de crédito impacta positivamente o comportamento de compra impulsivo.

Limitações / implicações da pesquisa

- A pesquisa foi executada apenas em um estado, então pesquisas futuras poderiam ser desenvolvidas em outros lugares e culturas.

Implicações práticas

- Este estudo pode ajudar acadêmicos e gerentes da indústria de calçados a entender o comportamento de compra impulsiva de seus consumidores.

Valor original

- Este estudo mostra a relação entre o uso do cartão de crédito, o materialismo e os construtos do comportamento de compra impulsiva.

Palavras-chave:
Comportamento Impulsivo; Valor da Marca; Cartão de crédito; Materialismo

1 INTRODUCTION

Consumers buy products for their benefits and also for the symbolic values that they provide (LEVY, 1959Levy, S. J. (1959). Symbols for sale. Harvard business review.; RITSON & ELLIOTT, 1999Ritson, M., & Elliott, R. (1999). The social uses of advertising: an ethnographic study of adolescent advertising audiences. Journal of Consumer research , 26(3), 260-277.). Purchasing and using certain products confers symbolic values that are related to materialism (OTERO-LOPEZ & VILLARDEFRANCOS, 2013Otero-López, J. M., & Villardefrancos, E. (2013). Five-Factor Model personality traits, materialism, and excessive buying: A mediational analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(6), 767-772.; BADGAIYAN & VERNA, 2014Badgaiyan, A. J., & Verma, A. (2015). Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour? Assessing the impact of situational factors. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 22, 145-157.) and this dynamic may vary for each consumer. Early investigations into materialism were carried out by Ward & Wackman (1972Ward, S., & Wackman, D. B. (1972). Children’s purchase influence attempts and parental yielding. Journal of Marketing Research, 9(3), 316-319.), who conceptualized it as: “an orientation that considers material goods and money as being important for a person’s social development” (p. 54).

Previous studies have shown that impulsive buying research has shown that materialism can influence impulsive behavior (e.g.: Badgaiyan & Verma, 2015Badgaiyan, A. J., & Verma, A. (2015). Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour? Assessing the impact of situational factors. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 22, 145-157.; Pereira et al. 2013Pereira, F. J. C., Correia, R., & Antunes, A. C. C. (2013). O papel da publicidade, dos valores materialistas e da autoestima na compra impulsiva. In 8º CONGRESSO SOPCOM: Comunicação Global, Cultura e Tecnologia. SOPCOM/ESCS.; Mendes-Da-Silva et al., 2012Mendes-Da-Silva, W., Nakamura, W. T., & Moraes, D. C. D. (2012). Credit card risk behavior on college campuses: evidence from Brazil. BAR-Brazilian Administration Review, 9(3), 351-373.). Studies such as Veludo-de-Oliveira, Ikeda & Santos (2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.), Pirog & Roberts (2007Pirog, S. F., & Roberts, J. A. (2007). Personality and credit card misuse among college students: The mediating role of impulsiveness. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 15(1), 65-77.) and Wang & Xiao (2009Wang, J., & Xiao, J. J. (2009). Buying behavior, social support and credit card indebtedness of college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33(1), 2-10.) have established a relationship between impulsive buying and the use/misuse of credit cards, focusing on purchases made by college students.

In the present study, we aim to advance the investigation into the relationship between materialism and impulsive buying with the use of a credit card, by including the issue of the influence of brand equity on the purchasing process. Brand equity makes it easier to recognize a product, thus increasing favorable associations toward the product and helping people to make a purchase decision (AAKER, 1996Aaker, D. A. (1996). Building Strong Brands ‘Free Press Publications. New York.). However, these relationships have not been tested before. In this sense, this study aims to identify whether impulsive buying behavior associated with the use of credit cards is influenced by brand equity and materialism.

