Compulsive buying behavior of Smartphones by university students.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have analyzed compulsive buying behavior in relation to a specific product. Smartphones are hugely popular products today, especially among young people. These two aspects have motivated this research into the compulsive buying behavior of Smartphones by university students.

METHODS: To study this behavior, the main features that differentiate compulsive buyers from those that are not are analyzed, and their risk profiles are obtained through a discrete choice model.

RESULTS: Sociodemographic features that define buyers with the greatest propensity to compulsiveness are younger age, longer time spent daily using social networks, higher spending on the acquisition of Smartphones and having owned a greater number of these devices. These buyers also show shopping addiction and greater feelings of guilt after the purchase as well as more positive and negative affective states when purchasing Smartphones.

CONCLUSIONS: This analysis not only determines the characteristics that define young individuals with a tendency toward compulsiveness in Smartphone purchases, but also contributes to quantifying the probability of having this tendency.