Intrinsic motivations, self-esteem, and luxury goods consumption

Despite the dramatic growth of the luxury market over the past two decades, luxury consumer research remains fragmentary and scant. To address this knowledge gap, this study investigates consumers' intrinsic motivations for purchasing luxury goods. Data were collected from 587 consumers and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show that consumers who are primarily intrinsically motivated tend to purchase luxury products for superior quality and self-directed pleasure. The findings also demonstrate that self-esteem, an important concept in psychology and consumer behavior but rarely studied in luxury research, relates strongly to self-directed pleasure.

► Intrinsic motivations are positively related to quality search and self-directed pleasure.
► Self-esteem is positively related to self-directed pleasure.
► Intrinsic motivations are negatively related to conspicuous consumption behavior.