In this chapter, we have presented a brief background of the research topic, followed by a purpose, problem identification, research questions, and scope of the study with limitations & implications of the research study.
Background
Materialism has defined in different meanings in different places. The term materialism is defined as by (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986, p. 10) in words of "a mind-set, an interest in getting and spending" and (Belk 1984, p. 291) defines it as "the substance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions."
"The idea of materialism as a value reflects the importance a person places on possessions and their acquisition as a necessary or desirable form of conduct to reach desired end-states, including happiness" (Richins & Dawson, 1992, p. 307). In (Oxford English Dictionary) Materialism is define as "a devotion to material needs and requirements, to the neglect of religious matters; a way of life, opinions, or tendency based entirely upon material interests." according to (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, 1997, p. 717) materialism is "a doctrine that the only or the highest values or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material progress."
There are some significant characteristics of the materialistic people have defined in the literature by the past researchers. According to (Richins, 2004, p.210) defines materialism as "the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of material goods in achieving major life goals or desired state encompassing three domains: the use of possessions to judge the success of others and oneself, the centrality of possessions in a person's life, and the belief that possessions and their acquisition lead to happiness and life satisfaction." This definition includes the three subscales which Richins and Dawson arrived at through factor analysis in their initial testing and validation of the scale: goods are a sign of success (success), goods are a means to happiness (happiness), and possessions and their acquisition is a central feature in one's life (centrality).
Acquisition Centrality According to (Daun, 1983, p.6-16) "Materialists place are the possessions and their acquisition at the midpoint of their lives." According to (Bredemeier and Toby, 1960), "materialists worship things, and the pursuit of possessions takes the place of religion in structuring their lives and orienting their behaviors."
Possession-defined Success Materialists like to judge or compare their own and other achievement by the number and quality of the possessions accumulated. According to (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986, p.5) describe "members of a consumer society as evaluating others and themselves in terms of their consuming life-styles." (Du Bois, 1955, 1232-39) said that "materialists consider material well-being as evidence of success and proof of right-mindedness, an attitude consistent with religious teachings at the time of the Industrial Revolution."
Acquisition as the Pursuit of Happiness According to (Belk, 1984, p. 291) said that "the peak levels of materialism possessions assume a central place in a person's life and are believed to provide the maximum sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction." (Ward, Wackman, 1971, p. 426) describe materialism as "an direction emphasizing possessions and money for the personal happiness and social progress." On a contrary some research finding explains that materialism doesn't result in increase of happiness. The main purpose of this research is to find out the level of materialism in Pakistani people, particularly by focusing on mobile phone industry. The level of materialism consist of three components which are happiness, success and centrality. By the components we will try to measure the level of materialism in mobile phone industry.
1.2 Purpose of the Study.
The main purpose of this study is to find out the level of materialism in Pakistani people by focusing the mobile phone industry.
1.3 Problem Identification.
Currently in mobile phone industry, there are different players and everyone is competing to grap the market share for this purpose each company is coming with unique design and latest features in mobile phone. The costs of this mobile are very high in this scenario we want to find level of materialism in Pakistani people by which we can access.
1.4 Research Question
Q1. What is the level of materialism between males & females in mobile phone industry?
1.5 Methodology
The instrument we use in this research was questionnaire. Questionnaire was based of three component happiness, success and centrality. The questionnaire was adopted from Richins & Dawson scale. The data was collected by use a convenient sampling technique. After questionnaire development the questionnaire was distributed among students and different university in Karachi. After data collection, data was enter into statistical software for further analysis.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
Materialism has been defined in different ways by different authors. The term materialism is defined as by (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986, p. 10) in words of "a mind-set, an interest in getting and spending" and (Belk 1984, p. 291) defines it as "the importance of the consumer attaches to worldly possessions." At the peak levels of materialism, such possessions assume a central place in a person's life and are believed to provide the maximum sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction."
