THE EFFECT OF PERSONALITY TRAITS ON COMPULSIVE BUYING BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between compulsive buying and the big five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, intellect and neuroticism). Methodology/sample - This study is a quantitative study embodying a self-administered questionnaire with a sample of 400 respondents. All respondents were above 18 years of age. The survey was conducted in the leading shopping malls of Karachi. To analyze the data Linear Regressionwas applied. Findings - The analysis of the data indicated a positive relationship between compulsive buying and the big five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, intellect and neuroticism). Strongest relationship was observed between conscientiousness and compulsive buying (R=.956; P=.000), followed by Neuroticism (R= .962; P=.000), intellect with R-.959; P=.000, agreeableness with R=.879; P=.000 and lastly extraversion with r=.829; P=.000. Practical Implications - The findings from this research might help the marketers ’ judge compulsive buyers and can devise strategies to maximize their selling by targeting compulsive buying after studying their purchase behavior.