Precursors of status consumption and life satisfaction: A case of smartphones among the Generation Y cohort Mr TM Sithole Marketing Division University of the Witwatersrand https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8963-6632 Prof N Chiliya Department of Business Management University of Venda https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1900-7248 Dr ET Maziriri Department of Business Management University of the Free State maziririet@ufs.ac.za http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8047-4702 Dr M Mapuranga School of Managerial Leadership The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4402-5600 ABSTRACT This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the infuence of materialism, need for uniqueness, consumer ethnocentrism, modern status orientation on status consumption and life satisfaction among Generation Y smartphone student consumers. Based on a positivist epistemological approach, a questionnaire was developed and successfully administered to Generation Y student consumers who were based in the Johannesburg Metropolitan area of the Gauteng province, South Africa. A structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure was applied to perform the hypotheses testing using the AMOS (version 25.0) package. Overall, the current study fndings provide tentative support to the proposition that materialism, need for uniqueness and modern status orientation should be recognized as signifcant antecedents for status consumption and life satisfaction in South Africa. It emerged that consumer ethnocentrism positively infuence status consumption but has an insignifcant infuence on status consumption. It is also worth noting that there was a strong connection between status consumption and life satisfaction. The fndings of this empirical study are expected to provide fruitful implications to both practitioners and academicians. This study, therefore, stand to contribute new knowledge to the existing body of marketing management literature in Africa – a context that is often most neglected by some researchers in developing countries. INTRODUCTION Consumers use status symbols to convey and communicate diferent meanings to the outside world (i.e., social or economic standing) about themselves (Cronje, Jacobs, & Retief, 2016). Similarly, individuals make conclusions about the success of others based partly on the material things that they own (Richins, 2004). Research has pointed out that the desire of consumers to ascend the social status ladder represents a preference for material goods (Alana, 2003) and is refected in their patterns of consumption (O’Cass & McEwen, 2004; Clark Zboja & Goldsmith, 2007). Consumers participate in state consumption by buying products with inherited status representation (Goldsmith & Clark, 2012). Status consumption is the mechanism used by consumers to gain status or social prestige by purchasing and consuming goods that the customer and their signifcant others fnd to be high in status, in particular with regard to items such as beauty products (Goldsmith, Flynn & Kim, 2010). According to Dubois and Ordabayeva (2015), status consumption may serve various important roles, namely an associative role that allows individuals to identify with desirable groups, a dissociative role when consumers want to dissociate themselves from undesirable groups, a compensatory role, compensate for psychological threats and -the uncertainty in social and economic interactions. Marketers and retailers dealing with status items need to better understand factors driving status consumption to