Brand addiction and compulsive buying in female consumers' relationships with food brands

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to respond to the call for exploring and empirically testing both antecedents and outcomes of brand addiction and compulsive buying behaviour. The focus of the study is on the food habits of young female consumers.Design/methodology/approachTo test the hypotheses, a survey design gathering cross-sectional primary data from 325 female Italian consumers and a structural equation modelling have been adopted.FindingsFindings show that brand addiction is positively influenced by consumer resilience, leading to increased life happiness and self-esteem, while compulsive buying behaviour is negatively influenced by consumer resilience and positively influenced by impulsivity. Compulsive buying is also associated with brand addiction and emotional overeating. Emotional overeating is additionally influenced by impulsivity and the control variables of enjoyment of food and loneliness. Moreover, loneliness has a negative impact on life happiness and self-esteem.Originality/valueThe study applies the proposed theory by Mrad and Cui (2020) on the relationship between brand addiction and compulsive buying to food consumption. Furthermore, it expands on this research by investigating consumer characteristics as determinants and behavioural outcomes.