This dissertation focuses on the importance that status has on society and the difficulties in adequately addressing its effect on consumption. The motivation to consume for status has not been adequately conceptualized or operationalized in the social science literature. The author suggests a new construct to address this issue: status consumption. Status consumption is defined as the motivational process by which individuals strive to improve their social standing through the conspicuous consumption of consumer products that confer and symbolize status both to the individual and to surrounding significant others. / To illustrate this, the author presents a model of the proposed six antecedents, three dimensions, and six consequences of status consumption presented in this dissertation. Based on the three dimensions, a three factor Status Consumption Scale, SCS, is created. Hypotheses are presented along with a proposed methodology to test the reliability and validity of the SCS in a series of five studies utilizing both students and adults. The results of the five studies illustrates that the fourteen item SCS is a reliable and valid measure with good factor structure having three unidimensional subscales (Sociability, An Interest in Consuming for Status, and Buying for Nonfunctional Reasons). / Thus, this individual difference variable of status consumption is demonstrated in this dissertation to be an explanatory variable that may explain and predict some aspects of consumer behavior. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0600. / Major Professor: Ronald E. Goldsmith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76839 |
| Contributors | Kilsheimer, Jacqueline Cambere., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 293 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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