PhD Oral Exam - Dandan Fang, Business Administration

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the influence of subjective socioeconomic status (SSES) on consumers’ decision making in conspicuous, impulsive, and compulsive consumption. It comprises three essays. The first essay examines whether and how SSES impacts conspicuous consumption decisions. Two studies reveal that SSES drives consumers’ conspicuous purchases via a sense of entitlement, and that this effect of SSES is stronger for consumers who are higher in trait achievement vanity. The second essay examines SSES effects that are potentially harmful for consumer well-being. It posits that SSES drives both impulsive and compulsive buying through a sense of entitlement and price sensitivity and proposes that this effect is amplified in more materialistic consumers. The third essay focuses on potentially beneficial outcomes of SSES in terms of consumer well-being. It examines to what extent SSES buffers both impulsive and compulsive buying through a sense of control and investigates whether SSES effects strengthen for consumers who have a greater perceived power. In each essay, the hypothesized relationships between SSES and impulsive and compulsive buying are supported by results of one cross-sectional study and one experimental study. In line with previous literature, this dissertation shows that the relationship between SSES and consumer decisions is consistent and independent from objective socioeconomic status (OSES) effects.