The Determinants of Impulsive Buying Behavior in Electronic Commerce

Abstract

Consumers’ online impulsive buying behavior has become more and more frequent in the digital era. There is increasing concern regarding the adverse consequences that impulsive buying has generated for consumer wellbeing and the sustainability of our society and environment. In search of a way to decreasing impulsive consumption, this article proposes a comprehensive framework to explore the potential determinants of online impulsive buying behavior from the perspective of consumer characteristics grounded on the literature on sustainability, psychology and consumer behavior. Through an online survey, a total of 425 valid responses were obtained. Extroversion and neuroticism in personality, negative emotions, collectivism in culture and the cognitive and affective factors of impulsive buying tendency are found to be positively correlated with impulsive buying behavior, whereas self-control shows a negative impact on impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, this study identifies the mediating roles that negative emotions and collectivism play. Specifically, in addition to the direct routes, neuroticism, self-control and the affective factor of impulsive buying tendency can indirectly influence impulsive buying behavior through the mediation of negative emotions, whereas extroversion can indirectly affect impulsive buying behavior with collectivism as the mediator. To conclude, theoretical and practical implications of this research are elaborated to promote sustainable consumption from both the micro and macro perspectives.

A mixed study on the “wow” of impulse purchase on Instagram: insights from Gen-Z in a collectivistic environment

“…Surprisingly, Study 2 revealed that Instagram comments and reviews did not significantly affect positive emotions, contrary to Study 1 and previous research findings (Zhang et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2021). The present study's findings challenge prior research suggesting that individuals from collectivist communities are more prone to impulsive purchasing activities influenced by significant others (Miao et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2022). The focus group discussions suggested that fabricated comments and reviews might have contributed to this outcome, raising concerns about their authenticity and influence.…”

“…Impulsive purchasing, characterized by compulsiveness, can be a potential strategy for escaping negative emotional states (Ahn and Kwon, 2022). Given the wide range of products available in social commerce, customers are more likely to engage in impulsive purchasing to alleviate their negative feelings (Wang et al, 2022). Based on these insights and the qualitative findings, the present study proposes the following hypothesis:…”

“…While valuable insights were gained from these studies, they did not account for the intercorrelations and combined effects of these elements that could jointly influence impulsive buying behaviour. Interestingly, prior research on impulse buying has predominantly focused on positive emotional reactions such as positive affect, pleasure, and arousal as crucial drivers of impulsive purchasing (Wang et al , 2022). However, negative emotions have not received adequate attention in previous literature.…”

Creating In-Store Impulse Buying: Physical or Human Cues?

“…IB is characterized with 1. making rapid or instant purchase decisions (Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001;Foroughi, Buang, Senik, & Hajmisadeghi, 2013) 2. subjective bias in favour of immediate possession (Rook & Gardner, 1993). Almost 80 percent of buyers have IB behaviour (Bellenger, Robertson, & Hirschman, 1978;Han, Morgan, Kotsiopulos, & Kang-Park, 1991;Hausman, 2000) which data justifies the importance of maintaining, even improving, and creating the factors influencing impulse purchase behavior (Wang, Pan, Xu, Luo, & Wu, 2022), especially the developing economies like Nepal.…”

“…Most extant researchers (e.g., Han, Morgan, Kotsiopulos, & Kang-Park, 1991;Hausman, 2000;Foroughi, Buang, Senik & Hajmisadeghi, 2013;Saad & Metawie, 2015;Wang, Pan, Xu, Luo & Wu, 2022) have focused on distinguishing impulsive buying behavior from non-impulsive buying behavior, with a number of determinants of impulsive buying behavior. Only a very few studies have focused on in-store attributes like employees' caring behavior and the physical environment (Saad & Metawie, 2015) of the store like display (Gorji & Siami, 2020), music (Grewal, Baker, Levy & Voss, 2003;, sales person's behavior (Goff, Boles, Bellenger & Stojack, 1997), and music and scent .…”