IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joepsy/v32y2011i1p79-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shopping without pain: Compulsive buying and the effects of credit card availability in Europe and the Far East

Author

Listed:
  • Lo, Hui-Yi
  • Harvey, Nigel

Abstract

The financial consequences of compulsive buying are obvious given the large amount of debt reported by compulsive buyers in many studies. Credit cards allow consumers to borrow money very easily in order to satisfy their desire to purchase. In two web-based experiments, we found that compulsive shoppers often overspent and were rarely influenced by price. Their overspending was partially mediated by their excessive use of credit cards. Furthermore, compulsive shoppers were less conscious of their budgets, especially when they used credit cards. They also obtained more pleasure from accomplishing a shopping trip and were more distressed by delayed product delivery than normal shoppers. Finally, compulsive shoppers in Taiwan were more compulsive than those in the United Kingdom: they displayed many of the above symptoms of compulsive buying more saliently.

Suggested Citation

  • Lo, Hui-Yi & Harvey, Nigel, 2011. "Shopping without pain: Compulsive buying and the effects of credit card availability in Europe and the Far East," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 79-92, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:1:p:79-92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-4870(10)00136-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Guinn, Thomas C & Faber, Ronald J, 1989. "Compulsive Buying: A Phenomenological Exploration," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(2), pages 147-157, September.
    2. Feinberg, Richard A, 1986. "Credit Cards as Spending Facilitating Stimuli: A Conditioning Interpretation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(3), pages 348-356, December.
    3. Hirschman, Elizabeth C, 1979. "Differences in Consumer Purchase Behavior by Credit Card Payment System," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 6(1), pages 58-66, June.
    4. Faber, Ronald J, et al, 1995. "Two Forms of Compulsive Consumption: Comorbidity of Compulsive Buying and Binge Eating," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(3), pages 296-304, December.
    5. Soman, Dilip, 2001. "Effects of Payment Mechanism on Spending Behavior: The Role of Rehearsal and Immediacy of Payments," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 460-474, March.
    6. Davies, Emma & Lea, Stephen E. G., 1995. "Student attitudes to student debt," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 663-679, December.
    7. Michael Birnbaum, 2000. "Psychological experiments on the internet," Framed Field Experiments 00125, The Field Experiments Website.
    8. Faber, Ronald J & O'Guinn, Thomas C, 1992. "A Clinical Screener for Compulsive Buying," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(3), pages 459-469, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amit Poddar & Cameron Ellis & Timucin Ozcan, 2015. "Imperfect Recall: The Impact of Composite Spending Information Disclosure on Credit Card Spending," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 93-104, March.
    2. Piotr Tarka & Jasurbek Babaev, 2021. "Methodological insights on measurement and evaluation of compulsive buying behavior among young consumers in Poland: the case of compulsive- and non-compulsive buyers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1581-1611, October.
    3. Donou-Adonsou, Ficawoyi & Basnet, Hem C., 2019. "Credit card delinquency: How much is the Internet to blame?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 481-497.
    4. Mittal, Banwari, 2015. "Self-concept clarity: Exploring its role in consumer behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 98-110.
    5. Basnet, Hem C. & Donou-Adonsou, Ficawoyi, 2016. "Internet, consumer spending, and credit card balance: Evidence from US consumers," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 11-22.
    6. Robert Powell & Anh Do & Denise Gengatharen & Jaime Yong & Rasiah Gengatharen, 2023. "The relationship between responsible financial behaviours and financial wellbeing: The case of buy‐now‐pay‐later," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4431-4451, December.
    7. Danilo Braun Santos & Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva & Jill M. Norvilitis & Philippe Protin & Luciana Onusic, 2022. "Parents Influence Responsible Credit Use in Young Adults: Empirical Evidence from the United States, France, and Brazil," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 368-383, June.
    8. Japutra, Arnold & Ekinci, Yuksel & Simkin, Lyndon, 2022. "Discovering the dark side of brand attachment: Impulsive buying, obsessive-compulsive buying and trash talking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 442-453.
    9. James W. Peltier & Andrew J. Dahl & John E. Schibrowsky, 2016. "Sequential loss of self-control: Exploring the antecedents and consequences of student credit card debt," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 167-181, September.
    10. Hem C. Basnet & Ficawoyi Donou‐Adonsou, 2016. "Internet, consumer spending, and credit card balance: Evidence from US consumers," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 11-22, September.
    11. A. Håkansson, 2020. "Role of Gambling in Payback Failure in Consumer Credit—Data from a Large Body of Material Regarding Consumer Loan Recipients in Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    12. Atte Oksanen & Mikko Aaltonen & Kati Rantala, 2015. "Social Determinants of Debt Problems in a Nordic Welfare State: a Finnish Register-Based Study," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 229-246, September.
    13. Pham, Thi H. & Yap, Keong & Dowling, Nicki A., 2012. "The impact of financial management practices and financial attitudes on the relationship between materialism and compulsive buying," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 461-470.
