The purpose of this research is to examine whether consumers who behave mindfully are more satisfied with their life. We define mindful consumers as individuals who, in all stages of consumer behavior, are aware of themselves, their communities and the society at large and behave in ways that contribute to the well-being of all these entities.  Mindful consumer behavior can be practiced at all stages of consumption, namely acquisition, consumption, and disposal of goods and services.  Based on research in sociology, psychology and consumer behavior, we hypothesize that the more consumers behave mindfully the higher is their level of satisfaction with (1) the marketing practices and (2) their life in general.

To test our hypotheses, we survey consumers in two phases separated by four weeks. In the first phase, we measure participants’ satisfaction with life, satisfaction with marketing practices as well as possibly relevant variables such as materialism.  To measure these constructs we use scales published by Peterson and Ekici (2007), Gaski and Etzel (1986), and Richins and Dawson (1992), respectively. One month later, we measure the same participants’ tendency to behave as mindful consumers on all aspects of mindfulness and in all stages of consumer behavior. To measure mindful consumer behavior, we build on our definition and draw on several scales (see, e.g., Kotchen and Moore 2008; Roberts 1996; Rook and Fisher 1995; Webb, Mohr and Harris 2008) to design a 49-item 7-point Likert-type scale.

One hundred and two consumers participated in both phases of the Study. An exploratory factor analysis of the 49 items designed to measure different aspects of mindful consumer behavior revealed the following twelve dimensions: (1) concern for the environment, (2) making the most of one’s possessions, (3) contributing through donations and choice of socially responsible firms, (4) passing on used possessions to others, (5) minimizing waste in consumption, (6) concern for one’s health, (7) concern for one’s wealth, (8) cautious buying, (9) sharing possessions with others, (10) concern for impact of actions on other humans, (11) interest in exercising, and (12) interest in healthy eating.

To test our hypotheses we conduct a series of regression analyses. Our findings mainly reveal a significant correlation between satisfaction with marketing practices and cautious consumption. As hypothesized, we also found a significant relationship between satisfaction with life and certain aspects of mindful consumer behavior particularly those related to giving, i.e., contributing through donations and choice of socially responsible firms, and passing on possessions to others.  No significant relationship was found between satisfaction with life and materialism.  Implications of our findings are discussed.

References

Gaski, John and Michael Etzel (1986), “The Index of Consumer Sentiment toward Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 50(3), 71-81.

Kotchen, Matthew and Michael Moore (2007), “Private Provision of Environmental Public Goods: Household Participation in Green-Electricity Program,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 53(1), 1-16.

Peterson, Mark and Ahmet Ekici (2007), “Consumer Attitude toward Marketing and Subjective Quality of Life in the Context of a Developing Country,” Journal of Macromarketing, 27(4), 350-359.

Richins, Marsha L. and Scott Dawson (1992), “A Consumer Values Orientation of Materialism and Its Measurement: Scale Development and Validation,” Journal of Consumer Research, 19(3), 303-316.

Roberts, James (1996), “Green Consumers in the 1990s: Profile and Implications for Advertising,” Journal of Business Research, 36(3), 217-231.

Rook, Dennis and Robert Fischer (1995), “Normative Influences on Impulsive Buying Behavior,” Journal of Consumer Behavior, 22(3), 305-315.

Webb, Deborah, Mohr, Lois and Katherine Harris (2008), “A Re-examination of Socially Responsible Consumption,” Journal of Business Research, 61(2), 91-98.