Credit cards offer benefits such as telephone and Internet purchasing (BERTAUT & HALIASSOS, 2005Bertaut, C. C., & Haliassos, M. (2006). Credit cards: facts and theories. The economics of consumer credit, 181-237.), significantly increasing the number of users of this payment method. According to ABECS (2019ABECS (2019) -Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Cartão de Crédito. Disponível em < Disponível em http://www.abecs.org.br/ >. Acesso em 13 de Junho de 2019.
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), the use of credit cards increases annually. For example, from 2017 to 2018, credit card use increased by 12.73%. In addition, the credit card sector grew by 2.6% in 2020 compared to 2019, even with the serious financial and health crisis surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic (ABECS, 2021ABECS (2021) -Associação Brasileira das Empresas de Cartão de Crédito . Balanço do Setor. Disponível em: <Disponível em: https://api.abecs.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Balan%C3%A7o-do-Setor-4%C2%BA-Trimestre-de-2020-Apresenta%C3%A7%C3%A3o.pdf > Acesso em 24 de Abril de 2021.
https://api.abecs.org.br/wp-content/uplo...
).

The remainder of this paper is structured in four additional sections. The next one presents the theoretical framework and previous research, the hypotheses and the research model. The following section presents the research method, the constructs, the data collection and the analysis procedures. Finally, the results and conclusions are shown.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, we present a literature review on impulsive buying behavior, brand equity, materialism and credit card use.

2.1 Impulsive Buying Behavior

According to Veludo de Oliveira (2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.), there is a wide and quite fragmented range of concepts regarding compulsive buying. This fragmentation is exemplified by the large number of terms used for its identification, including: compulsive buying, compulsive shopping, addictive buying, compulsive spending and oniomania.

The impulsive buyer presents an unstable buying profile, marked by a sudden desire to make purchases, an inner conflict between pleasure and reality and disregard for the consequences (De Almeida & Jolibert,1993Almeida, S. T., & Jolibert, A. (1993). A influência do humor sobre a compra impulsiva. Revista de Administra&ccdeil;ão da Universidade de São Paulo, 28(4).). On the other hand, the compulsive buyer, as mentioned by O’Guinn & Faber (1989O’guinn, T. C., & Faber, R. J. (1989). Compulsive buying: A phenomenological exploration. Journal of Consumer research , 16(2), 147-157.), presents a repetitive and chronic buying tendency, which can be a response to events that produce negative effects on the buyer. Table 1 shows key differences between impulsive and compulsive buying.

Table 1
Differences between impulsive buying and compulsive buying

Purchases and possession of goods can be seen as a form of happiness (BELK, 1985Belk, R. W. (1985). Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world. Journal of Consumer research, 12(3), 265-280.) for people considered materialists. Possession of goods and the self-image that the possessor projects towards society can be seen as a means of personal growth to materialistic individuals, fostering the need for continual accumulation of possessions.

2.2 Brand Equity

Brands are present in consumers’ daily lives (Keller, 2020Keller, K. L. (2020). Consumer research insights on brands and branding: a JCR curation. Journal of Consumer research , 46(5), 995-1001.), and studies on brand have been carried out in different contexts (Schmitt, 2012Schmitt, B. (2012). The consumer psychology of brands. Journal of consumer Psychology, 22(1), 7-17.). According to the AMA - American Marketing Association (2021), a brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers. Brands help to distinguish companies’ products from those of competitors (Tarsitano & Navacinsk, 2004Tarsitano, P. R., & Navacinsk, S. D. G. (2004). Marca: patrimônio das empresas e diferencial dos produtos. Comunicação & Sociedade, 25(41), 55-72.).

