Cognitive Age and Consumption Pattern among Aging Population - Moderating Impact of Self Confidence and Social Involvement

Abstract

Pakistan has become one of the exciting markets for marketers due to the paradigm shift of the market, reduced regulation, and privatization of several enterprises. Despite several research studies on consumer behaviors, few researchers have studied the change in elderly consumers' choices and their behavior in the rapidly changing market. Therefore, this research investigates the influence of cognitive age on loyalty proneness, status consumption, and materialism level for Pakistani elders. It evaluates if social involvement and self-confidence can moderate these relationships. Elderly consumers residing in Karachi were the target population for carrying out data collection. The complete data collection process took 25 days, with completion of 710 questionnaires, out of which 676 were deemed reliable for this research study. The study results indicated that the Pakistani elderly with a younger cognitive age appear to be more materialistic and more driven to status consumption or vice versa. The results of the study did not indicate any significant relationship between loyalty proneness and cognitive age. The moderating influence of self-confidence for H1a (Materialism) and H3a (Loyalty to brand or product) in elderly consumers is significant.

On the contrary, H2a (Status Consumption) was rejected, as self-confidence does not act as a moderator. For the hypotheses H1b Materialism), H2b (Status Consumption), and H3b (Social Involvement with Loyalty to brand or product), the moderating influence produced by social involvement in the case of senior consumers are found to be significant. This research has provided a more significant contribution to ever-needed research in the Pakistani market, considering its market size and significance. This research will be a better contribution to the present literature. It can be useful to marketers as it provides valuable insights related to the seniors' consumption experience in the Pakistani market.

Keywords: Cognitive Age, Materialism, Loyalty Proneness, Elderly, Consumers, Senior Market