    14. Cesar Leandro, Julio & Botelho, Delane, 2022. "Consumer over-indebtedness: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 535-551.
    15. Chunchun Chen & Chengchun Li & Guoying Ren, 2022. "The effect of present‐biased preferences on revolving debts: Evidence from urban households in China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 2653-2668, July.
    16. Luis E. Arango & Lina Cardona-Sosa, 2019. "Tarjetas de crédito en personas de ingresos medios y bajos en Colombia: ¿qué determina su uso?," Borradores de Economia 1089, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    17. Donnelly, Grant & Ksendzova, Masha & Howell, Ryan T., 2013. "Sadness, identity, and plastic in over-shopping: The interplay of materialism, poor credit management, and emotional buying motives in predicting compulsive buying," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 113-125.
    18. Arango, Luis E. & Cardona-Sosa, Lina & Pedraza-Jiménez, Nataly, 2021. "The use of credit cards among low- and middle-income individuals in Colombia and the channels of monetary policy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 150-169.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khan, Jashim & Belk, Russell W. & Craig-Lees, Margaret, 2015. "Measuring consumer perceptions of payment mode," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 34-49.
    2. Danilo Braun Santos & Wesley Mendes-Da-Silva & Jill M. Norvilitis & Philippe Protin & Luciana Onusic, 2022. "Parents Influence Responsible Credit Use in Young Adults: Empirical Evidence from the United States, France, and Brazil," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 368-383, June.
    3. Wang, Lili & Lu, Wei & Malhotra, Naresh K., 2011. "Demographics, attitude, personality and credit card features correlate with credit card debt: A view from China," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 179-193, February.
    4. Huovinen, Pasi & Rouvinen, Petri, 2008. "Does Mass-media Fuel, and Easy Credit Facilitate, Impulse Buys?," Discussion Papers 1126, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    5. Yizhao Jiang, 2022. "The Influence of Payment Method: Do Consumers Pay More with Mobile Payment?," Papers 2210.14631, arXiv.org.
    6. Kukar-Kinney, Monika & Ridgway, Nancy M. & Monroe, Kent B., 2012. "The Role of Price in the Behavior and Purchase Decisions of Compulsive Buyers," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 63-71.
    7. Nenita B. Nagarit, DBA & Susana C. Bautista, EdD & Ferdinand C. Somido, PhD & Pedrito Jose V. Bermudo, PhD & Antonio D.Yango, PhD & Leomar S. Galicia, PhD, 2018. "Transforming Online Negative Blogs in the Use of Credit Cards in Electronics Transactions into Constructive Action: Basis of Creating Business Spend Analyzer Model," Journal of Business & Management (COES&RJ-JBM), , vol. 6(1), pages 66-83, January.
    8. Dilip Soman & Amar Cheema, 2002. "The Effect of Credit on Spending Decisions: The Role of the Credit Limit and Credibility," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 32-53, September.
    9. Falk, Tomas & Kunz, Werner H. & Schepers, Jeroen J.L. & Mrozek, Alexander J., 2016. "How mobile payment influences the overall store price image," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2417-2423.
    10. Bernadette Kamleitner & Berna Erki, 2013. "Payment method and perceptions of ownership," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 57-69, March.
    11. Veneta Sotiropoulos & Alain d’Astous, 2013. "Attitudinal, Self-Efficacy, and Social Norms Determinants of Young Consumers’ Propensity to Overspend on Credit Cards," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 179-196, June.
    12. Runnemark, Emma & Hedman, Jonas & Xiao, Xiao, 2014. "Do Consumers Pay More Using Debit Cards than Cash? An Experiment," Working Papers 2014:21, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    13. Ina Garnefeld & Andreas Eggert & Markus Husemann-Kopetzky & Eva Böhm, 2019. "Exploring the link between payment schemes and customer fraud: a mental accounting perspective," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 595-616, July.
    14. Arvind Agrawal & James W. Gentry, 2020. "Why do many consumers prefer to pay now when they could pay later?," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 607-627, June.
    15. Zha, Yong & Wang, Yuting & Li, Quan & Yao, Wenying, 2022. "Credit offering strategy and dynamic pricing in the presence of consumer strategic behavior," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(2), pages 753-766.
    16. Concetta De Pasquale & Martina Morando & Silvia Platania & Federica Sciacca & Zira Hichy & Santo Di Nuovo & Maria Catena Quattropani, 2022. "The Roles of Anxiety and Self-Esteem in the Risk of Eating Disorders and Compulsive Buying Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Richard L. Flight & Devon Sacramento, 2015. "Brand Attachment and the Compulsive Buyer," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 157-171, August.
    18. Cui, Charles Chi & Mrad, Mona & Hogg, Margaret K., 2018. "Brand addiction: Exploring the concept and its definition through an experiential lens," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 118-127.
    19. Liu, Yunxin & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2021. "A replication study of the credit card effect on spending behavior and an extension to mobile payments," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    20. Julie Sneath & Russell Lacey & Pamela Kennett-Hensel, 2009. "Coping with a natural disaster: Losses, emotions, and impulsive and compulsive buying," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 45-60, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Compulsive buying Credit card usage;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joepsy:v:32:y:2011:i:1:p:79-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.