Diagnostic Screener for Compulsive Buying: Applications to the USA and South Korea

Compulsive behavior is an important topic for social scientists. One form of this behavior is compulsive buying. Using data sets from two countries, the USA and South Korea, the Diagnostic Screener for Compulsive Buying (DSCB) (Faber and O'Guinn 1992) is tested with specific emphasis on the scale's cross-cultural transferability. We find evidence that the DSCB is unidimensional in the USA and bi-dimensional in South Korea, suggesting a lack of transferability. Potential cultural reasons for the findings are discussed in detail as well as the implications for public policy and future research. ********** Compulsive buying behavior has been defined as a repetitive response to an uncontrollable drive or desire to obtain, use, or experience a feeling, substance, or activity (O'Guinn and Faber 1989). The study of compulsive buying is important since the behavior can cause harm to the individual and/or others and can be a drain on society. In extreme cases, compulsive buyers can spend more money than they have, destroying their lives and the lives of their families (d'Astous 1990; Faber and O'Guinn 1992; Rindfleisch, Burroughs, and Denton 1997). Even at moderate levels, compulsive buying has been found to be related to other compulsive behaviors, such as alcoholism and eating disorders (d'Astous 1990; Faber et al. 1995). Materialism is a pervasive human trait, so compulsive buying is regarded as a global phenomenon. The behavior has been investigated in different cultures such as Germany (Scherhorn, Reisch, and Raab 1990), Canada (d'Astous, Maltais, and Roberge 1990), Mexico (Roberts and Sepulveda 1999; Roberts 1997), and even an Eastern culture, Korea (Lyi, Lee, and Kwak 1997a). In order to assess consumers' pathological buying patterns, Faber and O'Guinn (1992) created the seven-item Diagnostic Screener for Compulsive Buying (DSCB) using US consumers as test subjects. Since its development, the DSCB has been frequently applied in the consumer behavior literature (see Table 1 for a summary of major studies investigating compulsive buying behavior using DSCB). Scale dimensionality is an important issue, especially when using a scale in an applied setting. The DSCB has been found to be unidimensional when administered in the US (Faber and O'Guinn 1992; Cole and Sherrell 1995). However, when the DSCB was applied to Mexican consumers, it was found to be bi-dimensional (Roberts and Sepulveda 1999), but this difference was not explored further in the paper. To our knowledge, there has been no research specifically examining differences in the dimensionality of DSCB within different cultures. The purpose of the present study, therefore, is to find whether the original dimensionality of DSCB transfers intact into a dissimilar cultural setting. That is, the transferability of the original unidimensionality of DSCB was investigated in two different cultures: the USA and Korea. Data were collected simultaneously from the two nations studied. DIAGNOSTIC SCREENER FOR COMPULSIVE BUYING Faber and O'Guinn (1992) developed the DSCB using US consumers in order to identify specific behaviors, motivations, and feelings associated with compulsive buying behavior (see Table 3). Logistic regression was chosen to produce the final seven-item scale from the initial twenty-nine items covering a wide range of issues such as psychological and behavioral correlates and outcomes of compulsive buying. Faber and O'Guinn (1992) confirmed the unidimensionality of the scale using principal components factor analysis. They reported that a single factor explained 64 percent of the total variance and items had an average factor loading of . 79. The authors also reported high internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach's alpha = .95). Subsequent researchers have used the DSCB in the USA and other countries, both as a diagnostic tool to distinguish compulsive buyers from normal consumers (Faber and Christenson 1996; Faber et al. …