A comparative study among Turkish and American consumers on the relationship between cultural dimensions and the two important outcomes of consumer society: Conspicuous consumption and online compulsive buying behavior

Culture is considered to be one of the core mechanisms that drive people's behavioral patterns and the need for understanding consumer's cultural orientations and their effects on consumer behavior becomes even more crucial every day. This study was designed to address the gap in the literature and attempts to investigate the influence of cultural dimensions on the two important outcomes of today's consumer society; conspicuous consumption and online compulsive buying behavior. Also, another aspect of this research is to see if conspicuous consumption orientation has connections with online compulsive buying behavior. Lastly, it attempts to show whether conspicuous consumption orientation and online compulsive buying behavior varies across cultures and the role of demographics. In order to achieve these goals, the study employed two samples from two nations (Turkey and United States) that have distinct cultural orientations at the national level. Based on the models tested in two samples, the findings show that collectivism, power distance and masculinity had significant effect on conspicuous consumption orientation in both nations yet the most impactful cultural dimensions varied based on nation. Also, it has been discovered that collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance were in relation with online compulsive buying behavior in both nations yet masculinity was not. Finally, conspicuous consumption and online compulsive behavior were found to be correlated and the correlation was moderate and positive.