Conspicuous Consumption: A Review of Four Articles

This article reviews four articles on conspicuous consumption, analyzing its drivers, themes, limitations, and future directions. The articles cover theoretical concepts, qualitative and quantitative research, and mixed methods. The study identifies conspicuous consumption as an important key driver in social status and suggests that organizations can benefit from understanding the current trend of conspicuous consumption process.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
Business research methods
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS
List of reviewed articles
Theory and
progression
Kapeller, J. and Schütz, B., 2015. Conspicuous consumption, inequality
and debt: the nature of consumption‐driven profit‐led
regimes. Metroeconomica, 66(1), pp.51-70.
Qualitative Vohra, A.V., 2016. Materialism, impulse buying and conspicuous
consumption: A qualitative research. Global Business Review, 17(1),
pp.51-67.
Quantitative Amatulli, C., De Angelis, M., Korschun, D. and Romani, S., 2018.
Consumers' perceptions of luxury brands’ CSR initiatives: An
investigation of the role of status and conspicuous
consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 194, pp.277-287.
Mixed method Kobbernagel, C. and Schrøder, K.C., 2016. From everyday
communicative figurations to rigorous audience news repertoires: A
mixed method approach to cross-media news
consumption. MedieKultur: Journal of media and communication
research, 32(60), p.26.

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Brief summary
The concept of conspicuous consumption was introduced in 1899 by sociologist Torstein
Veblen. The conspicuous consumption is about spending money for acquiring the luxury
products die displaying the financial power to the people. In the words of Vohra (2016), in case
of conspicuous consumption, the economic power of the people is being shown through their
social status. In this theory of conspicuous consumption it has been mentioned that for showing
the financial power people purchases the luxury products rather than fulfilling their needs. It has
been mentioned in this study that, the conspicuous consumption indicates the upper class people.
After the industrial revolution, the consumption characteristics of the middle class people have
changed (Correia, Kozak and Reis 2016). In the conspicuous consumption progression process, it
has been highlighted that after the improvement of social standard of the people, the noticeable
behavioral changes among the people has brought the changes in life style.
Common themes
In order to analyze the impact of conspicuous consumption, four articles have been
reviewed in this study. In the first article namely ‘Conspicuous consumption, inequality and
debt: the nature of consumption‐driven profit‐led regimes’, the theoretical concepts of the profit
led demand and wage led demand have been discussed for highlighting the conspicuous
consumption concerns. In order to discuss the conspicuous consumption process, the author has
discussed about the Bhaduri–Marglin model. In order to understand the integration process of the
Veblenian concept, the role of the Bhaduri–Marglin model is very important (Kapeller and
Schütz 2015). It has been identified that the increasing profit share impacts on the income of the
workers. In the second article, the rate of consumption has been considered as the major key

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drivers in the customer behavior. It has been mentioned in this article that conspicuous
characteristics, materialism and impulse buying behavior are interconnected to each other and
have influential role in case of driving the customers’ mind. The third article namely
‘Consumers' perceptions of luxury brands’ CSR initiatives: An investigation of the role of status
and conspicuous consumption’ has discussed about situational impacts on the changing behavior
of the customers. In this article it is mentioned that CSR initiatives of the organizations play an
important role in case of driving the conspicuous consumption trends. The name of the fourth
article is ‘From everyday communicative figurations to rigorous audience news repertoires: A
mixed method approach to cross-media news consumption’. In this article, it has been discussed
that the digital media plays an influential role in case of driving the rate of conspicuous
consumption. By introducing the innovative mixed method approach, the author has tried to
highlight the participation of digital media in conspicuous consumption process (Kobbernagel,
and Schrøder, 2016). After analyzing the above article it can be said that financial status and
social activities are being considered as the major key drivers of conspicuous consumption.
Different themes
In the selected four articles different influential key drivers of conspicuous consumption
have been highlighted. Although the four articles have focused in the conspicuous consumption,
but the influential processes have been discussed on different manner in different articles. In the
first article, Bhaduri–Marglin model has been discussed. The model is beneficial for assume g
the social status of working class. In the second article namely ‘Materialism, impulse buying
and conspicuous consumption: A qualitative research’, the behavioral characteristics of the
customers have been discussed. It is mentioned in this article that depending on the social status
of the people, the changes of behavioral characteristics are being identified (Vohra 2016).

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However, in case of third article, it is discussed that in case of driving the customers’
preferences, the CSR initiatives are required (Amatulli et al. 2018). In case of analyzing the
conspicuous consumption practices, the CSR initiatives of the organizations have been
highlighted as the important key driver. The fourth article is totally different from the three
articles. In this article the role of social media has been highlighted as the important influential
factor for conspicuous consumption. It has been mentioned in this article that the cross media
news consumption is also very important in case of understanding the conspicuous consumption
process.
Study limitations
In the comparison of the four articles it has been identified that the first one discussed
about the models and theories. In order to conduct the research, the researcher has used the
concepts from the previous articles. In case of second article the entire research has been
developed, depending on the qualitative data. In this case both the secondary and primary data
has been collected. Previous journals as well as the interview method have been followed by the
author. In this case the chances of getting dissimilar data from secondary and primary resources
can influence the ultimate outcome of the research. In the third article the primary survey has
been done. In case of this article, the information, which has been collected, can differ from
actual data as depending on the mental state of the participants the information can change. In
case of the fourth article, digital media has been highlighted as the only influential factor in
conspicuous consumption process (Kobbernagel, and Schrøder, 2016). However, there are many
other factors which have also equally important for influencing the conspicuous consumption
behavior.

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Future directions
In the above article it has been identified that all the articles have mentioned conspicuous
consumption as the important key driver in social status. It is also mentioned that after the
introduction of industrial revolution, the middle class people have also being influenced by the
conspicuous trends. It cannot be denied that the conspicuous consumption mainly being focused
by the large organizations which mainly manufacture the luxury products. Therefore, it can be
said that the study will be beneficial for the organizations in order to understand the current trend
of conspicuous consumption process. Analyzing different factors of conspicuous consumption,
the organizations will also be able to develop strategies for grabbing the large numbers of
customer attention.

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References
Amatulli, C., De Angelis, M., Korschun, D. and Romani, S., 2018. Consumers' perceptions of
luxury brands’ CSR initiatives: An investigation of the role of status and conspicuous
consumption. Journal of Cleaner Production, 194, pp.277-287.
Correia, A., Kozak, M. and Reis, H., 2016. Conspicuous consumption of the elite: Social and
self-congruity in tourism choices. Journal of Travel Research, 55(6), pp.738-750.
Kapeller, J. and Schütz, B., 2015. Conspicuous consumption, inequality and debt: the nature of
consumption‐driven profit‐led regimes. Metroeconomica, 66(1), pp.51-70.
Kobbernagel, C. and Schrøder, K.C., 2016. From everyday communicative figurations to
rigorous audience news repertoires: A mixed method approach to cross-media news
Vohra, A.V., 2016. Materialism, impulse buying and conspicuous consumption: A qualitative
research. Global Business Review, 17(1), pp.51-67.