According to Keller (1998Keller, K. L., Heckler, S. E., & Houston, M. J. (1998). The effects of brand name suggestiveness on advertising recall. Journal of marketing, 62(1), 48-57.), a brand may have greater value on the market when consumers of that product segment react more favorably to it, facilitating their decision to purchase; thus it may impact their impulse buying. Impulse buying can be triggered by two basic factors: instrumental factors and symbolic factors (Dittmar et al., 1995Dittmar, H., Beattie, J., & Friese, S. (1995). Gender identity and material symbols: Objects and decision considerations in impulse purchases. Journal of economic psychology, 16(3), 491-511.). The greater the consumer’s involvement with a brand, the more likely he or she will be to present impulsive buying characteristics with regard to that brand (Rook & Hoch, 1985Rook, D. W., & Hoch, S. J. (1985). Consuming impulses. ACR North American Advances.), since the symbolic value attributed to the product favors impulse buying (Amos, Holmes & Keneson, 2014Amos, C., Holmes, G. R., & Keneson, W. C. (2014). A meta-analysis of consumer impulse buying. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 21(2), 86-97.).

One of the benefits of brand equity is related to psychological states of consumers, such as happiness (Ambler & Styles, 1997Ambler, T., & Styles, C. (1997). Brand development versus new product development: toward a process model of extension decisions. Journal of Product & Brand Management.). In this sense, brand equity will also be studied as an influencer in consumer behavior. Consequently, the first hypothesis of this study was developed:

  • H1: Brand equity positively impacts impulsive buying.

2.3 Materialism

Materialism is directly related to the importance of possessing goods (Belk, 1985Belk, R. W. (1985). Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world. Journal of Consumer research, 12(3), 265-280.) and is found in people’s daily lives (Richins & Dawson, 1992Richins, M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer research , 19(3), 303-316.). Past studies have shown that there is a relationship between materialism and impulsive buying (Badgaiyan & Verma, 2015Badgaiyan, A. J., & Verma, A. (2015). Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour? Assessing the impact of situational factors. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 22, 145-157.; Pereira et al. 2013Pereira, F. J. C., Correia, R., & Antunes, A. C. C. (2013). O papel da publicidade, dos valores materialistas e da autoestima na compra impulsiva. In 8º CONGRESSO SOPCOM: Comunicação Global, Cultura e Tecnologia. SOPCOM/ESCS.; Mendes-Da-Silva et al., 2012Mendes-Da-Silva, W., Nakamura, W. T., & Moraes, D. C. D. (2012). Credit card risk behavior on college campuses: evidence from Brazil. BAR-Brazilian Administration Review, 9(3), 351-373.). Materialism causes consumers to spend excessively (Ponchio, 2006Ponchio, M. C. (2006). The influence of materialism on consumption indebtedness in the context of low income consumers from the city of São Paulo (Doctoral dissertation).). Materialistic consumers are prone judging themselves and others by their possessions (Richins, 2011Richins, M. L. (2011). Materialism, transformation expectations, and spending: Implications for credit use. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 30(2), 141-156.).

The act of consuming a good or service occurs differently for each individual (Belk, 1982Belk, R. W. (1982). Effects of gift-giving involvement on gift selection strategies. ACR North American Advances.). Shopping and possession of goods can be seen as a form of happiness (Belk, 1985Belk, R. W. (1985). Materialism: Trait aspects of living in the material world. Journal of Consumer research, 12(3), 265-280.) for materialistic individuals. Capital allows individuals to acquire symbols in order to be recognized within society and aspiring to this recognition can cause impulsive buying (Von Stumm et al., 2013Von Stumm, S., O’Creevy, M. F., & Furnham, A. (2013). Financial capability, money attitudes and socioeconomic status: Risks for experiencing adverse financial events. Personality and Individual Differences , 54(3), 344-349.). Thus, the second hypothesis of this study is:

  • H2: Materialism positively impacts impulsive buying.

