How Are Material Values and Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyle Related to Attitudes and Intentions toward Commercial Sharing during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Evidence from Japan

This paper attempts to elucidate how material values (MV) and voluntary simplicity lifestyle (VSL) are related to Japanese consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward commercial sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides the following findings by employing the two-step structural equat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2022-07, Vol.14 (13), p.7812
Main Author: Lee, Kyung-Tae
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Buying
Consciousness
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Consumption
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Ethics
Happiness
Impact analysis
Lifestyles
Materialism
Multivariate statistical analysis
Norms
Pandemics
Personal development
Sharing economy
Success
Sustainability
Values
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Summary:This paper attempts to elucidate how material values (MV) and voluntary simplicity lifestyle (VSL) are related to Japanese consumers’ attitudes and intentions toward commercial sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides the following findings by employing the two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to analyze the data (n = 750) collected in Japan during the pandemic from people with no experience in commercial sharing. (1) MV has a positive effect on attitudes. (2) VSL is divided into “simplicity,” “long-term usage,” and “planned buying.” (3) Simplicity and planned buying are negatively related to MV, but long-term usage is not significantly related to MV. (4) Simplicity and long-term usage significantly affect attitudes, whereas planned buying does not. (5) Attitudes and subjective norms have positive effects on intentions. Consequently, two conflicting consumption orientations, MV and VSL, positively affect consumers’ responses toward commercial sharing in a pandemic context. The author suggests that although the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic exists now, the sharing economy can still contribute to enhancing sustainability and alleviating technological inequality by attracting people with different values and lifestyles.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su14137812