To Renounce or Not to Renounce, That Is the Question: An Exploratory Sequential Scale Development Study of Consumers' Perceptions of Voluntary Deconsumption

摘要

This exploratory sequential mixed methods study of scale development was conducted to render conceptual clarity to the concept of voluntary deconsumption, to explore decon-sumption behavior under the tenets of the attribution theory of motivation, and to examine the components, structures, uses, and measurement properties of the scale of voluntary deconsumption. It was an attempt at holistic understanding of deconsumption, and re-conceptualizing anticonsumption theory by delineating it from other similar research fields, i.e., sustainability, environmental, and ethical concerns in the social marketing literature. The critical incident in a relationship context (CIRC) technique (Edvardsson and Strand-vik, 2000) was used in conjunction with grounded theory approach in the qualitative phase (study 1); and survey research, principal components analysis, and Rasch analysis (Rasch, 1960) using Winsteps 3.92.1 (Linacre, 2016) were used in the quantitative phase (study 2). A behavioral process theory of the experience of voluntary deconsumption was posited; and motivations and consequences of voluntary deconsumption were discussed. The differences in the experience of voluntary deconsumption based on variables such as deconsumption type (voluntary and involuntary), gender (male and female), and baby boomer type (trailing- and leading-edge) were explained as well. Sub-scales of voluntary deconsumption included four compo- nents, i.e., elevated state of purpose, social agency and activism, nonmaterialism, and acceptance of life circum-stances. Finally, the unidimensionality, appropriate scale use, in variance, and levels of validity and reliability of these subscales of voluntary deconsumption were tested, and reported as acceptable and appropriate. In conclusion, the implications of the results for theory, research methodology, and practice were discussed, and recommendations for future research inquiry were made.