Does materialism influence dog-owner relationship? : a study among Maltese dog-owners and their relationship with their canine companion

Abstract

The dog-human relationship is a unique bond that characterizes human behaviour as an aspect of culture and society, acknowledge by academics to date back to prehistoric times. This relationship is characterised by seven dimensions that explain how individuals bond themselves to their canine companion. Despite the fact some academic attention in marketing has been devoted to the doghuman relationship, present understanding about this relationship remains under developed largely because research is typically focused on US dog owners. This notion means that large opportunities for further exploration on the dog-human relationship exist. This study seeks to fill address such one such opportunity. It relates to the impact of materialism on the characteristics of the dog-owner relationship. Materialism (general and personal) is a subset of the values that guides human consumption – a notion that received remarkable attention in marketing for decades. However, there is no knowledge about how materialism impacts on dog owners and their choices. This study takes a cross-sectional approach to measure the influence of materialism on the characteristics of the dog-owner relationship. Among 102 dog owners, this study finds that general materialism has a significant impact on the caring character of the symbiotic relationship, dog-oriented self-concept and high-value specialty purchases dimensions of the dog-owner relationship. Both general and personal materialism have a significant influence on the anthropomorphism dimension of the dog-owner relationship. Equally importantly, this study also finds that the link between materialism and the dog-owner relationship is influenced by the owner’s gender, age and location of residence. These findings have strong implications in terms of how dog owners’ manifest their consumption choices as well as how marketers need to orient their marketing programs in effectively targeting dog owners.