Methodology
Reasoning for choice of research method
The study was based on two qualitative research paradigms defined by the grounded theory and the ethnographic approaches. The aim was to systematically analyse consumer behaviour with excessive spending habits. The framework of the study was defined by the study objectives, which include an investigation of personality disorders linked with the compulsive buying behaviors, investigation of whether compulsive behavior is a personality disorder, and to determine whether compulsive behavior is a lifestyle behavior as opposed to the personality disorder using the Hermeneutic Unit (HU) approach that provides the practical and theoretical foundation to structure the data and to analyze the data (Heath & Cowley, 2004). Typically, the approach was based on an analysis of the data that is based on observations, interviews and opinions, views, experiences, and observations made of primary data (Homayoun & Moghaddam, 2007).
The second phase of the study was based on establishing whether the primary data appropriately addressed the research objectives and that it was conducted by refining the quotations and memos that were provided in the text of the study and the responses to the questions (Homayoun & Moghaddam, 2007). Here, the solution was to create a table of the quotations and words, phrases, and expressions based on different dimension of the phrases, expressions, and words in an iterative manner to ensure consistency and validity of the results. Figure 1 below provides a conceptual illustration of the steps that the analysis of data was based on, when working with ‘ATLAS. ti’. It is clear from the onset that by categorising the words, phrases, expressions, experiences, and other elements in the table for the analytical purpose, it became necessary and important to classify the items as related objects that were referred to as quasi dichotomous variables. It was important to understand the meaning of each element used in the analysis data. For instance, quotations were important because they provided the series of statements to portray the meaning of the identifiers assigned to make it easy to analyse. Here, it was important to note that different quotations exist and include the text or graphic quotations, but in this case the most frequently used was the text quotation in the study (Huberman & Miles,1994).
The tables were used to facilitate the coding process; the results (open coding) were used to identify distinct data categories to design the new questions to tackle unexplored areas (Huberman & Miles, 1994). In this case, the coding procedure was done based using the axial coding technique based on the grounded theory approach. The rationale was to be able to disintegrate the core themes of the research so that different elements in the study could be compared and merge using deductive and inductive thinking. Here, the crucial elements that were seen to be important in the study included clear identification of the phenomenon that were under investigations, which in this case was the compulsive behavior of the respondents under investigation, the condition that included the formation of troops and the need to rise to the required level to be recognized, and the strategies that were designed to handle the entire procedure (Lock, Agras, Bryson & Kraemer, 2005).
In the two categories of troops, it was established that the phenomenon could be addressed by using the quotations to capture the data that was presented in terms of the statements that were captured as statements and the use of appropriate methods to establish the key points that were identified to be in the statements presented by the respondents. In this case, there were three important coding strategies that contributed to the effective open code and included that open coding information was read repeatedly to come up with common themes that were used to develop the theory (Huberman & Miles, 1994). However, open coding provided the background top develop the axial coding technique that was adopted in the study. Here, the relationships that exist among the elements in the open code were identified to define axial coding. In each case, the results were obtained and each code was grouped in the same category to ensure that the common goals were identified and used (Lock et al., 2005).
Reasoning for sampling choice
The sampling strategy was critical in providing valid data for the study to address the research objectives precisely. A theoretical sampling strategy was used at this point because the approach provided the flexibility for the researcher to the select the type of data to collect and code that was appropriate to answer the underpinning theory that was used to explain the compulsive buyer behavior. It is important to note that the theoretical data sampling enabled the researcher to decide where to collect the data from and the respondents to provide the research data (Huberman & Miles, 1994). In each case, there were two critical characteristics of the target population used for the study that were defined by those players who spent a huge sums of money and time to gain dominance by assembling powerful troops for the battles and those who were classified as impotent because they committed less money in assembling troops for the battles. In both case, the problem was to study their behavior in spending money on the games identified for the study (Lock, Agras, Bryson & Kraemer, 2005).
Another core element of the study was to ensure that the nature of the sample was made consistent with the study paradigm because issues such as the variance of the characteristics of the target population that included the demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and income groups, the nationality of origin, and the occupation of the respondent were very important factors that influenced the compulsive behavioral outcomes of the target population. On the other hand, constructs of the study were assigned values such as N=200 for the consumer buyer behavior, N=100 for the dominant players, who also happened to belong to the kingdom that belonged to the category of those were very powerful (Huberman & Miles, 1994). On the other hand, it was decided that those on the weak alliance be assigned a value of N=100 so that a balance was established between those who were very powerful and those who were not very powerful. In order to make a balanced representation, each alliance was allowed to have N=100 troops only, that was equivalent to the allowable capacity.