Limbu, Huhmann & Xu (2012Limbu, Y. B., Huhmann, B. A., & Xu, B. (2012). Are college students at greater risk of credit card abuse? Age, gender, materialism and parental influence on consumer response to credit cards. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 17(2), 148-162.) pointed out that people who have high levels of materialism present more risky behaviors with credit card use than other consumers. Ponchio and Aranha (2007Ponchio, M. C., Aranha, F., & Todd, S. (2007). Estudo exploratório do construto de materialismo no contexto de consumidores de baixa renda do município de São Paulo. Revista Ibero Americana de Estratégia, 6(1), 13-21.) propose that materialistic individuals may have a propensity toward using credit cards, corroborating Schroeder & Dungal (1995Schroeder, J. E., & Dugal, S. S. (1995). Psychological correlates of the materialism construct. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 10(1), 243-253.), who claim that materialistic people are more socially anxious and consider individual possessions to be important social indicators. Pinto, Parente & Palemer (2000Pinto, M. B., Parente, D. H., & Palmer, T. S. (2000). Materialism and credit card use by college students. Psychological reports, 86(2), 643-652.) also reported that individuals who own a credit card have a higher relationship with asset materialism. In this sense the second hypothesis is:

  • H2: Materialism positively impacts credit card use.

2.4 Credit Card Use

People who make purchases with a certain constancy may show signs of impulsive buying behavior (Veludo-de-Oliveira et al., 2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.). Thus, it can be understood that impulsive buying is closely related to the consumer’s level of materialism. Chavosh, Halimi & Namdar (2011Chavosh, A., Halimi, A. B., Namdar, J., Choshalyc, S. H., & Abbaspour, B. (2011, February). The contribution of product and consumer characteristics to consumer’s impulse purchasing behaviour in Singapore. In Proceedings of 2011 international conference on social science and humanity (Vol. 1, pp. 248-252).) point out that materialism may have a direct relationship with impulsive buying and materialism is one of the most studied subjects by researchers in recent decades (Veludo-de-Oliveira et al., 2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.).

Supporting the fourth and last hypothesis of this study, Rook (1987Rook, D. W. (1987). The buying impulse. Journal of Consumer research , 14(2), 189-199.) and Rook & Fisher (1995Rook, D. W., & Fisher, R. J. (1995). Normative influences on impulsive buying behavior. Journal of Consumer research , 22(3), 305-313.) reported that aspects such as acceptance of credit card use may influence consumers to make impulsive purchases. Veludo-de-Oliveira et al. (2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.), Pirog & Roberts (2007Pirog, S. F., & Roberts, J. A. (2007). Personality and credit card misuse among college students: The mediating role of impulsiveness. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 15(1), 65-77.) and Wang & Xiao (2009Wang, J., & Xiao, J. J. (2009). Buying behavior, social support and credit card indebtedness of college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33(1), 2-10.) demonstrated the existence of a relationship between impulse buying and credit card use in their studies covering purchases made by college students. Hence, the fourth hypothesis of this study is:

  • H4: Impulsive buying behavior positively impacts credit card usage.

For retailers, one of the main reasons to offer consumers a private label card is to take advantage of their materialistic traits and encourage impulsive buying to increase the number of transactions (Sakamoto et al., 2009SAKAMOTO, A., MARTINS, A., & MARTINS, G. (2009). Inovação na Cadeia de Valor: um estudo do Mercado de Cartões de Crédito. SIMPOI, Anais.).

3 METHOD

This study adopted a survey method the data collection consisted of face-to-face questionnaires in 15 different cities in the seven mesoregions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Table 1 shows the questionnaire’s structure and sources:

Table 2
Structure of the questionnaire

The questionnaire scales comprise affirmations with a six-point Likert scale, where 1 is in complete disagreement and 6 is in complete agreement, along with option 0, which corresponds “unable to express an opinion”. The study was based on the footwear industry worldwide, not limited to regional or national brands, because it is accessible to a large part of the population, with access to credit card payment methods.

For content validation, each of the scales has already been validated nationally and the questionnaire elaborated in this study underwent face-to-face validation by three specialists and professors in Marketing and Consumer Behavior. After that, the questionnaire underwent two pre-tests, each with 25 respondents, to verify possible errors in the collection instrument, either of interpretation and/or layout. The only adjustments made were to the layout. It is noteworthy that there were no changes in the variables.

