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The Effects of Shopping Well-Being and Shopping Ill-Being on Consumer Life Satisfaction

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Abstract

Individuals hold two distinct sets of beliefs about shopping activities: Positive beliefs regarding the degree to which shopping contributes to quality of life (shopping well-being), and negative beliefs related to the degree to which shopping activities result in overspending time, effort, and money (shopping ill-being). Shopping well-being and shopping ill-being are conceptualized as independent constructs in that shopping ill-being is not treated as negative polar of a single dimension. That is, one can experience both shopping well-being as well as shopping ill-being, simultaneously. We hypothesized that (1) shopping well-being is a positive predictor of life satisfaction, (2) shopping ill-being is a negative predictor of life satisfaction, and (3) shopping well-being does contribute to life satisfaction under conditions of low than high shopping ill-being. The study surveyed 1035 respondents in the UK. The study results supported hypotheses 1 and 3, not Hypothesis 2. The paper discusses the implications of these findings for retailers, macro-marketers, and policy makers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Bilkent University, 06800 Bilkent, Ankara, Turkey

    Ahmet Ekici

  2. Virginia Tech Real Estate Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 24061-0236, USA

    M. Joseph Sirgy

  3. Department of Marketing, Yonsei University, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 120-749, South Korea

    Dong-Jin Lee

  4. Department of Business Administration, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea

    Grace B. Yu

  5. GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Michael Bosnjak

Authors
  1. Ahmet Ekici
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  2. M. Joseph Sirgy
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  3. Dong-Jin Lee
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  4. Grace B. Yu
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  5. Michael Bosnjak
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmet Ekici.

Appendix

Appendix

Survey Measures Used in This Study

Shopping Ill-Being or SHIB (Investment of Too Much Time, Money, Energy in Shopping at the Expense Family, Work, Social, Leisure, and Financial Life)

  1. 1.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much time shopping and not enough time with the family.

  2. 2.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend much money on shopping causing a great deal of family strife.

  3. 3.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much energy shopping and not enough energy for family.

  4. 4.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much time shopping and not enough time for work.

  5. 5.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much money shopping and not enough money to further develop my career.

  6. 6.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much energy shopping and not enough energy to bolster my career.

  7. 7.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much time shopping and not enough time socializing with others.

  8. 8.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much money shopping and not enough money for social activities.

  9. 9.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much energy shopping and not enough energy for social activities.

  10. 10.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much time shopping and not enough time for leisure activities.

  11. 11.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much money shopping and not enough money for leisure activities.

  12. 12.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much energy shopping and not enough energy for leisure activities.

  13. 13.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much time shopping and not enough time making money by working hard.

  14. 14.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much money shopping creating havoc on financial life.

  15. 15.

    Our family and close friends often complain that I spend too much energy shopping and not enough energy for making money by working hard.

Response scale: 7-point Likert scale: strongly disagree (1) – strongly agree (7)

Shopping Well-Being or SHWB (Belief that Shopping Contributes to Personal and One’s Family Quality of Life)

  1. 1.

    Thinking about shopping, I feel that my shopping contributes significantly to my own personal well-being.

  2. 2.

    Thinking about shopping, my quality of life would diminish significantly if I don’t shop.

  3. 3.

    Thinking about shopping, I feel that shopping makes me happy.

  4. 4.

    Thinking about shopping, I feel that shopping contributes significantly to my quality of life overall.

  5. 5.

    I feel that my shopping activities contribute significantly to my family well-being.

  6. 6.

    The quality of life of my family would diminish significantly if I don’t shop.

  7. 7.

    I feel that shopping makes me happy because shopping contributes much to my family well-being.

  8. 8.

    I feel that my shopping contributes significantly to my family’s quality of life overall.

Response scale: 7-point Likert scale: strongly disagree (1) – strongly agree (7)

Life Satisfaction

  1. 1.

    I believe that in most ways my life is close to my ideal.

  2. 2.

    I believe that the conditions in my life are close to excellent.

  3. 3.

    I believe that I am satisfied with my life.

  4. 4.

    I can say that so far I have gotten the important things I want in life.

  5. 5.

    I can say that if I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing

Response scale: 7-point Likert scale: strongly disagree (1) – strongly agree (7)]

Domain Satisfaction (treated as Covriates)

Please indicate how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with your other life domains._

  1. 1.

    My family life (relationship w/family members)

  2. 2.

    Work life (relationship w/people at work)

  3. 3.

    My financial situation (income, debts, & assets)

  4. 4.

    My health (physical and mental health)

  5. 5.

    My leisure life (fun & leisure activities)

  6. 6.

    My social life (friendships & fellowship)

  7. 7.

    My emotional life (love, sex, intimacy, & romance)

  8. 8.

    My spiritual life (religious activities & spirituality)

Response scale: 7-point Satisfaction rating scale: not at all satisfied (1) – very satisfied (7).

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Ekici, A., Joseph Sirgy, M., Lee, DJ. et al. The Effects of Shopping Well-Being and Shopping Ill-Being on Consumer Life Satisfaction. Applied Research Quality Life 13, 333–353 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9524-9

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