“Social Business Conference"
Eskisehir, Turkey
June 11-13, 2015.
Which Factors are Related to Voluntary
Simplicity Lifestyle? Green Values,
Materialistic Values or Anything Else?
Presentation by:
Hakan KIRACI
Dumlupinar University, Turkey
The concept of voluntary
simplicity (VS)
respresents voluntarily limiting using all
kinds of resources and adoption of a
nonmaterialistic lifestyle
Sides of
Voluntary Simplicity
Behaviors
Limiting the use
natural resources
Paying spiritual wellbeing importance
Freely choosing the
eco-friendly
consumption
Very important movement in
terms of the future of our World
hyperconsumption
Overconsumption
Injustice income
distribution
Environmental
degradation
We need
solutions
Voluntary
Simplicity
Dominant
Consumer Culture
Carrying capacity
of nature
Values
Paying spiritual wellbeing importance
Life-style
Buying
behaviors
Voluntary
Simplicity
Environmental
involvement
Environmental
attitudes
Demographic
factors
Religious
beliefs
Examples
• Prefering organic and local products
• Repairing instead of buying a new one
• Walking or riding a bike instead of getting
on the bus or driving a car
• Hiring or sharing the products instead of
buying them
• Prefer using his mobile phone for 3-5
years rather than renew it annually or
biennially
METHOD
The main aim of the study is
• to analyse the relationship between
specific factors and the frequency of
voluntary simplicity behaviors
Hypotheses of the study
Obsessive
Buying
Green Values
H1
Frugality
H2
H5
VS
H3
Materialistic
Values
H4
Impulse
Buying
• Population: Class Teachers working in Tekirdağ,
Turkey
• Sample: 463 Class Teachers
• Data collection method: Questionnaire
• Used a 5 point scale
• Analyse Pearson Correlation
Scales of the study are
• Voluntary simplicity behaviors (LeonardBarton, 1981; Huneke, 2005; Iwata, 2006)
• Materialistic values (Rishins, 1987)
• Frugality tendency (Lastovicka et al.,1999)
• Compulsive buying behaviors (Ridgway et
al., 2008)
• Green values (Haws et al., 2014)
FINDINGS
Sample Characteristics
• 58.5% of respondents were female,
41.5% were male,
• 70.7% were in 26-45 age-group
• 75.6% had monthly income between
2001-5000 Turkish Liras
• The most crowded group was the group
of 2001-3000 TL with 146 respondents
(31.5%)
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Practices
Mean Response
I Make gifts instead of buying
2,31
I ride a bicycle for exercise or recreation
2,36
I recycle newspapers used at home
3,72
I recycle glass, jars or bottles used at home
3,84
I have gotten instruction in skills to increase self-reliance, for example, in carpentry, car tune-up and 2,97
repair, or plumbing
I buy furniture at a second-hand store
1,70
I make furniture or clothing for the family
2,11
I contribute to ecologically-oriented organizations (such as Greenpeace, TEMA, etc.)
2,68
2,58
3,59
3,92
12
I grow the vegetables the family consumes during the summer season
I do not impulse buying
When I shop, I decide to do so after serious consideration of whether an article is necessary to me or
not
I am more concerned with mental growth and fulfillment than with material affluence
13
Except for travelling, I enjoy my leisure time without spending too much Money
3,49
14
15
16
Material affluence is very important to me (-)
I prefer products with simple functions to those with complex functions
I am the type of person who continues using something old as long as it can be still be used
3,47
3,73
3,75
17
18
19
I try to use articles which I bought as long as possible
If I am surrounded by what I have bought, I feel fortunate
I want to buy something new shortly after it comes out, even if I have a similar thing already (-)
4,14
3,31
3,88
20
I want to live simply rather than extravagantly
21
Since a simple life is miserable, I do not want to live such a life (-)
22
I limit to exposure to ads
23
I buy from socially responsible producers
24
I buy from local merchants
25
I limit or eliminate to watch TV
26
I maintain a spiritual life
27
I buy organic foods
All Practices
3,93
3,93
3,81
3,17
3,79
3,59
3,16
3,64
3,58
3,34
Mean Response Regarding The Scales of The Study
Scales
Mean Response
Green Values
3,96
Frugality Tendecy
3,73
Impulse Buying
2,17
Obsessive Buying
2,00
Personal Materialism
3,22
Voluntary Simplicity
3,34
Self-determination
3,82
Self-sufficiency
2,11
Recycling
3,78
Ecological awareness
3,65
Limit to TV/Ads
3,16
Cronbach Alpha Values >.70
Analysing Pearson Correlation
Voluntary simplicity behaviors
VS
Green Values
0,557 *
Frugality
0,466 *
Personal materialism
-0,143 *
Impulse buying
-0,385 *
Obsessive buying
-0,277 *
*
p<0,05
Five Subtypes of VS
VS1
VS2
VS3
VS4
VS5
Green Values
0,474
0,147
0,419
0,490
0,168
Frugality
0,487
----
0,323
0,300
0,144
Personal materialism
-0,197
----
----
----
----
Impulse buying
-0,514
----
-0,234
-0,210
----
Obsessive buying
-0,474
-0,131
-0,194
----
----
p<0,05
Black cells: p>0,05
VS1: Self-determination
VS2: Self-sufficiency
VS3: Recycling
VS4: Ecological awareness
VS5: Limit to TV / Ads
CONCLUSION
• A great number of study shows the importance of VS
behavior for future of the World
• The results of this research exposed that it required to
be strive to increase the frequency of some of VS
behaviors such as “buying second-hand products” and
making gift or clothing.
• Green values and tendecy of frugality were positively
related to VS behavior
• Personal materialistic values, impulse buying behavior
and obsessive buying behavior were negatively related
to VS
CONCLUSION (2)
• Green values are related to all subtypes of
VS behaviors
• Personal materialistic values are
negatively related to only «selfdetermination»
• Green values are the most important
factor in variables of model of the study
Reccommendations
• This study can be detailed and covered with huge and
different segments of society and proved its findings.
• At the same time, VS behavior can be analyzed within
the different perspectives such as economic, ecologic,
social and psychologic dimensions.
• We did not explored all kind of value, belief and other
factors that may affect VS. In our study, VS was studied
by measuring frequency of behaviors.
• More research is needed to confirm the findings and
results of present study.
Thank you