Materialistic Tendency and Conspicuous Consumption Behavior: The Mediating Role of Social Media Usage

This research focuses on the materialistic tendencies and conspicuous consumption behaviors of consumers, especially in today's social media age. The research's goal is to determine the effect of materialistic tendencies on conspicuous consumption behavior and to investigate the role of social media usage in mediating this effect. The data were collected in this context using a prepared survey form, and 596 consumers participated in the survey during the data collection process. SPSS and AMOS programs were used to analyze the collected data. As a result of the analyses, it was discovered that the materialistic tendency had a positive and significant effect on both conspicuous consumption behavior and social media usage; it was also discovered that social media usage had a positive and significant effect on conspicuous consumption behavior. Furthermore, it was determined that social media usage has a partial mediation in the effect of materialistic tendency on conspicuous consumption behavior; in other words, a portion of the effect of materialistic tendency on conspicuous consumption behavior is realized through social media usage. Suggestions for both theory and practice were made in light of these findings.