According to (Richins, 2004) "Materialism offers elements that help explain relationships between man, material objects, and happiness, it has emerged as a concept of interest in many disciplines and has been examined in more than 100 pragmatic studies"
According to (Burroughs and Rindfleisch, 2002) has been defined "Our lives today are predominate by the material objects that propagate all around us, as well as the search and troubles they afford" As a value, materialism can be learned through socialization or acculturation process. Under this perspective, consumers can learn to become more or less materialistic according to their environment.
According to (Reber, 1995) "The preoccupation with the pursuit of material objects while neglecting mental and spiritual aspects of life is called materialism."
According to (Graham, 1999) 'Psychology and marketing researchers have been interested in materialism for a long time and have contributed ways to measure the concept. By measuring this human characteristic over time, it has been possible to watch changes in materialism over time."
According to (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, 1997, p. 717) materialism is "a principle that the only or the highest values or objectives lie in material well-being and in the furtherance of material develop"
According to Many researchers (Belk 1985; Muncy and Eastman 1998; Richins and Dawson 1992)."Domestic and worldwide inexpensive growth imitate are a most important force for functional modify in our planet. Our socio-economic actuality is incessantly and quickly reorganized and as a significance the thought of materialism has develop into of huge awareness to those in marketing and end user research".
According to (La Barbera and Zeynep 1997) "Resting on the one hand materialism may modify a society's financial wealth and material possessions, at the same time as on the other hand, materialism may have a unconstructive overall outcome on quality of life".
According to Many researchers (Ahuvia and wong, 2002 ; Belk, 1985) "Material messages which encourage us to acquire more and more. Such a consumption-based direction is usually labeled materialism. Therefore, it more and more becomes in favour of the centre period in life throughout the world"
According to (Richins and Rudmin,1994) "Actual and preferred relationship with cost-effective goods. Furthermore it is nearly tied to the satisfactions which evolve from the attainment and possession of goods and is related to the concentration as well as the manner by which one prosecute profitable objectives"
According to (Burroughs, 2002; and kilbourne, 2005) "The materialistic standards may be related consistently to a person's social material situation, possibly certify degree of difference concerns with material and psychological security".
According to (Larsen, Sirgy, & Wright, 1999) "Universal apprehension with materialism, it is significant to understand the socialization procedure that leads people to turn out to be more or less materialistic".
According to (Belk, 1985) "Materialism as a collection of three personality traits: jealousy, nongenerosity, and possessiveness". According to (Inglehart, 1993) "Others distinguish materialism as a constant focus on lower necessarily for material relieve and physical protection over higher order needs"
Materialism was defined as a set of attitudes which regard possessions as secret language of success, where possessions occupy a central part of life, as well as which include holding the belief that more belongings lead to more happiness.
According to (Foumier and Richins, 1991; Richins and Dawson, 1992) "The well-liked use of the term, however, has assigned to it the meaning of a attachment to desires and material needs, a negation of spiritual concerns as well as a life-style based on material interests"
According to (Richins and Rudmin, 1994; Watson, 1998, 2003) "Extremely materialistic nation are extra likely to have larger amounts of liability, as a way of fulfilling their desire for possessions".
According to (Ger & Belk, 1996) "A fourth trait, conservation, was added in consequent cross-cultural studies of the materialism degree".
According to (Maslow, 1970) "In mounting his measure of materialism as well as post-materialism, Inglehart began with Maslow's hierarchy and then developed items to measure social values that reflect Maslow's requirements".
According to Richins (2004) "Material goods are used by people to differentiate moreover exchange a few words their values".
According to Richins defines "Materialism as a individual value emphasize the significance of owning material possession".
