An Integrative Study on Impulse buying

Abstract

Researches of impulse buying have received wide and considerable interests during the past decades. However, these studies tend to differ heavily from each other in term of their research backgrounds, applied theories, methodologies, sample characteristics and practice focus. Researches of impulse buying are often replete with fragmented theoretical arguments and contradictory findings. Especially, there are conceptual disarrays among different impulse buying concepts and mixed empirical findings among trait predictors of impulse buying tendency and behaviour. Therefore, with such notice, this thesis tries to provide an integrative effort, through three pieces of studies, to synergise fragmentary findings in this field. Thus, it updates and complements contemporary knowledge of impulse buying.
Specifically, the first piece of work, chapter two, provides a systematic review of previous conceptual frameworks of impulse buying. Kinds of literature are appraised with standard review criteria. The consistency and inter-links of their findings are assessed and a new conceptual framework is designed to synergise these findings. As a result, the new framework, on the one hand, provides a comprehensive account of impulse buying forms in line with Stern’s (1962) impulse mix; on the other hand, it indicates the unique psychological and behavioural processes that consumers may experience under each form. Thus, to that end, chapter two provides a comprehensive view on impulse buying concepts, not only on its conceptual components but also shows how these components can engage, both internally and externally, to impulse buying at a given buying stage.
The second piece of work, chapter three, offers a meta-analysis of trait predictors of impulse buying tendency and behaviour. A total of 119 effects from 39 primary studies are coded in line with Mowen’s 3M model (Mowen, 2000). The results suggest six of seven trait predictors of impulse buying tendency at the elemental level, two at the compound level and situational level. At the surface level, both cognitive and affective impulse buying tendencies are found positively and significantly predict actual impulse buying. Especially, the meta-analysis provides the average effect size of these predictors and justifies their reliability among different cultural, gender, and sample and measurements. Thus, it provides empirical evidence to justify and understand previously mixed findings in this field of research.
Moreover, the third piece of work, chapter four further considers the evolutionary basis of impulse buying. 11 covariance matrixes captured from a sample of 6,224 participants are used in a meta-analytical Structure Equation Modelling. The results suggest there is a significant and positive association between an individual’s desire for social effectiveness and his/her impulse buying tendency, mediated by inclinations of shopping rewards. Hence, impulse buying might play a pivotal role for individuals to acquire socially desired resources and achieve socially favoured status. Thus, the study provides the evolutionary rationale that why impulse buying, when widely labelled as disorder behaviours, has been such a popular phenomenon and inherited across regions, ages, genders and generations (Bratko et al., 2013).
At last, limitations, direction for future studies and managerial implications are given in the final chapter, chapter five.