Article: The Effect of Role Model Influence on Adolescents' Materialism and Marketplace Knowledge
Author(s): Alan J. Bush, Craig A. Martin and Paul W. Clark
Source: Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall, 2001), pp. 27-36
This study can basically inform RO 3a) i.e. contribution of celebrity endorsements to materialistic values.
Introduction:
The article takes a look at how role models impact adolescents’ market place knowledge. It includes teachers and parents as direct role models and entertainers and athletes as vicarious role models. The study gauges that athletes and fathers have the greatest impact on adolescents where materialism is concerned.

Literature Review:
Researching current literature we can see that consumers learn or model behaviors, values, attitudes, and skills through the observation of other individuals, or through observations of electronic or print media (Bandura 1977). Thus, social values of youth are shaped at their foundation by role models, one of the most influential of which are celebrity endorsers, particularly athletes.
Moschias (1985) contends that it is during adolescence that consumers develop their buying patterns that generally continue well into later life. Therefore, this is a particularly essential time for companies to target consumers as it can lead to the generation of an exceedingly loyal consumer base.
Ward (1974) also postulates that a process of consumer socialization is influenced by environmental factors including parents, teachers and celebrity endorsers, “each of which can play an integral role in helping an adolescent develop consumption behaviors, attitudes, knowledge, and product selection abilities”.
Theoretical Foundation:
Social science researchers have often utilized social learning theory to examine and explain the consumer decision-making processes of adolescents (Moschis and Churchill 1978).
King and Multon (1996) use social learning theory to propose that individuals develop behaviours and attitudes through a variety of learning experiences. Bandura (1977) suggests that individuals emulate or model themselves on the behaviors, attitudes and skills of others and that these models vary in terms of their degree of influence on the individual. Research shows that individuals emulate both consumption related and non-consumption related behavior of their role models. (Theory point for our RO 1 & 2).
In non-consumption related influences it can be seen adolescent career choices are significantly influenced by the occupation of television characters the adolescent sees as a role model (King and Multon 1996).
The study investigates whether or not celebrity role models can also enhance teens' marketplace knowledge which may ultimately lower a teen's level of materialism (e.g., why pay more for high status brand name if it’s not a better product).
Hypotheses
H2: Vicarious role model influence of: a) athletes, and b) entertainers is positively related to adolescents' level of marketplace knowledge.
The construct of materialism has been outlined to consider people who place a strong emphasis on acquisition and possession of material goods to be materialistic, while others who do not see this acquisition as being central to their happiness, indication of success, or as being central to their lives, are perceived as being non- materialistic (Belk 1985; Richins 1994).
Moschis and Moore’s research shows the greater the adolescent's exposure to television, the greater the level of his or her materialism (1979). Also, Sirgy et al. (1998) have shown that in the United States, across a variety of age groups, television-viewing levels positively predict materialism.
H4: Vicarious role model influence of: a) athletes, and b) entertainers is positively related to adolescents' level of materialism.
Methodology
175 respondents between the ages of 15-18 from a convenience sample were used. What is unique is that teen buddy pair were used i.e. two friends interviewed together and given questionnaires.
Questionnaire:
Role Model Influence: The role model influence scale for both athletes and entertainers was adapted from Rich (1997). A 7 point likert scale was used. To ensure the personal relevance of these role models to each individual respondent, each subject was asked to identify and use their "favorite" athlete, entertainer, and teacher when completing the scales.
Materialism: The materialism scale utilized in this study was adapted from Rich (1997). This five-item Likert type scale had an alpha value of 0.71.
Data
H2a and H2b are also supported by finding significant positive associations between athlete role model influence (r = .266, p