Rising Consumer Materialism: A Threat to Sustainable Happiness (Routledge Focus on Business and Management) - Hardcover

Khalid, Afia; Qadeer, Faisal

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815367597 ISBN 13: 9780815367598

Publisher: Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

Rising Consumer Materialism presents a theoretical advancement of materialism research. It identifies eight areas of a consumer's life that are inter-disciplinary and of prime importance towards promoting happy and rewarding lifestyles. This study examines the pre-planned purchase process as the primary step towards satisfactory consumption. The theoretical framework provides a stream of research possibilities that guide readers towards healthy consumption patterns. Therefore, the book offers practical solutions to problems such as loneliness and unhappiness. It advocates a new dimension of consumption activity and lifestyle choices that can help to re-socialize and improve social bonds; hitting materialism right at its core, making the consumption experience well informed and beneficial for the consumer as well as society.

Together, pre-planned engaging, intrinsic experiential purchases with a view to environmentalism, religiosity, social giving, social support and nostalgia can cure the excessive emphasis on acquiring and showing off valuables that are disruptive to a consumer’s social affiliations and subjective wellbeing.

Rather than utilizing material possessions as a proxy measure for success and happiness resulting in only temporary happiness, discontent, continuous brand/product switching, undesirable post purchase evaluations and shifting brand loyalties, the book establishes alternative mechanisms for achieving happiness. The integrated framework provides a comprehensive solution rather than a half-baked specific situational-based intervention and is a must read for academics, students and consumers alike.

About this title

About the Author

Afia Khalid is a PhD Scholar at the National College of Business Administration & Economics, Lahore, Pakistan.

Faisal Qadeer is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Research Programme at Lahore Business School, University of Lahore, Pakistan.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815367597
• ISBN 13: 9780815367598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 122