The influence of money attitudes on young Chinese consumers' compulsive buying

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how young Chinese consumers' money attitudes influence their compulsive buying behavior.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 303 undergraduate students from Tianjin and Ningbo (two major cities in coastal China) answered a self‐administered questionnaire.FindingsMoney attitudes were found to significantly affect young Chinese consumers' compulsive buying behaviour. Specifically, the Retention‐Time dimension significantly affected both male and female consumers' compulsive buying. However, the Power‐Prestige dimension only affected male consumers' compulsive buying. Finally, the Quality dimension had a greater impact on male than on female consumers' compulsive buying.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected in two major cities in the coastal region of China. Given the differences between coastal and inland China, caution must be taken when generalizing the research results to young consumers from inland China.Practical implicationsThe discussion of the relationships between young Chinese consumers' money attitudes and their compulsive buying will help marketers and policy makers to better understand these consumers' spending behaviour. Thus, marketers can identify new market opportunities and form marketing strategies to target young consumers in China. On the other hand, policy makers can also form more effective education strategies to help young consumers to spend wisely.Originality/valueDifferent from previous research in money attitudes and compulsive behaviour, the research provides an in‐depth overview of how male and female young Chinese consumers perceive money and how their beliefs about money affect their spending.