Buy or not: how the presence of others affects the occurrence of consumers' impulsive buying behavior

PurposeThe topic of impulsive buying has been studied by researchers for nearly 70 years and made a large number of valuable discoveries. However, most of the existing research studies focused on the impulse buying behavior in the context of single person shopping from the perspective of individuals and lack of research on impulse buying behavior in the context of shopping with others from the perspective of communities. Given that consumers' decision-making in the presence of others is significantly different from that when they are alone, it is necessary to probe into the internal mechanism of impulse purchase behavior in the context of shopping with others.Design/methodology/approachIn total three experiments were used to test the hypothesis. Study 1 examines the differences in the motivation of impulsive desire among consumers with different impulsive traits. A total of 240 undergraduates were recruited to participate in the study. The purpose of study 2 is to examine the effect of external attribution on consumer guilt, which leads to the failure of self-control. A total of 256 undergraduate students participated in the study 2. The purpose of study 3 was to test the moderating effect of the intensity of ties on the impact of goal on impulse purchase intention. A total of 240 subjects participated in study 3.FindingsWhen shopping with companions, consumers with different impulse traits have different initial impulses in the face of temptation, but they may have a similar higher willingness to buy on impulse. There are two reasons: on the one hand, consumers with high-impulsive traits produce a higher desire to buy on impulse driven by hedonistic motivation. In contrast, consumers with low-impulse traits will also have a higher impulse purchase desire driven by prosocial motivation. On the other hand, external attribution can lead to the failure of self-control and impulse purchase behavior. However, the above effects only occur when there is a strong connection between consumers.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, this paper simulates the phenomenon of impulse purchase in the relational situation through experimental methods; if the research based on the real consumption scenario can be carried out, the research results will be more convincing. Second, whether there are other intermediary mechanisms, such as whether external attribution can affect consumers' self-control through perceived social support, need to be further tested. Finally, it is also necessary to examine the role of other regulatory variables, such as consumers' sense of power, the type of self-construct, etc., and these research clues will further enrich the research on impulsive buying in the context of relationship.Practical implicationsFirst, businesses can launch more accurate marketing strategies for consumers who are shopping together, find ways to reduce consumers' attention to their own responsibility or fault and guide them to conduct external attribution to their impulsive consumption behavior. The findings also have implications for consumers to control their own impulse purchase behavior. In addition, the results of this study can provide new insights into the government to prevent social crisis and carry out consumer education.Originality/valueThe key contribution of the current research is that, unlike existing studies that focus on the exploration of impulsive buying in the context of single person shopping, this study explores the internal mechanism and causal process on how consumers' impulsive buying behavior occurs when shopping with others. The authors further make a contribution to a self-control theory by demonstrating that external attribution has a negative effect on self-control in relational situations. Finally, this study also finds that the intensity of ties can moderate the impacts of focus goals on impulsive buying behavior.