Conspicuous Consumption and Rural Poverty in Farming Community: An Empirical Investigation based on Two DS Divisions in Kurunegala District in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Researchers and Practitioners have been interested in the field of conspicuous consumption (CC) for the past few decades. Much of these works have been concerned with defining and measuring the CC tendencies among leisure class. Less effort has been directed toward determining the factors that underlie the tendency to consume conspicuously by ‘less income earners’, such as small-scale farmers (SCFs). This paper examines empirically the relationship between CC tendencies and rural poverty in farming community in Kurunegala district based on the hypothesis that there is a strong relationship between the CC and status of poverty among farmers. The reasons for selecting the Kurunegala district for analysis were, amongst the others: it is the third biggest district in Sri Lanka with 30 Divisional Secretariats; the nominal poverty line is Rs. 3,667, which is Rs.328 below the national average; as a percentage of total population of Sri Lanka, it has 7.3% of the population, and the majority of them are engage in agriculture. This study identifies several different types of circumstances and sensory stimuli that serve as cues for triggering CC. A wide range of journal databases and books were referred to review the works of various researchers in this field. 260 households who can provide information on these criteria were selected from two Divisional Secretariats, namely: (1) Galgamuwa, and (2) Nikaweratiya using Stratified Random Sampling techniques. Each household was interviewed, personally and in-depth, with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule. The ordered Logistic regression techniques were used for statistical analysis. The results suggest that there is a significant relationship between CC and poverty among farming community. The paper will be useful for marketing practitioners and researchers towards comprehensive understanding of the CC in farming community.