COMMUNITY ATTACHMENT AND SPENDING LOCATION - THE IMPORTANCE OF PLACE IN HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION

A growing body of literature has focused on social influences on firm decision making. There has been much less research on the social factors shaping household spending patterns, particularly the location of those purchases. This paper examines the effects of community attachment, household characteristics, and community structure on location-of-spending patterns among households. Spending location is primarily related to total household spending and community attachment. Community size and proximity to a metropolitan area also are correlated with total purchases in the community. Some differences are found in the importance of household characteristics, community attachment, and community structure across various categories of goods and services. Community attachment is strongly related to local food purchases but weakly related to local clothing purchases. This research provides support for arguments regarding the social embeddedness of economic action.