The Institutional Foundations of Materialism in Western Societies: A Conceptualization and Empirical Test

William E Kilbourne, Michael J Dorsch, Pierre McDonagh, Andrea Prothero, Marko Grunhagen, Micharl Jay Polonsky, David Marshall, Janice Foley, Alan Bradshaw

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Studies of materialism have increased in recent years, and most of these studies examine various aspects of materialism including its individual or social consequences. However, understanding, and possibly shaping, a society’s materialistic tendencies requires a more complete study of the relationship between a society’s institutional patterns and the acceptance of materialism by its members. Consequently, the current study examines five of the institutional antecedents of materialism to understand better how and why it develops as a mode of consumption within a society. More specifically, a model relating materialism and a set of institutionalized patterns of social behavior referred to as the dominant social paradigm was developed and tested in a study of seven industrial, market-based countries. The results suggest that the economic, technological, political, anthropocentric, and competition institutions making up the dominant social paradigm are all positively related to materialism. The implications of the relationship are then discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)259-278
JournalJournal of Macromarketing
Volume29
Issue number3
Early online date10 Apr 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2009

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