Measuring Conspicuous Consumption

Socio Demographic Determinants Behind Conspicuous Consumption of Luxury Automobiles in Sri Lanka

“…Conspicuous Consumption as termed by its begetter, Thorstein Bunde Veblen in his globally renowned man oeuvre, The Theory of the Leisure Class is the consumption of expensive goods and services in order to showcase wealth. In accordance with Veblen's definition Murphy (2018), in his study, theorizes conspicuous consumption as the purchasing of goods or services merely for the purpose of public display of wealth, on top of covering basic needs. As affirmed by Jain & Sharma (2018) conspicuous consumption is the purchasing of luxury goods and services in order to manifest one's economic power and the accumulated wealth of the buyer publicly.…”

“…Today, it is a common sight to witness people, clinging on to the luxuriousness and the higher prices of goods in order to demonstrate their purchasing power and social status to others. Moreover, it can be learnt through literature that, people are prone towards purchasing flashy goods not merely for their intrinsic use value 1 but simply, because of the "higher price tags" which reflect much greater values than what is mirrored through their "use values" (Goenka & Thomas, 2019;Murphy, 2018;Sirong , 2016;Kim, 2015). It is in that respect, Conspicuous Consumption, which signifies purchasing of expensive goods to showcase wealth, comes in notion.…”