Why buy? Exploring the motivations and experiences of four self-confessed impulsive/excessive buyers: A discourse analysis Document

Enderby, Claire (2013) Why buy? Exploring the motivations and experiences of four self-confessed impulsive/excessive buyers: A discourse analysis Document. University of Gloucestershire.

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Abstract

Shopping and buying is an everyday part of societal life and is encouraged in order to maintain the economy (Dittmar, 2007). In today’s society, consumers increasingly buy for a want of an item, rather than a need (Kearney and Stevens, 2012). Research in this area is dominated by the suggestions of a medicalised disorder, Compulsive Buying Disorder, and although a continuum of increasing levels of excessive and impulsive buying is recognised, there remains a lack of subsequent research (Lan, Malhotra and van Ittersum, 2006; Ying-Ping, 2012). What little research there is is dominated by quantitative methods. This current research adopts a social constructionist standpoint and utilises the qualitative method of semi-structured interviews in order to explore the motivations and experiences of four self-confessed excessive/impulsive buyers in order to gain in-depth understanding into this area. Two interviews were conducted face-to-face, and two via internet messaging programs, with around three hours of data collected. Discourse analysis was applied to the data and eight discourses were discovered; two of which, ‘Shopping as socialising’ and ‘Owning the item and its uses’ were analysed. Implications, strengths and weaknesses of the study are also discussed.