Consumer Materialism in the Context of Changes in the Consumption Environment

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to integrate ideas on consumer materialism in the context of recent changes in the consumption environment. These changes include development of digitalization, the spread of sharing and other forms of consumption that do not involve legal ownership of goods, and the prevalence of anti-materialistic values such as minimalism. Changes in the consumption environment are sometimes evaluated as a phenomenon symbolizing the weakening of materialism in the consumer society, which may be problematic due to its various harmful effects. This paper critically examines the optimistic view of weakening of materialism through a review of early studies on materialism and recent studies focusing on changes in the consumption environment. It then provides a perspective that uses the concept of materialism to better understand consumer behavior and the state of the current consumer society.