COMMUNITY CONNECT REPORT

“PARTICIPANTS PURCHASING HABITS AND PERCEPTION OF VALUE”

Sushant Fotedar| BA (Hons) Applied Economics | 3rd Year

 ABSTRACT

Back in 1889, an economist named Thorstein Veblen coined a term called conspicuous
consumption which brought out the vivid description of consumption and wealth.
Conspicuous Consumption denotes the practice of purchasing goods or services to
publicly display wealth rather than to cover basic needs. To the conspicuous consumer,
such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means of either attaining or
maintaining a given social status.

The development of Thorstein Veblen's sociology of conspicuous consumption produced

the term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of goods that is meant to
provoke the envy of other people; and the term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate
use of charitable donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the donor,
with a display of superior socio-economic status.

This paper attempts to analyze participants purchasing habits and their perception of
value. The study seeks to bring out facts related to conspicuous consumption and to what
extent do peer affect purchasing habits of the respective participants. The study finds that
the Generation X especially students (in the age group of 18 – 25) are highly affected by
their peers while purchasing a commodity.

The paper further explores that Income per annum and Valuable possession are
moderately correlated where r = 0.294.

PAGE 1
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance and participation
from many people and I am extremely privileged to have got this all along the completion
of my project. All that I have done is only due to such supervision and participation from
the many people who help this project in different ways.

I would also like to take opportunity to specially thank my faculty guide Prof. Aditya
Samdershi Assistant professor at School of Business, Sharda University for all the
advice and supervision in the preparation of this report.

PAGE 2
 INTRODUCTION

History and evolution of conspicuous consumption

The economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) introduced the term
"conspicuous consumption" in 1899 in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class: An
Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions. Veblen described the behavioral
characteristics of the nouveau riche (new rich) social class which emerged as a result of
capital accumulation during the Second Industrial Revolution (c. 1860–1914). In that
nineteenth-century social and historical context, the term "conspicuous consumption"
applied narrowly in association with the men, women, and families of the upper class
who applied their great wealth as a means of publicly manifesting their social power and
prestige, either real or perceived.

As proposed by Thorstein Veblen in the 19th century, conspicuous consumption

(spending money to buy goods and services for their own sake) explains the
psychological mechanics of a consumer society, and the increase in the number and the
types of the goods and services that people consider necessary to and for their lives in a
developed economy.

Purchasing Habits and Perception of Value

Nowadays, it’s vital for an organization to know its consumers purchasing habit and how
do they perceive the value of the money or the commodity they are buying.
In economical jargons Perceived Value can be stated as the worth or merits a customer
ascribes to a product or service. Usually, customers are unaware of the factors involved in
pricing a product or service, such as the actual or estimated costs of production.
Customers rely on the emotional appeal of the product or service and their evaluation of
the benefits they believe they will receive.

PAGE 3
 OBJECTIVE

The objective of the research is to gain idea about participants purchasing habits and the
perception of value; furthermore it also looks into the factors that affect the consumption
of an individual. These factors can be categorized under the certain variables such as age,
income and the peer group.

The rudimentary objective of the report is to look into the term called Conspicuous
Consumption and how is it affected by the current day Capitalism.

PAGE 4
 Research Methodology

Research Design
This paper attempts to analyze participants purchasing habits and their perception of
value. The study seeks to bring out facts related to conspicuous consumption and to what
extent do peer affect purchasing habits of the respective participants.

Research Approach
The participants will be the one who are ready to cooperate and fill the survey whose link
will be available in public domain.

Sampling Method
The survey for this study will be available to whole demography and it will be available
in the public domain. The sampling size will be more than 50 people.

Data Collection Method

The primary data will be collected from the individuals of different age group, occupation
and income etc. The data moreover will be collected indirectly using a survey.

Data Analysis Method

The data analysis of this research will be mostly represented on quantitative manner. As
mentioned earlier the data will be collected using a survey. As a result the analysis will
be quantitative whereas few of the solutions will be qualitative.

PAGE 5
 FINDINGS

It was found out that 78.5% of the participant lying between the age group of 18 – 25 said
that their most valuable possession is their Electronic Devices.
It is to be duly noted that 87.5% of the participant lying between 18 – 25 and 25 – 35
spent most of their allowance on the basic accommodation.

PAGE 6
PAGE 7
Students were mostly influenced by their peers, i.e. around 90 % of the students lying
between the age group said that they were influenced. This in order words also affects
their most valuable possession and it was found out that these were correlated.

The paper further explores that Income per annum and Valuable possession are
moderately correlated where r = 0.294.

3 % of the total participant said that their most valuable possession is their house.
These participants lie in the age group of 25 – 35 and 35 – 45. This denotes a state that
the current labor force consider household to be status consumption.

CONCLUSION

Although the survey is taken by a small number of people to fully understand how such
elements affect consumers purchasing, it still sheds a light on how such elements should
properly be understood and taken into consideration when an individuals purchasing
habits or preferences is studied.

There are several vital points which represent the behavior a consumer inflicts while
buying a commodity, these can be categorized as age, status, occupation, income etc.

The question that still triggers several minds is that “does a rapid increase in income
mean that the class of commodity will also change”?

PAGE 8
DATA

PAGE 9