Emerging Consumer Types in a Transition Culture: Consumption Patterns of Generational and Ethnic Groups in Estonia

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Acknowledgements

The preparation of this essay was supported by grant No. 6968, financed by the Estonian Science Foundation, and grant No. SF0180017s07, financed by the Estonian Governmental Scientific Research Support Scheme.

Notes

Notes

1 The Index of Actual Individual Consumption, provided by Eurostat, is comprised of household final consumption expenditure, as well as consumption of individual services (for example, health and education).

2 The index of consumerism summarized positive answers to questions on 11 consumption practices and preferences. Each positive answer added one point to the index, with the scale ranging from zero to 11: having clothes tailor-made, preference for certain clothing brands, buying clothing abroad, considering fit of clothing more important than price, considering brand of clothing more important than price, following a specific style of home decoration, having a personal hairdresser, having a personal cosmetician, having a personal masseur, regular gym-going and doing aerobics.

3 The sub-index of use of sustainable solutions summarized positive answers to nine questions on using sustainable solutions in housekeeping. Each positive answer added one point to the index, with the scale ranging from zero to nine: sustainable car fuels, energy-saving household machines, energy-saving light bulbs, recycled paper, ‘Green Energy’ option in electricity consumption, composter, sustainable household chemistry (for example, non-synthetic or phosphate-free washing powder), water-saving mixers (with interrupters) or something else.

4 The index of valuation of brands summarized a respondent's agreement with two assertions: ‘The brands someone consumes tell a lot about the person’ and ‘It is important to me what impression the brands I consume make’ (the answer ‘I totally agree’ added two points to the index; ‘I rather agree’ added one point; the scale ranges from zero to four).

5 The index of protectionism of children against advertising and consumption summarized a respondent's agreement with three assertions: ‘Children are defenseless in the face of advertising and it is easy to manipulate them’; ‘Advertising targeted at children is harmful; it increases excessive consumerism’; and ‘Children should be kept away from all kinds of advertising and shopping malls, because consumer society corrupts children’ (‘I totally agree’ added two points to the index; ‘I rather agree’ added one point; the index scale ranges from zero to six).

6 In following normal distribution, the original indices of consumerism and sustainable consumption were reduced to short and comparable scales ranging from ‘0–missing’ to ‘5–very high’, in the case of consumerism, and from ‘1–very low’ to ‘5–very high’, in case of sustainable consumption.