Proceedings of 7th Annual American Business Research Conference
23 - 24 July 2015, Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel, New York, USA, ISBN: 978-1-922069-79-5
Understanding Online-Consumerism
Othman Althawadi
The history of consumerism shows that consumer movements in developed countries with capitalist
economies in general, and in the United States in particular, have had great success in helping customers
get safer products (car seat belts), more information (product labels), and better market regulation (the
Consumer Product Safety Act). Consumer interests in developed countries are represented by several
sets of organizations with different concerns. Moreover, compared with the hyper-connected world we live
in today, in the past greater efforts were required to mobilize consumers for consumerism actions such as
protests, boycotts, calls for policy change, and demands for more government regulations.
The purpose of this study is to develop a testable model of consumerism. The goal is to understand why
some consumers go beyond the norm to engage in consumerism behaviors. To this end, a consumerism
model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was developed. The research provides the first set
of data and the first quantitative analysis regarding consumerism behaviors in conjunction with the use of
an online platform (Twitter) among American consumers.
The developed model explained consumerism behaviors. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the
level of intent to engage in consumerism behaviors
_________________________________________________________________________________
Othman Althawadi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Marketing, College of Business & Economics, Qatar University, P.O.Box
2713, Doha – Qatar, Phone: + 974 4403 7740, Email: oalthawadi@qu.edu.qa