In attendance are several substantial characteristics of the materialistic people have defined in the literature by the past researchers. According to (Richins, 2004, p.210) defines materialism as "The importance attributed to the ownership and acquisition of material goods in accomplish/succeed major life goals or desire state encompassing three domains: the use of possessions to judge the achievement of others and oneself, the centrality of possessions in a person's life, and the belief that possessions and their acquisition lead to happiness and life pleasure." This definition includes the three subscales which Richins and Dawson arrived at through factor analysis in their first testing and justification of the scale: goods are a sign of success (success), goods are a means to happiness (happiness), and possessions and their acquisition is a essential feature in one's life (centrality).
Reports of past researchers conducted on Materialism
We are going to discusses different studies of Materialism conducts by past researchers
According to (Dickins and Ferguson, 1957) "Satisfied examination of responses to five unrestricted questions: "If you could formulate three wishes and they would all come correct, what would you wish for?"
According to (Justice and Birkman, 1972) "Subscale of the Birkman occupational attention and approach survey; materialism deduce from true-false questions"
According to (Bengston and Lovejoy, 1973) "Materialism/humanism feature scores based on rankings of 16 values: "finances," "possessions," "service""
According to (Burdsal, 1975) "Materialistic motivations are the factor scores on Cattell's motivational analysis test".
According to Jackson, (Sadrudin, and Heapy, 1976) "Acquisitiveness subscale of the six-dimensional accomplishment scale; includes Likert scale, semantic discrepancy, and adjective checklist items".
According to (Inglehart, 1981) "Materialist and post-materialist goals; 12 goals ranked by consequence".
According to (Belk, 1984) "Personality traits of envy, nongenerosity, and possessiveness; 24 Likert scale items".
According to (Campbell, 1969) "Materialism; eight items, forced-choice format: "If belongings were such that every person in the earth had stereophonic record players and sparkling wine, wars would almost certainly be out of date"
According to (Wackman, Reale, and Ward, 1972) Materialism; 5 items, Likert scale format: "It's actually true so as to money can buy happiness"
According to (Moschis and Churchill, 1978) "Materialism; 6 items, adaptation of Wackman et al. (1972)"
According to (De Young, 1985) "Non-materialism; six items, two subscales, Likert scale format: "It is essential to me to have really pleasant things"
Again by to (Richins, 1987) "Materialism; six items, two subscales, Likert scale format: "It is imperative to me to have really nice equipment"
According to (Henslin, Johnson, and Blake, 1989) "Materialism; subscale of the person paying scales; six items, Likert scale format"
According to (Richins, 1994) "Materialism; Richins and Dawson (1992) compute, evaluation of the degree to which the possessions express the owners' material values"
According to Richins and Rudmin (1994) "Materialism; Richins and Dawson (1992) items; association between materialism and inexpensive psychology. Explanation of individual's factual and desired connection with cost-effective goods"
According to (Dittmar and Pepper,1994) "Materialism; Richins and Dawson (1992) measure; examination of how materialism modify the adolescents from different social class backgrounds comprehend a person who is represent as either owning or deficient expensive possessions"
According to (Moschis and Churchill 1978, 607), In their paper on the socialization procedure of young people as consumers, defined materialism as on "orientations is the emphasizing possessions and money for special happiness as well as social progress",
According to (Zinkhan, 1994) "Theoretical paper on mortal vs. influential materialism"
According to (Claxton, Murray and Swinder, 1995) "Materialism; measured by subscales personalized from Belk's materialism subscales "possessiveness," "nongenerosity" and "jealousy"" (1984)
According to (Mannion and Brannick,1995) "Conceptual paper on materialism, its measurement and its contribution to consumer research".
According to (Ger and Belk,1996) "Materialism; measures of consumer desire, understand requirements"
According to (La Barbera,1997) "Materialism; Richins and Dawson determine and own adaptations. Investigation into consumer immanent well-being and its affiliation to selected worldly and consecrated values".