The population chosen for the application of the study consisted of residents of the state of Rio Grande do Sul who were 18 years of age or over. The state has 7 mesoregions, which were taken as dividers to determine the quantity of samples. For the stratification of the sample, 2 cities were selected for each region, except for the metropolitan region, where 3 cities were selected, totaling 15 cities. In each city, the 3 most populated neighborhoods were selected, based on data from IBGE (2013BRASIL, I. B. G. E. (2015) Censo demográfico, 2010. Acesso em, v. 13, 2015.). Neighborhoods that posed risks to the researchers’ safety were discarded.

384 complete questionnaires were collected and 127 questionnaires were collected only from the respondents’ profile (questionnaires answered up to the filter questions 10 and/or 11, “10. Do you have credit card?” and “11. Do you purchase shoes with the credit card?” respectively), totaling 511 questionnaires applied in 15 different cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The sample can be seen by region in Table 2.

After the data collection, the data was verified by identifying the missing values (lost data) and outliers (atypical observations). Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis techniques were used for the analysis of the data, with SPSS 20.0® and Amos™ software. First, descriptive statistics of the variables were calculated in order to characterize the sample and describe the behavior of the individuals in relation to each of the surveyed constructs, especially the use of the credit card. In addition, mean difference tests (t test) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to verify differences in the sample profiles with regard to use of credit card, materialism and impulse buying. The Exploratory Factorial Analysis was not carried out because all the questionnaires had already been validated for the Brazilian context, as can be seen in Table 3.

Table 3
Sample Data

The Structural Equation Modeling (SOM) technique was applied to evaluate the reliability and validate each of the constructs and test their relations. The validity of the measurement model was evaluated by checking the convergent validity (observing the magnitude and statistical significance of the standardized coefficients and the absolute adjustment indices), unidimensionality (evaluation of the standardized residues) and reliability of the constructs (extracted variance and the Cronbach Alpha).

4 RESULTS

This section presents the profile of the sample respondents, as well as the T and ANOVA tests to verify whether there is any predominance of behaviors. In addition, the results of the Modeling of Structural Equations are presented.

4.1 Sample Profile

We interviewed 384 respondents from the seven mesoregions of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Table 3 shows the results regarding the respondents’ profiles. The variable age was divided into groups of 4-year intervals. Respondents who were 69 years of age or older were allocated to only one category. The survey was conducted with only those over 18 years of age, with N=384.

Table 4
Respondent’s profile

Most respondents are female (66.4%), one third of the respondents have only completed high school 41.7% of them are wage earners and 82.6% of the respondents live with a relative.

4.2 T Test and ANOVA

T and ANOVA tests showed no significant differences among the different consumer profile variables regarding materialism, brand equity and credit card use. Significance was found only with respect to impulsive buying behavior, with the female gender having higher rates than the male gender according to Table 3.

Table 5
Averages of impulsive buying behavior

With the exception of the variable CI.DF.4.20 “When I go shopping, I buy things I didn’t intend to buy”, all the other variables of the Impulsive Buying Behavior construct, presented significant p-values (<0.5) in the T test with respect to gender, showing a possible relationship between gender and impulsive buying behavior. For the other variables, p-values were above 0.05, showing less probability of significant differences.

4.3 Modeling Structural Equations

In this section, the four constructs and their validation process will be addressed: Materialism, Brand Equity, Credit Card Use and Impulsive Buying Behavior. To check the validity of the construct, the methods used were: Chi-square statistics (χ²), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Normed Fit Index (NFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI).

