Examining Overconsumption, Competitive Consumption, and Conscious Consumption from 1994 to 2004

Abstract

Taken together, Robert Putnam’s work on the decline of social capital (2000) and Juliet Schor’s insights about the rise of “the new consumerism” (1999) suggest a shift in values in which our responsibilities as citizens have taken a backseat to our desires as consumers. This article complicates this shift in civic and consumer culture by examining generational differences in overconsumption, competitive consumption, and conscious consumption between 1994 and 2004. Using survey proxies for these concepts from the annual DDB Needham Life Style Study, the authors find that Generation X exhibits the highest rates of overconsumption and competitive consumption while also displaying the lowest rates of conscious consumption. Notably, the trends for these three aspects of consumer behavior vary in terms of overtime stability, general tendency, and economic responsiveness. These differing patterns of spending and consumption have far-reaching implications for society as a whole, particularly as the Civic Generation fades, the Boomers move out of the workforce, and Generation X becomes mature and culturally dominant.

Ethical Consumers in Greece: Who are They?

“…Positive ethical buying has been examined under various terminologies regarding the main dependent variables, such as socially conscious consumption [Pepper et al, 2009], buycotting [Neilson, 2010;Carfagna et al, 2014], positive buying [Koos, 2012], conscious consumption [Carr et al, 2012], positive ethical consumption [Delistavrou & Tilikidou, 2012], political consumption [Copeland, 2014]. The aspect of ecological behaviours gained most of the research attention while very limited studies focused on purchasing fair trade products.…”

“…With reference to the antecedents of behaviour, all relevant efforts incorporated demographics [Klein et al, 2004;Gardberg & Newburry, 2009;Neilson, 2010;Carr et al, 2012;Delistavrou & Tilikidou, 2012, Koos, 2012, Carfagna et al, 2014Copeland, 2014], but the demographical picture of ethical consumers is still a rather ambiguous one. Values or other psychographics have been also utilized, e.g.…”

Practicing What We Teach (and Research)

“…Second, while a number of us have probably seen (and shown) the Story of Stuff video, the book with the same title (written by Annie Leonard, who is featured in the video and is now the Executive Director of Greenpeace, USA), is even better, chockfull of sustainable consumption examples, data, and sources (Leonard, 2010), which works especially well in graduate business courses). Third, for those of you looking for some academic research on the topic, while O&E has included some attention on this topic on occasion (such as in the aforementioned editorial), we recommend three articles that do so more centrally (one titled "Sustainable Consumption-Three Paradoxes" [Maniates, 2014], a second that finds differences among generations on this topic in the United States [Carr, Gotlieb, Lee, & Shah, 2012], and a third on "Mindful Consumption" [Sheth, Sethia, & Srinivas, 2011]). We wish you all the best in your quest (both personal and professional) toward resolving your own sustainable consumption paradox!…”

Materialism and its influence on the subjective quality of life of Brazilian adolescents

“…Carr, Gotlieb, Lee and Shah (2012) also mentioned that adolescence includes an increase in consumer capacity and that this contributes to the need to build an identity, resulting in a change in consumer practices that are oriented to improve personal presentation and popularity, often driven by advertising and means of social communication. For Carr et al (2012), this moment is a new consumerism that reveals the growing concern with materialism.…”