Exploring consumers’ impulse buying behavior on social commerce platform: The role of parasocial interaction

Social commerce, a recent branch of e-commerce, has made the experience of consumers on social commerce platform (SCP) different from other contexts, as the consumers have social interactions with each other. Growing evidence also shows that consumers on these platforms are prone to impulse buying behavior owing to the social interactions. However, existing research on online impulse buying was limited when illustrating the behavior of consumers on SCPs as social relationship constructs were not included. New theoretical developments are needed in regard to fill the research gap. In this research, parasocial interaction (PSI) theory is introduced in this research to examine the influence of social relationship factors on the formation of impulse buying behavior. An empirical research has been conducted on Mogujie (www.mogujie.com), one of the most popular image-sharing SCPs in China. Results indicate that PSI exerts an impact on impulse buying tendency, the social-relevant features of the SCP determine PSI, and perceived usefulness and PSI both significantly affect perceived enjoyment. In addition, consumers’ perceived enjoyment and impulse buying tendencies significantly affect their urge to buy impulsively. The implications, limitations, and discussions are provided.     

Motivation for online impulse buying: A two-factor theory perspective

Impulse buying accounts for a large proportion of consumer shopping behavior in the bricks-and-mortar retail market. Online retailers also expect to profit from impulse buying. It is therefore interesting and beneficial to investigate the design elements of online stores and the sales promotion stimuli that e-retailers can use to either arouse consumers’ desire or decrease their self-control to evoke their purchase impulses. This study seeks to explicitly identify the factors associated with online store design and sales promotion stimuli that most affect online impulse buying behavior throughout the consumer decision-making process. Drawing on the two-factor theory, it successfully identifies the hygiene and motivation factors that trigger online impulse buying. The questionnaire responses of 239 valid respondents revealed that most of the hygiene factors are associated with the design of online stores, and all of the motivation factors are forms of sales promotion stimuli that effectively facilitate online impulse buying and present utilitarian or hedonic benefits to consumers. This study also identifies the most effective sales promotion stimuli and offers a comprehensive checklist for Web designers. Moreover, the distribution of motivation and hygiene factors for each stage of the EKB model is uneven, and some stages include only hygiene factors. The findings of this study demonstrate that the triggers of consumers’ online shopping behavior do not always apply to online impulse buying, and have important implications for impulse buying research and practice.     

Social interaction-based consumer decision-making model in social commerce: The role of word of mouth and observational learning

Social commerce mediated by social media and social network platforms has led to the development of new business models in e-commerce and digitized the consumer decision journey. Social interaction is considered as a prerequisite for successful social commerce since consumers now expect an interactive and social experience while making purchase decisions. Drawing on word of mouth (WOM) and observational learning theories, we conceptualize social interactions in social commerce environments into two forms: WOM communication and observing other consumers’ purchases, and examine their impact on consumer purchase intention and actual purchase behavior. Analyzing primary data (n = 217) collected from surveyed active consumers within social commerce sites at two stages (pre-purchase and post-purchase), we found that positive and negative valence WOM, WOM content, and observing other consumers’ purchases significantly affect consumers’ intention to buy a product, thereby increasing the likelihood of actual buying and sharing product information with others on social commerce sites.     

Investigating narrative involvement,parasocial interactions,and impulse buying behaviours within a second screen social commerce context

Using mobile devices for additional information search before, during and after watching television (either factual news or fictional TV series) - is an increasingly significant information management phenomenon. This activity has been recognised by both TV media executives and academia as ‘second screen’ activity. This paper develops and tests a ‘parasocial interaction-impulse buying’ - model that captures the behaviours of consumers watching a Chinese TV drama series. These audience-consumers were also engaging extensively (most on a daily basis) during the broadcast period with series related influencer social media activities on a second screen. A structural equation model was developed to analyse the data. Findings indicate that TV series audience consumers who are also highly engaged with influencer- consumer ‘second screen’ content are likely to experience positive narrative involvement leading to engagement in parasocial interaction behaviours and ultimately impulse buying behaviour. These findings have implications for managers by providing insights into (1) the effects of influencer second screen content (2) the processes by which consumers’ involvement in a TV show’s narrative leads to impulse buying of products. Thus, influencer related second screen consumer engagement should be considered a significant opportunity for marketers, as such activity makes consumers become more involved in the characters and the narrative of a particular TV show, leading to increased impulse buying.     