In each case, it was necessary for each alliance to recruit members using prescribed rules of engagement. For instance, to qualify to join the most powerful alliance in the kingdom, it was necessary for a player to enhance their power to the specific level of over 100 million because the most powerful member of the alliance had a 500 million power. Such power was necessary to demonstrate the strength of the kingdom. On the other side, it was deemed necessary for those who participated in such a powerful alliance to increase the frequency if battles as a requisite to being recognized as a string member of the kingdom. To make observations and correct conclusions about the study, the researcher was compelled to join the kingdom by paying $1000 for the fulfillment of increasing the power to 94 million, which was one of the eligibility requirements (Lock eta al., 2005). Table 1 below shows the percentiles, the mean and standard deviation of the respondents in terms of age, gender, and educational status. In addition, it is possible to see that the range of the respondents in terms of age can be represented by the skewedness of the distribution of the age of the respondents (Lock eta al., 2005).
Reasoning for analytical method
The analytical method was important to generate valid answers to the research on the behavior of consumers who have had excessive spending behaviour over the Game that was used in the study. Based on the data collection strategies, it was important to use the most appropriate theory for data analysis (Heath & Cowley, 2004). The study evaluated and established that an ethnographic grounded theory analytical method was appropriate to provide answers to the research. The Ethnography approach was important because it allowed the researcher to collect and analyse data that was sufficiently valid to understand the behavior of the people in the game. On the other hand, it was deemed necessary to ensure that a holistic approach to incorporating the situation of the study such as the linguistics used and the contextual features in the arrangement of words. The evidence obtained from the interaction with the people is valid for analytical purposes because the language that was analyzed was composed of words, communication, opinions of the respondents, estimation of the outcomes, and discussions as the actions happened in the kingdom (Lock eta al., 2005). The rationale of using both the grounded theory and ethnographic analysis was that it was necessary to determine and understand the general behavior of the players. However, it is important to note that subsequent analysis of data was based in the prior analysis of preliminary data (Huberman & Miles, 1994).
On the other hand, it was necessary to ensure that the grounded theory was used because it enabled the researcher to discover certain issues such as providing an analytical schema to understand the relationship between the phenomenon and the outcomes of the phenomena based on the behavior of the players (Huberman & Miles, 1994). Here, the meaning and experience of the players were critical issues to factor in the analytical section because each participant was able to provide their perceptions about the study. Here, understanding of the phenomenon, theory was developed based on the explanation of the study, and the need to ground the categories used in the study to be able to ensure that no further categories emerged from the study. It is imperative no note that the grounded theory provide the researcher with the ability to begin the analysis by identifying the categories and the role that each category plays in understanding the behavior of the players when subjected to a specific environment. On the other hand, it was determined that the iterative nature of analysing the coded data was important in making it valid because they are always indicative of a specific meaning. In addition, it was important to use the categories because they played dual roles in enabling the classification of items with specific meanings (Mills, Bonner & Francis, 2008).
It is important to note that the first phase formed the foundation or datum for the second phase. The first phase relied mostly on analytic of preliminary data. The second phase was used to collect the responses of the participant using different tools such as emails to reach the intended audience (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). The rationale for starting the second phase was that the first phase had provided the researcher with sufficient items and data to develop the foundation for the second phase. In addition, the responses were solicited from those who participate in the game and who belong to each of the two alliances. The core elements investigated in the study were inclusive of spending behavior, spending patterns on the game, and the data collection method that specifically satisfied the study were group interviews and semi structured interviews (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003).
To ensure that the collected data was valid and reliable, it was necessary for the researcher to get directly involved in the study as a way to verify the responses through observations (Mills, Bonner & Francis, 2008). In addition, it was necessary to be present to affirm the identity of the players because fraud could lead to wrong answers and responses. The benefit of being present to make direct observations was to ensure that one-on-one interactions with the players could encourage them to talk openly about their experiences with the games and the influence the games had on their ways of life. The data collection procedure emerged as the next issue to tackle because it could provide the data required to address the research objective. Here, it was determined that coding be done on based on data collected using open ended questions that addressed areas that were perceived to be important in directing the nature of the study. In addition, it was deemed to be the starting point for the study because it was based on data collection that was done for over 10 months (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003).
