Luxury goods are not the type of goods that are of importance to sustain lives, yet they are highly demanded within a society or culture (Kenton, 2018). The capability to purchase luxury goods highly depends on the purchasing power of an individual, in which an increase in income may change one's consumption behavior to purchase more higher-priced luxury goods. Jackson (2004) as cited by Fionda et al. (2009) Â illustrated luxury goods as owning the aspects of being highly priced, highly exclusive, and demanded for other than functional purposes. From the product point of view, luxury brands are defined by their high quality, high transaction value, specialty, exclusivity, and expertise (Fionda et al., 2009). Meanwhile, the research of Tjahjono (2014) based on a sample of consumers, suggests that there are six major characteristics that made up the identification of luxury goods: including expense, exclusivity, high quality, uniqueness, having a prestigious brand name, and being non-essential.
Additionally, the attitude towards the intention to purchase luxury goods can be classified into two approaches: (i) affective attitude, or (ii) self-presentation attitude (Arli et al., 2016). Affective attitude implies the positive feelings and joy from having luxury goods, while self-presentation attitude support consumers in presenting their beliefs and values to others. Stimulating positive feelings towards consumption can be a benefit to the market in gaining the probability to purchase more goods, yet the purchase of luxury goods displays the representation consumers prefer to reveal (self-presentation). Finally, both of these attitudes are able to potentially drive the intention to purchase luxury goods among consumers as Hill et al. (1977) pointed out that intention towards particular behaviors is anticipated by attitude.
Religious Perspective towards Materialism  Â
Many religious teachings indicate that wealth and materialism is the initial source of all evil (Arli et al., 2016). For example, in Christianity, materialistic power interferes with the actual source of happiness, which is God. The Bible infers that "but they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil" (Timothy 6:9--10, NIV). Likewise, the Quran infers that "and let not their wealth or their children amaze you. Allah's Plan is to punish them with these things in this world, and that their souls shall depart (die) while they are disbelievers" (Quran 9:85). Yet one of the core tenets of Buddhism specify desires as sources of suffering (dukkha), which corresponds to materialism, meaning people should manage their desires and stay away from the circle of conspicuous consumption and materialism that bring dissatisfactions (Pace, 2012).
Furthermore, the research conducted by Tjahjono (2014) with his respondents consisting of Muslims, indicates that most consumers considered that Islam permits the acquisition of luxury goods, for the reason that they can purchase them legally. On the other hand, not many regard that Islam does not support the consumption of luxury goods. To the majority of these consumers, the tendency to purchase luxury goods does not disprove Islamic values, while the rest believed that purchasing luxury goods contradicts with Islamic values.
Religiosity and Conspicuous Consumption
In several research, religiosity is used as a segmentation variable in measuring the impact of religion on consumption. Those research regarding the relationship between religion and consumption support Stillman et al. (2012)'s concept in developing a hypothesis; it is said that intrinsically religious people have a lower probability to regard wealth as a state to attain power and reputation. Pursuing power and reputation are signs that are oriented to promote oneself. In addition, intrinsic motivation in affiliating a religion contradicts with the following idea.
The relationship between religiosity and financial welfare have an explanatory characteristic. Strong religious beliefs correlates with less income and total assets. However, strong religious beliefs also correlates with fewer debts. Moreover, this can be interpreted that religious people stay away from unimportant consumptions, including conspicuous consumption. So far, Stillman et al. (2012) hypothetically suggested that conspicuous consumption has an egoistic motive, so as the level of religiosity increases, level of conspicuous consumption will decrease.
The study by (Arli et al., 2016) used students from three universities consisting of 1 public and 2 private universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia as a sample. Conducting the research in Indonesia is considered appropriate in terms of context, due to the presence of a religious society. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population (86.1%), followed by Christianity/Catholic (8.7%), Hindu (3%), and others (1.8%). Implications of the study made further comments on the limited literatures in explaining the impact of religion towards conspicuous consumption, and strengthen the discussion on the following impact.
The study displayed that the motivation in affiliating a religion is impactful towards consumers' consumption behavior. In general, the results implied that intrinsic religiosity displayed a negative correlation between conspicuous consumption, which is in line with the hypotheses of several studies. However, high intrinsic religiosity can still establish positive feelings in utilizing luxury brands, though did not explain into purchasing them. This explains that religious consumers also believed to the approval of acquiring luxury brands, having a self-presentation attitude towards them. Arli et al. (2016) implied that it is evident for consumers to still maintain the view, which says "...we will be happier that our lives will become somehow more satisfying -- if we accumulate more and more things". Regardless of a highly religious society, consumers may recognize that religion is a way to become more attached to God, who is the cause of material, wealth, and happiness. Â Â Â
ConclusionÂ