For a given model to be considered robust, the RMSEA index must be lower than 0.08, besides the TLI, CFI, NFI and GFI indexes being higher than 0.9 and the minimum factor load must be 0.4 (HAIR et al., 2009Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., & Tatham, R. L. (2009). Análise multivariada de dados. Bookman editora.). In order to confirm the reliability of the constructs, Cronbach’s Alpha and Average Extracted Variance tests were carried out. For all constructs, the average extracted variance was higher than 0.5 and Cronbach’s Alpha was above 0.6. Initially, each of the constructs was modelled separately to verify consistency and, as they each were shown to be adequate, the following final model was obtained. Figure 1 shows the indices found in the application of Structural Equations Modeling.

Figure 1
Integrated Model

Next, the data reliability was checked, and the following values for the indices were found:

Table 6
Indices of the integrated model - Final Model

By observing the initial indexes of adequacy of the integrated model, it is possible to verify that only RMSEA, chi-square, degrees of freedom and probability indexes are suitable. Next, we performed correlation among the variables for fitting the integrated model.

In the materialism construct, there was no covariance between the variables, but there was a high correlation index between variable e4 and the sample error of the mood management and positive emotions dimensions. In the impulsive behavior construct, correlations were performed between the sampling errors of positive emotions and mood management and as well as correlation between variable e6 and the sampling error of disregarding the future.

For the brand equity construct, there were no new correlations. However, for the credit card use construct, there was a correlation between variables e23 and e24. Finally, a total of 67 variables was used for modeling. According to Bentler & Chou (1987Bentler, P. M., & Chou, C. P. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological methods & research, 16(1), 78-117.), for an adequate SEM, the number of respondents for each variable should vary between 5 and 10 (335 to 670). Due to the low sample size, two indices were not within the desired range.

RMSEA was 0.047; IFI, TLI and GFI were within the established parameters, above 0.900. NFI did not reach the minimum value (0.825). NFI increases according to the sample size (Bollen, 1989BOLLEN, Kenneth A. A new incremental fit index for general structural equation models. Sociological methods & research , v. 17, n. 3, p. 303-316, 1989.), meaning that the sample size may have interfered with the index. Table 7 shows the Standardized Coefficients and the significance of the relations of the final model.

Table 7
Standardized Coefficients and Significances of the Final Model

The results related to hypothesis H1 was not significant (0.788). Hence, the hypothesis of a positive relationship of brand equity with impulsive buying behavior was rejected.

For the second hypothesis (H2), although materialism positively influenced credit card use, it was not statically significant, thus H2 was rejected.

For hypothesis H3 (Materialism can positively impact impulsive buying behavior), the positive relationship between the two constructs was verified, confirming the suggested hypothesis. Chavosh, Halimi & Namdar (2011Chavosh, A., Halimi, A. B., Namdar, J., Choshalyc, S. H., & Abbaspour, B. (2011, February). The contribution of product and consumer characteristics to consumer’s impulse purchasing behaviour in Singapore. In Proceedings of 2011 international conference on social science and humanity (Vol. 1, pp. 248-252).) point out that materialism may have a direct relationship with impulsive buying. There was a relationship between impulsive buying behavior and credit card usage, however, not statistically significant, thus H4 was rejected.

Table 8 shows the hypotheses of this study. Three of the four hypotheses were rejected (H1, H2 and H4). The "Studies" column shows previous studies that confirmed the hypotheses initially proposed.

Table 8
Summary of the hypotheses and results

Each construct was modeled individually to create the aggregate model and reliability and robustness were checked, using NFI, CFI, GFI, TLI, RMSEA, Chi-square, degrees of freedom and probability indexes, as recommended in the literature. In all models, the indexes were within the necessary parameters. However, in the final model, the NFI and RFI indexes were below 0.900, despite being close.

4.4 Discussion of Results

Although consumers who can recognize and have favorable associations with a brand name are more likely to purchase a particular brand (Sanyal & Datta, 2011Sanyal, S. N., & Datta, S. K. (2011). The effect of country of origin on brand equity: an empirical study on generic drugs. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(2), 130-140.), the present study did not show that brand equity impacts on impulsive buying behavior. Although brand equity can facilitate the consumer purchase process, it does not lead consumers to behave impulsively.