The strategic approach of collecting and analysing data was executed by viewing and evaluating the statement made by different players on their experiences, tricks, and tactics they used to grow in their kingdoms to reach higher levels.it was possible to understand the commitment required for a player to rise from the lowest level to the higher and most powerful player (Mills et al., 2008). For instance, the growth rate was using an entry level of $100 pack per pack per an item relied on the tasks that were performed by the player. Such an approach ensured that the researcher was able to collect and analyze data on the speed of growth of the player and the resources required to achieve a certain level of growth in the kingdom. Here, the critical points of focus included building the searching, killing troops of the opponents, ensuring that the empire to which the player belongs grows, and investing the training of troops to be able to achieve the best performing troops. Analytically, each player was required to complete any one of the tasks for the city power was able to increase tremendously (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). In addition, it was established that the strength and abilities of the combatants could be improved by increasing the volume of information obtained by conducting research on the subject.
The strengths and weaknesses of the choices made
Here, the ethnographic grounded theory enabled the researcher to conduct a rigorous and systematic coding and analysis of the theoretical data, it enables the researcher to understand and be able to use the analysed data that was collected from the respondents and observations to develop the theory that could explain the compulsive behavior, and gradually, it enabled the researcher to guarantee the development of the theory on the behavior on consumer spending(Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). However, some of the weakness identified with the grounded theory is that it stops short of providing the researcher with the substance that is empirical in the development of the theory (Lock, et al., 2005).
Results
Here, the observations generated several answers to many questions that could arise such as providing answers on how certain actions influenced the attitudes and feelings towards the game among the competing members (Lock, et al., 2005). Here, the responses on how the participants felt about the games and how they managed the time available to play contributed significantly to the study. In general, the results were used to explain the buying behavior of the customers and how the customers spent their money in the games (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). A period of 10 months was deemed sufficient to compile enough data to draw valid conclusions about h the study and the data collection was done by making direct observations on the interpersonal relationships among the players, the type of discussion they held among themselves, how they resolved to participate in various events, the changes in power that occurred among the participants, the alliance they developed among themselves, and how their purchasing of especially the gold chest changed with time and power. In addition, the impact of the variables that were used to conduct the investigation on the life of the respondents was also investigated (Mills et al., 2008).
The first findings on the way people spent their time on the game showed that most of them preferred to log on to the social networking sites that host the games to gain access to the war games (Lock, et al., 2005). However, it was established that the participants developed obsession by developing a strong attitude and liking for the game when they started playing, making them spend more of their time on the games than in other normal life activities. Typically, the effects were experienced as changes in the inclination in behavior towards the games and each time person spent engaged on the game, the obsession for the game increased significantly (Mills et al., 2008). An observation on those players who had the aspiration to increase in power showed that they spent more time and resources such as money to gain more power. In addition, it was evident that those player who became obsessed with the game spent more money and time to grow rapidly besides using different techniques such as bullying and being aggressive in all their activities. However, some of the players were disadvantaged if they did not shoe aggressiveness because the more aggressive players forced them to spend more money and time to remain in the games and increase in power or quit the game.
For instance, one of the players narrated how he spent over 400 dollars to increase the power in the game in the category of the first alliances (Lock, et al., 2005). In the process, the player was promised that by working hard, they could increase the category of power by 20 million. Once the player subscribed to the game, it was soon realised that some rules in the game were kept changing, making it difficult to achieve the highest level. In addition, it was established that the here, the first alliance’s requirements were stringent because of the number of kills required to make progress. However, the other defensive alliance’s requirements were not stringent but it was risk to play with them because the plating situation was precarious.
The rationale for the precarious nature of the game was that if a player did not provide defence in time and was hit by the enemy, they were simply dismissed from the game. Being dismissed from the game had serious ramifications especially because the player paid a lot of money to join the game (Mills et al. 2008). The player continued to narrate that once he had joined the game, he took the option of joining both alliances to increase the chances of success and of increasing power and growing n any of the games as rapidly as possible. The rationale of investigating the player was to get the first hand information on how behaviour changed with the registration of the players in the game. In addition, it was necessary to make direct observations on how the emotions, behavior, and experience of the player changed with time. The need to ensure or to make clarifications on how to develop the best tricks to play the game motivated the player to indulge in the game.
The underpinning strength of the study was ethnography. Here, the rationale was to find how the data could be probed to establish the behavior of the players based on the data that was generated from the chartrooms, impulses, the lifestyle of the players, the motivating factors that were driving the players to indulge in the game, the use of social blogs, and the private messages communicated by the players added to the source of data that was needed by the researcher to make the correct deductions (Mills et al. 2008). Once the researcher made observations and deductions based on the experience of the player and players about the elements that were necessary to make the ethnographic study valid, the researcher took additional steps to establish the motivating factors that underpin the observed behaviors. On addition, it was necessary to conduct axial coding to determine the nature of the relationship that emerged between the concepts and the categories. Here, tie was necessary to investigate the behavior of the players based on the need to establish the motivating factors that made the players to buy the gold packs, how the players’ lifestyles influenced their buying strategies, the results of buyers committing resources to purchase certain packs, the emotional feelings that a player went through when one lost or won the game, and the reasons that led the players to commit a lot of time in the games (Huberman et al., 1994).
