African Journal of Business Management Vol.6 (49), pp. 11809-11818, 12 December, 2012 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJBM DOI: 10.5897/AJBM11.1870 ISSN 1993-8233 ©2012 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper The impact of materialism on compulsive consumption in Pakistan Shahid Rasool 1 *, Asif Kiyani 2 , Jamshed khan Khattak 2 , Ahsan Ahmed 2 and Mah-a-Mobeen Ahmed 1 1 Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan. 2 Faculty of Management Sciences, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Accepted 5 August, 2011 The aim of this learning was to inspect the relationship between materialism and compulsive consumption and how materialism affects the consumer behavior in term of compulsive consumption. Materialism and compulsive consumption both are relevant to each other which increase the consumer materialistic approach. Questionnaires were administrated among the consumers of Pakistan. The character of this research was cross-sectional and co-relational. Data were collected via questionnaire and sample size was 100 consumers. Materialism and compulsive consumption were measured on the behalf of consumers. The research was narrow down for controlling the real essence of this research. Regarding this limitation the study is conducted on the consumer. Owning to the time span convenient sampling was used. On the practical level the present study helps entrepreneurs and marketers to consider these factors (defining success, acquisition of centrality and pursuit of happiness) when they are targeting consumers. The result indicated that the materialism as well as having direct impact on compulsive consumption also affects consumer behavior regarding consumption pattern. Key words: Materialism, compulsive consumption, consumer behavior, Pakistan. INTRODUCTION Compulsive buying has an important area of study in consumer behavior research. There are a number of fundamental features familiar in different types of compulsive behaviors (Anderson and Brown, 1984; Miller, 1980; Russell, 1979). These take in bodily and/or mental dependence on the essence or movement, as well as frequent loss of managing regarding the behavior and consequent intervention with normal life functions. There are other common features include the presence of a drive, inclination or support to engage in the behavior; disagreement of the injurious consequences of ongoing the behavior; and repeated failure in efforts to control or adapt the behavior. The general meaning of compulsive behavior is often used as a coping with stress, avoiding demands and force or to overcome disagreeable emotions *Corresponding author. E-mail: Shahid.Rasool24@gmail.com. Tel: 0092333-6957275. or situations. Habitually a lowered intelligence of self worth is present. Unreliable evidence and this preliminary research indicate that this distinctiveness is generally present in compulsive consumers. Materialism is defined as the significance a person affiliate to material belongings and the conviction that specific possessions are the new source of contentment. Materialism predict as desire, possessiveness, and acquisitiveness (Belk, 1985; Ger and Belk, 1996) put in a defense dimension that are the sign of success as begin central to life that are the source of happiness (Richins and Dawson, 1992). Materialism is commonly treated as bad impression on people. The people who belong to materialism are not as happy as those not in materialism (Richins and Dawson, 1992). According to Wilson (1999) finding the parents are the main source for transferring the materialism to their children same as colleagues are influenced when 8 brands are near to people for its selection. In term of marketing prospective brands drive the materialism in the customer