网络环境下第三方评论对冲动购买意愿的实证研究

冲动购买在消费者日常购物中是比较普遍的现象,而口碑是影响消费者冲动购买意愿的重要因素,第三方评论作为口碑的独特形式在互联网Web2.0时代日益重要。文中采用问卷调查的方法,构建了以网络第三方评论为研究对象,通过实证分析的方法进一步探究了口碑对消费者冲动购买意愿的影响。实证研究结果表明:评论者资信度、评论的质量、评论的数量、评论的好评度、评论的时效性等对消费者冲动购买意愿具有正向影响,而消费者专业能力对冲动购买意愿具有负向影响作用。     

基于捆绑价格促销的冲动性购买购后评价作用研究

以捆绑价格促销为诱因,探讨了消费者冲动性购买后满意和后悔对再冲动性购买的影响,研究结果表明:冲动性购买后的满意加强了消费者再次冲动性购买的倾向,而后悔作为缓冲剂削弱了消费者的再冲动性购买的倾向。同时,捆绑价格呈现方式和捆绑方式对消费者初次冲动性购买和再次冲动性购买具有不同的影响。     

The effect of app store strategy on app rating: The moderating role of hedonic and utilitarian mobile apps

Concerns about the performance of mobile apps have spurred a stream of research on factors contributing to the success of mobile apps in the major app stores. However, identified success factors have not been synthesized into a unified framework. Similarly, reported findings typically address main effects. The present study introduces the concept of app store strategy to synthesize the mobile app success factors that developers implement in the major app stores. The study synthesizes four such factors consisting of app size, app versions (major and minor), revenue model and mobile app names. Further, drawing on IS literature, the study distinguishes between hedonic and utilitarian mobile apps. Using a dataset of mobile apps from Play Store (N = 8325), the study investigates to what extent app store strategy interacts with the hedonic and utilitarian value of mobile apps in driving app rating. The study employed a combination of traditional regression and machine learning approaches to test proposed hypotheses. The findings make a two-fold contribution to the literature first by introducing the concept of app store strategy to synthesize mobile app success factors and second by examining hedonic and utilitarian mobile apps as a boundary condition in the relationship between app store strategy and app rating.     

Social behavior and brand devotion among iPhone innovators

Convergence of communication technologies and innovative product features are expanding the markets for technological products and services. Prior literature on technology acceptance and use has focused on utilitarian belief factors as predictors of rational adoption decisions and subsequent user behavior. This presupposes that consumers’ intentions to use technology are based on functional or utilitarian needs. Using netnographic evidence on iPhone usage, this study suggests that innovative consumers adopt and use new technology for not just utilitarian but also for experiential outcomes. The study presents an interpretive analysis of the consumption behavior of very early iPhone users. Apple introduced iPhone as a revolutionary mobile handset offering integrated features and converged services—a handheld computer-cum-phone with a touch-screen web browser, a music player, an organizer, a note-taker, and a camera. This revolutionary product opened up new possibilities to meld functional tasks, hedonism, and social signaling. The study suggests that even utilitarian users have hedonic and social factors present in their consumption patterns.     

感知价值与预期后悔影响绿色食品购买意向的实证研究

在计划行为理论研究基础上,加入感知价值、预期后悔两个变量对理论模型进行扩展,并运用结构方程模型方法对消费者绿色食品购买意向进行实证研究。研究结果表明:消费者感知绿色食品的价值对其购买态度和主观规范有正向影响;消费者对放弃购买绿色食品的消极心理预期与其购买态度和主观规范正相关;TPB模型能够有效解释消费者绿色食品购买意向。此外,行为态度和主观规范在感知价值与行为意向、预期后悔与行为意向间起部分中介作用。依据研究结论提出影响绿色食品消费意向的"三因素模型"。     

社会化商务社区中用户信息处理行为影响研究——基于眼动实验的比较分析

【目的/意义】围绕社会化商务社区中的信息搜索和信息处理,从认知心理学和神经学视角探究用户对商品 信息的偏好及关注程度,有助于帮助社区提供优质的信息服务,实现社区推荐智能化。【方法/过程】选取典型的社 会化商务社区为研究背景,通过眼动实验收集数据,挖掘社区中的信息呈现（客观事实型信息vs.主观评价型信息） 和商品类型（享乐型商品vs.实用型商品）对用户信息处理可能的影响规律。【结果/结论】用户对不同的信息在处理 上存在显著性差异,和客观事实型信息相比,用户在了解商品时更关注主观评价型信息;商品类型显著影响用户在 社区中的信息搜索和信息处理,用户更关注享乐型商品的主观评价型信息而关注实用型商品的客观事实型信息。 【创新/局限】现有研究多从社会环境、信息系统、用户特征等方面研究用户信息行为的影响因素,本研究从信息维 度出发借助眼动实验的方法为社会化商务社区中的用户信息行为提供新的研究视角。     