The analysis involved evaluating the links among the dimensions that had been explored and the relationship with the core categories that were observed to occur in the investigation. Additionally, a systematic review of empirical literature on the categories and the connection with other categories that already existed. However, it was established hat there were no additional categories that existed before. In addition, the additional categories that had existed on age and the buying behavior were investigated and the results showed that a median age of spenders to fall in the 38 age category (Huberman & Miles, 1994). The study revealed that most of the buyers indulged in excessive buying of items such as clothes, shoes and personal consumer products.
It was established that most of the players could opt not to purchase the basic products, but decide to spend a lot of their money to buy gold packages. Here, the main analytical tool was axial coding because it provided the researcher with the ability to identify the right relationships that existed among the players and the buying behavior exhibited. Here axial coding enabled the researcher to determine the best relationships and the reasons for the existence of the relationships among those who showed a strong obsession of buying gold packages (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). The validity of the results were based on analysing of the observed data and outcomes based on a table that was constructed to provide guidelines on how data could be analyzed to establish empirical evidence on the findings. In addition to that, the table reflected columns that contained player’s comments, blogs, the comments from the players, the discussions, emails, and memos that were sent to the war generals.
Sorting
Sorting was one of the analytical tools used to analyse the data because it was based on a sorting theory where the link between practise and theory were established (Mills et al., 2008). In addition, the different dimensions would be used to analyse the data that was displayed in the tables to evaluate the effects on the two effects that emerged. The two elements that were investigated on the study include the ability to discriminate between different spenders such as those who spend more and those who spend less on the game and to determine the impelling motives that contributed in encouraging the people to spend more on the game. The key issues were motivation and the spending behaviour among the players (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003. The study targeted those players who spent more money and time to indulge in the game.
Analytically, the motives were investigated by coding the information to construct a theory that led to the conclusive findings on the perceptions of the people on the games and the motives and reasons why particular behaviours emerged. The main tools used in the analysis were the video codes that revealed the logic used to play the game that caused the players to develop certain perspectives about the game. The main areas of observations were establishing how the different players joined different alliances and how the group values influenced their feelings and attitude towards the group they belonged to (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). Another observation that was made was that the players indulged in the game because of the stresses and challenges they were going through in life that made them to be obsessed with the game in the process. An analytic of the situation revealed that some players were obsessed with the game because they had no other option to pass time with and in the process developed a strong liking for the game.
It was established that some players who were experienced in the game were interested to keep high profiles because of the level of power they had achieved and the efficiency of the playing skills. The results, after coding showed that 45% of the players were motivated by the need to keep a strong position and status, 25% were obliged to join the groups because of the obsession with group values and belief systems, and 15% were interested to play for the purpose of keeping away from the stresses in the world. It was only 10% who agreed that they played keep away from the boredom they were experiencing. It was established that group discussions were very important in determining the various facets that were included and used in the study (Mills et al., 2008). In addition, the different players with different stories provided personal reasons why they were obsessed with the games. The main advantage with the investigative approach of using semi-structured interviews was to use the participant information on the comments they made about the game from different perspectives. Here, the collection and analysis of data was based on the characterising the data into categories that satisfied the analytical criteria.
Player’s spending behaviour
The spending patters of different groups of people were investigated to establish the behavior of the people based on their spending preferences. Here, the analytical; tool used in the investigation included the ethnography that provided data on how the players behaved in terms of the purchase of gold packs and the tendency to increase the aggressiveness in the study. The conclusion was that those players who were more aggressive were also more interested and committed to buying more gold packs to support the plays (Homayoun & Moghaddam, 2007).
Here, the main players that were focused on were those in the defensive side of the play and not the offensive side. In addition, a significant number of players showed that they were interested in increasing their power by using extra money and time to increase the money by over 30%. It was in addition to evaluating the behavior of the players who belonged to different categories and the responses such behavior had towards the spending habits of the players. Another tool that was used to analyse the behavioral characteristics of the players included making observations, the private messages among the players and the views they expressed such as the level of satisfaction of the different categories of people (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). It was established that most of the powerful players were not satisfied with the prizes because they felt that the prizes were less satisfying because of the money, times, and resources they spent in the games.
