Measuring the Effects of Pressure on Consumer Impulse Buying Intention in Online Group Buying

Abstract

Group buying organizations (GBO) have recently stepped up their well-established practice of employing super-low prices combined with limited product and service supply in a short transaction time span as a means of exerting pressure on consumers. The purpose of this research is to 1) identify and define three types of pressure that are triggered by online group-buying (OGB) promotions, 2) examine the effects of these three types of pressure on consumers' impulse buying behavior, and 3) investigate and produce knowledge about the mediating role of emotion in the relationship between pressure and impulse buying intention (IBI) of consumers. By integrating stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and consumer impulse buying literature seen from the perspectives of marketing and enterprise information systems respectively, this research has identified three types of pressure (i.e., time pressure, quantity pressure, and price pressure) that influence the impulse buying behavior (IBB) of consumers regarding OGB. The research then examines the mediating role of emotion with reference to pleasure and arousal level. The results of a large-scale online survey combined with an analysis of a structural equation model demonstrate that the above-mentioned three types of pressure have different effects on IBI of consumers. Moreover, the research finds that this is achieved through different mediating mechanisms. Based on the results of the analysis, the authors have made some suggestions that marketers can utilize in developing effective OGB strategies. This research also provides the basis for enterprise information systems (EIS) to develop technologies that will allow organizations to better serve the needs of their OGB customers.