However, there were some statistical differences related to brand equity and impulsive buying behavior constructs. Brand equity presented the highest means and lowest standard deviations of this study. The brands mentioned by the respondents are well known and familiar to them, being part of their daily lives. On the other hand, the results of the descriptive statistics indicate low levels of impulsiveness among the respondents. These opposite results may explain why no significant relationship was found between these constructs.

Materialism was found to positively and significantly influence impulsive buying behavior, corroborating previous studies (e.g.: Badgaiyan & Verma, 2015Badgaiyan, A. J., & Verma, A. (2015). Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour? Assessing the impact of situational factors. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services , 22, 145-157.; Pereira et al. 2013Pereira, F. J. C., Correia, R., & Antunes, A. C. C. (2013). O papel da publicidade, dos valores materialistas e da autoestima na compra impulsiva. In 8º CONGRESSO SOPCOM: Comunicação Global, Cultura e Tecnologia. SOPCOM/ESCS.; Mendes-Da-Silva et al., 2012Mendes-Da-Silva, W., Nakamura, W. T., & Moraes, D. C. D. (2012). Credit card risk behavior on college campuses: evidence from Brazil. BAR-Brazilian Administration Review, 9(3), 351-373.). Arocas, Luna, Arrieta & Botero (2004Arocas, Roberto Luna, Puello Arrieta, S., & Botero, M. M. (2011). La compra impulsiva y el materialismo en los jóvenes: estudio exploratorio en estudiantes universitarios de Barranquilla (Colombia). Psicología desde el Caribe, 1-26.) also confirmed that there is a strong relationship between impulsive buying behavior and materialism, which underlies how the role of possessions can impact consumers’ lives by influencing their shopping activities. As materialistic behavior aims to acquire goods to provide values to the consumer, such as power, successful self-image, maintenance and entry into social circles, among others, impulsive behavior is closely linked to this, as it is related to the act of shopping. In other words, people with materialistic values are more likely to purchase products, as long as they meet their materialistic requirements, such as social value or internal value, which may lead the individual to make impulsive buying.

As seen previously, materialism has several different forms of influence on consumer behavior. However, it was not possible to observe its influence on credit card use, nor was a relationship between impulsive buying behavior and credit card use found in this study. These results are in line with Khare (2013Khare, A. (2013). Credit card use and compulsive buying behavior. Journal of Global Marketing, 26(1), 28-40.), who did not find a relationship between impulsive buying and credit card use in the Indian context. In that study, respondents reported rarely preferring credit cards as they were used to paying with cash and felt that credit cards would translate into extra costs (Khare, 2013Khare, A. (2013). Credit card use and compulsive buying behavior. Journal of Global Marketing, 26(1), 28-40., p. 37).

However, other previous studies (e.g. Phau & Woo, 2008Phau, I., & Woo, C. (2008). Understanding compulsive buying tendencies among young Australians: The roles of money attitude and credit card usage. Journal of Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 26(5), 441-460.; Pirog & Roberts, 2007Pirog, S. F., & Roberts, J. A. (2007). Personality and credit card misuse among college students: The mediating role of impulsiveness. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 15(1), 65-77.; Roberts, 1998Roberts, J. A. (1998). Compulsive buying among college students: an investigation of its antedecents, consequences, and implications for public policy. Journal of consumer affairs, 32(2), 295-319.; Roberts & Jones, 2001Roberts, J., & Jones, E. (2001). Money attitudes, credit card use, and compulsive buying among American college students. Journal of consumer affairs , 35(21), 213-240.; Wang & Xiao, 2009Wang, J., & Xiao, J. J. (2009). Buying behavior, social support and credit card indebtedness of college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33(1), 2-10.) have shown different results, where credit cards were perceived as status symbols, hence consumers possessing credit cards exhibited compulsive behavior. As these studies were carried out in developed countries, the results differences may be explained by the different economic and cultural contexts of research.