前置购买行为对情境效应的影响分析

基于情境效应机理以及享乐品和实用品选择理论,通过两个实验研究了前置购买类型对情境效应的影响、内在机制及其调节因素。研究结果显示:相比于实用品,前次购买享乐品更可能激发消费者的内疚感或付钱的痛苦,导致消费者在后续选择集上做选择时寻求选择理由的需要增强,因而折衷选项和占优选项的选择概率显著提高,情境效应增强;如果享乐性消费所伴随的内疚感或付钱的痛苦得以削弱(例如,消费者购买享乐品的金钱属于意外收获而非努力赚得的钱),那么前次购买享乐品(vs.实用品)对情境效应的提升作用也随之减弱。     

Does imagination compensate for the need for touch in 360-virtual shopping?

The inability to touch products is a fundamental shortcoming in online shopping because humans typically use the sense of touch to evaluate the utilitarian product functionality and to obtain hedonic sensory enjoyment, which the instrumental and autotelic need for touch capture. This study of 900 consumers looks at the interplay between need for touch and imagination to study how imagination compensates for the lack of touch when consumers shop in a 360-virtual store. The study finds that while telepresence of a 360-virtual store improves consumer attitudes toward virtual shopping, the need for hedonic sensory enjoyment – autotelic need for touch – significantly reduces this effect. Further, imagination can compensate for the need for touch; yet this finding holds only for the instrumental need for touch, not for the autotelic need for touch. Consequently, we conclude that imagination can compensate for the utilitarian need to touch products in a 360-virtual store.     

Perceived values and motivations influencing m-commerce use: A nine-country comparative study

Mobile--> commerce (m-commerce) has become increasingly important for organizations attempting to grow revenue by expanding into international markets. However, for multinational mobile retailers (m-retailers), one of the greatest challenges lies in carefully managing their websites across multiple national markets. This work advances cross-national research on m-retailing by (1) examining how value dimensions shape m-shoppers’ motivations, (2) analyzing differential effects of hedonic and utilitarian motivations on intention and habit, and (3) examining the competing roles of conscious (intentional) and unconscious (habitual) m-commerce use drivers across developed and developing countries. This research also examines the moderating role of m-commerce readiness at the country level on the effect of motivation on intention and habit, along with their impact on m-commerce use. Based on data from 1,975 m-shoppers in nine countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam) across four continents, the results demonstrate differential relationships: consumers at an advanced (early) readiness stage are more likely to be hedonism-motivated (utility-motivated) when using m-commerce and tend to use it intentionally/consciously (habitually/unconsciously). In addition to advancing knowledge about m-commerce from a scientific perspective, the findings can help multinational firms decide whether to standardize or adapt m-shopping experiences when internationalizing.     

Exploring the effects of extrinsic motivation on consumer behaviors in social commerce: Revealing consumers’ perceptions of social commerce benefits

The rise of social media has created a new e-commerce platform called social commerce. In social commerce, e-vendors such as Amazon may integrate social media with their traditional e-commerce sites. Based on self-determination theory and social commerce literature, we develop a model illustrating how social commerce features may impact consumer behaviors and facilitate social commerce benefits from the extrinsic motivation perspective. We identify four types of extrinsic motivation including external motivation, introjected motivation, identified motivation, and integrated motivation; and we examine their influences on consumers’ intention to contribute social commerce information, which in turn leads to their subsequent behaviors and increases the perceived benefit of social commerce. We also consider the moderating effect of gender in the formulation of social commerce benefits. Based on longitudinal survey data from Amazon consumers, we find that 1) consumers’ external and identified motivation has a positive impact on intention to contribute social commerce information; 2) consumers’ intention is positively associated with their future behaviors, which in turn facilitate their perceptions of social commerce benefits; and 3) gender moderates the impact of behavior on social commerce benefits.     

Product attributes and brand equity in the mobile domain: The mediating role of customer experience

There are studies showing that utilitarian (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) and hedonic (entertainment and aesthetics) attributes of products are two fundamental resources that ensure brand equity in the mobile domain. However, few studies examine the attributes of products and how and why such resources influence mobile brand equity. In this study, a survey was carried out on 262 mobile users in Taiwan to examine the mediating effects of customer experience on the relationship between product attributes on mobile brand equity. Our findings suggest that utilitarian and hedonic attributes of products affect mobile brand equity through customer experience. In other words, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, entertainment, and aesthetics may not be intrinsic value; their value on mobile brand equity is realized through customer experience. However, whereas the effect of perceived ease of use on mobile brand equity is partially mediated, perceived usefulness, entertainment, and aesthetics are fully mediated by customer experience. By showing the differential effects of product attributes on mobile brand equity, this study provides a more refined understanding of the interplay among product attributes, customer experience, and mobile brand equity. The results suggest that by overlooking the mediating role of customer experience, previous research may have provided an overly optimistic view of the value of product attributes in mobile brand equity.     