The researcher continued to conduct a study on the behavior of the players by analysing the games, the reaction of the players as emotional responses, the financial status of the players, and the income brackets of the players that were expressed as empirical evidence by the players (Homayoun & Moghaddam, 2007). Analytical data was obtained by conducting interviews on the players from different categories and in this case the category that was given special focus belonged to members of the second alliance. In this case, the researcher made observation on 12 participants and the reaction they showed to the award of the highest prize. The prizes were spread into the categories that included the first Prize that was defined by 3 hours speed up, while the second prize was defined by valuable items for crafting hero and last and third Prize was usually grouped into 20 to 50k gold plus 30 days speed up (Mills et al., 2008).
An investigation on how the players conducted the plays and such as the ‘infernos’, and the task of upgrading the empire, it was established that the amount of power increased and the ‘infernos’ increase (Huberman & Miles, 1994). In addition, the using three days could speed up the upgrade events by ensuring that the process could be completed before the expiry of the event. In addition to the approach used to analyse the behaviour and attitude of the players, it was established that a strong relationship existed between the strong and weak players. The weak players spent more money and time to build themselves and get higher scores than the weak players (Mills et al., 2008).
Sale time function
The time devoted to sell the gold packs was important to because it motivated those interested to sell the gold packs and it was established that the sales were dependent on the desire to gain and develop or increase their powers (with (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). The next and last event that was investigated and that was in the series of those who belong to the category of players to be investigated was impact the events had in decision making. The players belonged to the kingdom that was composed of alliances that were competing to complete the task. The competition was based on different troops that were hired and the attempts they made to buy the gold packs and the amount of money spent for the purpose of buying the packs. In addition, the loss that were experienced when the killing events happened and the gains that the troops made influenced the attitude and behaviour of the buyers (Mills et al., 2008). On the other hand, the alliance worked as a team to increase the chances of winning the game. The results showed that the alliance events were necessary to increase the impulsive attitude of the players and the commitment they made to purchase the gold packs and the necessary elements to ensure success. Here, each alliance had specific impulsive feelings.
Prizes
The notion of announcing prizes for the winners was important because it enabled the participants to work hard to dominate the events. Because of the events, the players were motivated to increase the level of participation and strength to win the games (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). In addition, it was established that most of the player in the first group of players won several prizes while those in the second category did not win more than one prize. A summary of the findings showed that the players who were from well-known backgrounds participated in the games and showed that the perceptions developed in the minds of the consumers were the defining elements that were important in determining the buyer buying behavior (Mills, Bonner & Francis, 2008). Here, the personality traits were important in determining the purchasing behavior, which showed that reasons underlying the effort to work hard and achieve a status in life that they wanted to be associated with (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003).
Discussion
The research study was based on the need to establish the key issues of the compulsive buying behavior as the lifestyle of different people based on the motivation to play the game in question (Sperschneider & Bagger, 2003). A number of issues surfaced during the study in the investigation and showed that a string relationship existed between compulsive buying behavior and the perceptions a customer developed towards the product. The customer could be compelled to buy an item because of how information about the product was communicated and the perceptions developed as a result of the communication. In addition, the researcher used inductive reasoning to draw the conclusion that product that increased the self-actualization of the consumer increased significantly as compared to those that did not. In addition, the feelings of insecurity among the players or customers made them to seek for products that stimulated the thinking that they were more secure if more they invested in buying the product (Mills et al., 2008). Safety, self-actualization, the existence of power, consumer perceptions, and the feelings of belonging contributed to making the study effective.
The significance of the study was based on the findings that showed that people or customer can be influenced to buy more products if the information about a product were communicated in such a way that it facilitated the feelings of belonging, self-actualization, and security (Mills et al., 2008). The study shows that for an organization to stimulate customer to purchase products and services being offered, it is necessary for those in responsibility to create adverts that reflected the true needs of the customers. In addition, it is important for the organizations to make inquiries about the products being offered based on the perceptions of the customers. However, the researcher encountered several limitations, which include the difficult task of collecting data from the customers and especially those who were participated in the gems (Huberman & Miles, 1994). The reasons were that some of the players feared to reveal information about the strategies they use to play strong games to succeed against the opponents because the games attracted many participants who spent a lot of money to buy the tokens necessary to belong to specific groups of players. In conclusion, the participants were wary of any tricks they suspected of putting them on a disadvantage with the competing parties.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it was established that people developed compulsive buying behavior because of the psychological factors that made them feel a sense of belonging, self-actualization, and the sense of power. The study was based in an ethnographic and axial analysis of data based in the grounded theory, which provided the framework to create different categories of data relate the data items to establish the truth about the compulsive buying behaviour of the customers.
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