According to (Eastman, Fredenberger, Campbell and Calvert,1997) "Materialism; measured by Richins and Dawson (1992) items. Assessment of individual variation levels among college students from three countries"
According to (Lundstrom and White,1999) "Materialism; measured as possession contentment (PS), developed by Scott and Lundstrom (1990). PS scale is measure of values, therefore in line with Richins and Dawson's (1992) vision of materialism. Empirical investigation into France-US differences"
According to (Muncy and Eastman,1998) "Materialism; Richins and Dawson (1992) operationalizations. Investigation of the affiliation between materialism and consumer ethics"
Material Measurement
Acquisition Centrality
According to (Daun, 1983, p.6-16) "Materialists place are the possessions and their acquisition are the midpoint of their lives." According to (Bredemeier and Toby, 1960), "materialists idolize things, and the chase of possessions takes the position of religion in structuring their lives and orienting their behaviors." Again according to (Bredemeier and Toby 1960) "Materialism brings mean-ing to life and provides an aim for daily activities"
According to (Richins and Dawson, 1992, 304) "The importance accredited to the possession and acquisition of material goods when it comes to achieving life's objectives or desired states"
According to Richins and Dawson (1992, 304) "Materialism is the consequence accredited to the possession and acquisition of material goods when it comes to achieving life's objectives or desired states
Possession-defined Success
Materialists like to judge or measure up to their own and other achievement by the number and quality of possessions accumulate. According to (Rassuli and Hollander, 1986, p.5) describe "members of a consumer civilization as evaluating others and themselves in terms of their consuming life-styles." (Du Bois, 1955, 1232-39) said that "materialists consider material well-being as evidence of success and proof of right-mindedness, an stance consistent with religious teachings at the time of the Industrial Revolution." According to (Heilbroner, 1956) "Analysis, acquisitive, materialistic people value possessions "for the money they cost to a certain extent than by the satisfactions they yield".
According to (Richins, 1994)"The relationship between possessions and individual material values and concludes that individuals find unlike meaning in their possessions depending on their personal values".
Acquisition as the Pursuit of Happiness
According to (Belk, 1984, p. 291) said that "the greatest levels of materialism possessions presuppose a central place in a person's life and are whispered to provide the greatest sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction." (Ward, Wackman, 1971, p. 426) explain materialism as "an direction emphasizing possessions and money for personal happiness and social progress." On a contrary some research finding explains that materialism doesn't consequence in increase of happiness. According to (Easterlin, 1995, p.35-47) "Approximately everybody I be acquainted with devotes substantial time, energy, and money pursuing happiness, pleasure, and gratification. For many of us, pursuing the "good life" is astoundingly complicated. Regardless of being competently and financially triumphant, we wonder whether we would be happier with more money, a more prestigious job, a bigger house, a newer car, more stylish clothing, nicer fixtures, furthermore so on. Such cogitation may be well advised. Among the most interesting findings of research on prejudiced well-being is that increases in material goods are not met with equivalent increases in happiness."
According to (Richins and Dawson 1992) "It influences the amount of goods purchased and the category of goods in order to express the achievement and happiness and also to conduct people's choices in a assortment of situations, including consumption arenas".
According to (Belk, 1985) "Theories about the origin of the fashionable patterns in the search for happiness through consumption"
According to (Belk, 1985; Richins et al., 1992; Webster and Beatty, 1997) "there is a consensus that consumption to achieve happiness has reached a high level and a central importance in industrial and post-industrial life".
Gender Differences in Materialism:-
According to various researches, it has been found that there is dissimilarity in level of possession between males and females. (Kamptner, 1991, p. 209-228) & (Dittmar, 1989, p. 159-171) said that "Dissimilar people seek different forms of meaning from their possessions depending on their age and their gender." Mainly these possessions depend on male and female personal liking towards any product. According to (Kron, 1983, p. 321-342) said that "there is superior female than male pressure over the American living room. Restricting choice to the living room could produce gender differences in degree of accessory to objects chosen. However, since the living room is more gender neutral than other areas of the house."