Defining key drivers of online impulse purchasing: A perspective of both impulse shoppers and system users

With the proliferation of e-commerce, a large part of online shopping is attributed to impulse buying. Hence, there is a particular necessity to understand impulse buying in the online context. Impulse shoppers incline to feel unable to control their tendencies and behaviors from various stimuli. Specifically, online consumers are both the impulse shoppers and the system users of websites in the purchase process. Impulse shoppers concern individual traits and system users cover the attributes of online stores. Online impulse buying therefore entails two key drivers, technology use and trust belief, and the mediator of flow experience. Grounding on flow experience, technology-use features, and trust belief, this study proposes a novel research model to examine impulse buying behavior in a complete manner. Data were collected from an online survey. Data analysis considers structural equation modeling technique with formative structure. Empirical results showed that flow experience is an important factor to affect impulse buying from its original drivers. Trust belief is also critical to impulse buying as perceived usefulness is not. Implications for managers and scholars are further discussed.     

A SEM-neural network approach for predicting antecedents of m-commerce acceptance

Higher penetration of powerful mobile devices – especially smartphones – and high-speed mobile internet access are leading to better offer and higher levels of usage of these devices in commercial activities, especially among young generations. The purpose of this paper is to determine the key factors that influence consumers’ adoption of mobile commerce. The extended model incorporates basic TAM predictors, such as perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, but also several external variables, such as trust, mobility, customization and customer involvement. Data was collected from 224 m-commerce consumers. First, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to determine which variables had significant influence on m-commerce adoption. In a second phase, the neural network model was used to rank the relative influence of significant predictors obtained from SEM. The results showed that customization and customer involvement are the strongest antecedents of the intention to use m-commerce. The study results will be useful for m-commerce providers in formulating optimal marketing strategies to attract new consumers.     

The non-monetary benefits of mobile commerce: Extending UTAUT2 with perceived value

Consumers can conduct mobile commerce via their smartphones. They can search for products and when ready, they pay and have the products delivered to their homes. By sharing personal information, they receive faster and more customized service. Because of the risk of loss of privacy, consumers need to balance their privacy concerns against the perceived value of enhanced mobile commerce. In this empirical study, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) is modified where perceived value replaces price value to represent the value of an IT artifact that has no direct costs attributable to it. The framework is extended to include constructs from the privacy calculus. In addition, the construct of personal innovativeness is added as a moderator with the anticipation that owners of smartphones who are more personally innovative will be more willing to share information. From an empirical study of Canadian smartphone owners, the results show that perceived privacy concerns influence perceived value and that intention to use is significantly influenced by hedonic motivation and perceived value.     

企业移动商务采纳影响因素研究综述

面对移动互联网快速向社会渗透的这一现实背景,是否及如何采纳移动商务是企业必须思考的问题。尽管目前已经有大量移动商务采纳的文献,但是大多数移动商务采纳研究都停留在个人用户视角,而只有少部分学者开始关注企业移动商务采纳行为。对目前企业移动商务采纳文献从理论基础、国内研究、国外研究等方面进行系统梳理,进一步对影响企业移动商务采纳的因素进行总结,提出企业移动商务采纳影响因素的分析框架,并在对现有文献述评的基础上提出下一步的研究方向。     

Defining the determinants of online impulse buying through a shopping process of integrating perceived risk,expectation-confirmation model,and flow theory issues

Since much online shopping is attributed to online impulse buying, it is important to define this particular shopping process. This process has three important issues, perceived risk for virtual stores as well as e-store design and psychological state for online shopping. This is because consumers are both system users and impulse buyers when shopping on e-stores. E-store design is based on the interaction of customers with e-stores and the expectation-confirmation model supports examination of this issue with a wide familiarity in IT use. Psychological state is emotional responses to the stimulus of products in e-stores and flow theory, with task skill and task challenge as precursors, is suitable for exploring this issue. Grounding on the three issues, this study proposes a new research model with these considerations to thoroughly examine the determinants of online impulse buying. Flow state and customer satisfaction also interact with each other. Empirical research shows an important link for the three defined issues of online impulse buying.