Exploring the Motives behind Festive Occasion Consumption – An Intergenerational Perspective

Traditionally, societies participate in festive occasions. The origins of these festivals and celebrations can be religious such as those which are sacred, social, or cultural. Most of the major festivities around the world have their origins in religious beliefs. For example, Christmas by Christians, Hanukah by Jews, and Ramadan by Muslims. Previous literature has shed light on peoples’ consumption behaviours and emotions during such occasions, especially literature regarding Christmas. Studies have linked Christmas to subjective well-being (Mutz, 2016), to the construction of social class identities (Pitts et al., 2015), to creating hedonic (Tynan and McKechnie, 2009) and social (McKechnie and Tynan, 2006) meaning to Christmas, and as a way of creating meaning to Christmas by understanding the sacred and secular consumption paradox within the festivity (Tynan and McKechnie, 2005).

This thesis attempts to explore the motivations behind Egyptian’s consumption during the festive occasion (FO) of Ramadan. In addition to exploring and understanding the intergenerational influence and the intention-behavioural gap between an old and young generation. Such exploration provides an insightful distinction between each generation, including their personal motives for consumption, which shapes their intentions to behave and their actual consumption behaviour during the festivity. A multi-method qualitative study is chosen to carry out the research by carrying out focus groups and interviews. The majority of analysed date was generated based on interviews with the young (20-44 years old) and old generation (45-70 years old), 20 interviews are conducted with the young and old generation pre-Ramadan and another 20 follow-up interviews are conducted post-Ramadan. Data is then transcribed, and content analysis is employed as the method of analysis. This process was completed using NVivo - a computer assisted program.

Findings indicated the main themes are extrinsic motivation, friends influence, buying pattern, intrinsic motivation, rituals of festive occasion celebrations, Ramadan budget and food expenditure, online purchase, financial aspects, and religiosity, which reflect the different influences on buying behaviour especially in occasions like Ramadan in different age groups, in addition to how they differ from one generation to the other. For example, extrinsic motivation is present more in the old generation than the young generation, while intrinsic motivation and online purchase is found to be present more in the young generation. The main motivations of festive occasion consumption for both generations are also explored.

The current study has a dual contribution with theoretical and practical implications. It contributes theoretically through identifying the personal motivations of both generations, developing understanding of the intention-behavioural gaps in the young generation and the emergence of two integrative models for festive occasion consumption (a model for the young generation and a model for the old generation). In terms of its practical contribution, the study serves as a guide for businesses through typifying the specific consumer segments of the old and young generation through their personal motivation characteristics, leading such businesses to be able to offer their segments more specific marketing strategies. Furthermore, the study also identifies a range of themes for further research, including the importance of investigating how the consumer behaviour surrounding Ramadan can vary strongly not only with and between Western countries, but also between different Muslim countries.