Another possible explanation may be related to the samples used. Many previous studies (e.g. Veludo-de-Oliveira et al., 2004Veludo-De-Oliveira, T. M., Ikeda, A. A.; Santos, R. Da C. (2004). Compra compulsiva e a influência do cartão de crédito. Revista de Administração de Empresas , v. 44, n. 3, p. 89-99.; Pirog & Roberts, 2007Pirog, S. F., & Roberts, J. A. (2007). Personality and credit card misuse among college students: The mediating role of impulsiveness. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 15(1), 65-77.; Roberts, 1998Roberts, J. A. (1998). Compulsive buying among college students: an investigation of its antedecents, consequences, and implications for public policy. Journal of consumer affairs, 32(2), 295-319.; Roberts & Jones, 2001Roberts, J., & Jones, E. (2001). Money attitudes, credit card use, and compulsive buying among American college students. Journal of consumer affairs , 35(21), 213-240.; Wang & Xiao, 2009Wang, J., & Xiao, J. J. (2009). Buying behavior, social support and credit card indebtedness of college students. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 33(1), 2-10.) used college student samples. Christenson et al. (1994Christenson, G. A., Faber, R. J., De Zwaan, M., Raymond, N. C., Specker, S. M., Ekern, M. D., ... & Eckert, E. D. (1994). Compulsive buying: descriptive characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 55(1), 5-11.) suggests that compulsive behavior is more apparent among young college students. Our study and that of Khare (2013Khare, A. (2013). Credit card use and compulsive buying behavior. Journal of Global Marketing, 26(1), 28-40.) used broader sample profile.

5 CONCLUSION

Although symbolic elements, such as brands, can affect buying behavior, this relationship was not found in this study, where brand equity did not have a positive impact on impulsive buying behavior. This may have been related to a number of factors which can directly affect the results, such as the sample size, the intrinsic values of each respondent and the regional culture.

However, materialistic behavior did have a positive impact on impulsive buying behavior, in line with previous studies. Materialism also positively impacted the behavior of credit card use, influencing decision making and periodicity, among other aspects, but the significance was not high enough to confirm this hypothesis. It was possible to verify a positive influence of impulsive buying behavior on credit card use, however the result was not significant enough to confirm this hypothesis.

We hope the results will assist researchers, consumers and companies to understand impulsive buying behavior associated with the use of credit card and its relationship with brand equity and materialism. In this study, the highest average family gross income was found in the northwestern region of Rio Grande do Sul. The least materialistic region was the Central Eastern region (Santa Cruz do Sul and region). Females presented more impulsive buying behavior than males. There were not significant differences for income, age, educational level or number of dependents and family members.

For future studies, it would be interesting to improve the scale of credit card use and evaluate more factors that precede materialism, which may impact in a positive or negative way on consumer attitudes towards credit card use. Furthermore, the face to face data collection in several regions of the state led to logistical difficulties. Even though a sample of 384 respondents is representative and significant, a larger number of respondents would allow for better results in the Modeling of Structural Equations.

It would also be important to study in more detail the relation between materialism and brand equity, for example by carrying out an analysis of a specific brand of a certain product, an analysis of luxury products and their relation with materialism or an analysis of the use of credit card at supermarkets. Another interesting analysis would be to observe the construct of mediators in the relationship between impulsive buying behavior and credit card use. In addition, the objects of study used to evaluate brand equity were shoes and sneakers, thus, we propose for future research an evaluation of different products. Studies in different regions and states would allow analysis of cultural features. Moreover, cross-country studies would add a complementary cultural perspective to the consumer behavior analysis.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS) - 02/2014-PqG (Project 2347-2551/14-0SAFEm) for financial support. The authors would also thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the Master’s Course scholarship.

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APPENDIX

Scales

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    03 Nov 2021
  • Date of issue
    Jul-Sep 2021

History

  • Received
    02 July 2019
  • Accepted
    11 Oct 2020
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