Department of Consumer & Child Studies, University of Incheon
Corresponding Author:
Lee Ju Kang ,Tel: +82-32-835-8253, Fax: +82-835-0764 , Email: ljkang@incheon.ac.kr
Received: September 23, 2009; Revised: October 8, 2009 Accepted: November 7, 2009.
ABSTRACT
Consumer researchers found that compulsive buying was a part of a category of compulsive consumption that was interrelated to addictive and repetitive behaviors. The present study empirically examined the co-morbidity of compulsive buying and Internet addiction among e-commerce users in terms of consumption disorders. Although the prevalence of Internet use and on-line sales remarkably increase in recent years, almost no study examines on-line compulsive buying behavior. This study explored the link between compulsive buying and Internet addiction among e-commerce users, and investigated the characteristics of on-line shoppers with respect to two forms of compulsive consumption, which were divided into compulsive buying and Internet addiction. Additionally, factors that related to compulsive buying behaviors among e-commerce users were also examined. The present research was conducted using a convenience sample of 394 young adults between the ages of 20-30, and the Faber and O'Guinn's DSCB scale and the Widyanto's Internet addiction scale (IA) were used. Confirmatory factor analyses were utilized to evaluate the structure of the DSCB and IA, and a Probit model was used to examine determinants for the compulsive buying behaviors of e-commerce users. E-commerce users were classified into four groups; high compulsion and high addiction, low compulsion and low addiction, high compulsion and low addiction, and low compulsion and high addiction. Consumers with high compulsion and high addiction spent higher amounts of money on their on-line purchases and were frequently connected with the Internet compared to the three other consumer groups. Consumers with compulsive buying behaviors were also found to have significantly greater Internet addiction tendencies than typical buyers. Compulsive buyers were more likely to engage in Internet addiction and the number of purchasing via on-line shopping mall, and had higher materialism. Policy implications and suggestions for consumer education programs were discussed.
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