The impact of religion and modernity on luxury consumption in an Arabian Gulf community: does self-construal matter?

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the simultaneous impact of religion and modernity on attitude toward luxury consumption in Qatar, with emphasis on the mediating effect of self-construal. The authors propose the idea that self-construal is a significant mediator through which religion and modernity influence attitude toward luxury consumption. Design/methodology/approach: The data for this study are sourced from a survey of 190 Qatari respondents. The conceptual model is estimated using both the covariance-based and the partial least squares structural equation modeling techniques for the purpose of robustness check. Findings: The results indicate that religion has a positive and significant association with both independent and interdependent self-construal. The impact of modernity on independent self-construal is positive and significant, while its effect on interdependent self-construal is not significant, implying that modernity has no impact on individuals’ interdependence in the Gulf communities. Moreover, the results reveal that self-construal significantly mediates the effect of both religiosity and modernity on luxury consumption attitude, as expected. Originality/value: The originality of this article lies in investigating the impact of religion and modernity on attitude toward luxury consumption through the self-construal paradigm. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study examining the simultaneous impact of religion and modernity in a Muslim community, from a self-construal perspective. Second, unlike the prior studies, this paper addresses the issue of non-normality in the data using the maximum likelihood robust estimator.