Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser
Does urge to buy impulsively differ from impulsive buying behaviour?
Assessing the impact of situational factors
Anant Jyoti Badgaiyan a,n, Anshul Verma b,1
a
b
ITM University, Gwalior, India
S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai, India
art ic l e i nf o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 9 June 2014
Received in revised form
1 October 2014
Accepted 3 October 2014
The study was undertaken to assess the role of situational variables in impacting impulsive buying
behaviour. In all, the impact of nine situational variables—categorised as personal (money availability,
economic well being, family influence, time availability, and credit card use), and in-store (sales
promotion, store environment, friendly store employees, and store music)—on the constructs ‘urge to
buy impulsively’ and ‘impulsive buying behaviour’ was studied. For this, data was collected from 508
mall visiting customers and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Importantly, 23
hypotheses were examined and 13 were found to be supported. Results indicated that apart from store
music, all the selected situational variables significantly impacted impulsive buying behaviour. With
regard to the construct ‘urge to buy impulsively’, results showed significant positive association with
situational variables money availability, friendly store employees and credit card use. Also, results
indicated that gender did not impact impulsive buying behaviour while age was found to have
significant negative association with impulsive buying behaviour.
In view of the potential bright prospects associated with the growing organised retailing, the study
findings provide useful insights to both the theorist as well as the marketers.
& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Consumer behaviour
Impulsive buying
Urge to buy impulsively
Situational factors
Age
1. Introduction and relevance
With growing competition in retail sector, on one hand,
attractive product, store displays, and packaging designs (Jones
et al., 2003; Lee and Kacen, 2008) are being used to lure
customers, and on the other hand, enjoyable and state-of-the-art
store environment (Tendai and Crispen, 2009) and promotional
strategies (Bell et al., 2011) influence the magnitude of purchases.
The overall attempt is to not only capture the rational purchases by
consumers, but also to instigate rapid decision making through
individual's desire for abrupt ownership of the product in the form
of ‘impulsive buying’. Often considered an important driver of
retail buying, this unplanned purchase called impulsive buying is
characterised by on-the-spot decision making (Rook and Fisher,
1995; Lee and Kacen, 2008) often in response to a stimulus
entailing a cognitive reaction. Thus, impulsive buying behaviour
has rightly been defined as a sudden, compelling, hedonically
complex buying behaviour in which the rapidity of an impulsive
n
Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 917898811987.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A.J. Badgaiyan),
[email protected] (A. Verma).
1
Tel.: þ 919999885719.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.10.002
0969-6989/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
decision process preludes thoughtful and deliberate consideration
of alternative information choices (Karbasivar and Yarahmadi,
2011). The importance of this phenomenon can be gauged by the
fact that in 1997 alone, an estimated $4 billion was being spent in
impulsive manner (Mogelonsky, 1998), and an estimate indicates
that about 62% market sales in super markets and around 80%
sales in luxury goods can be attributed to impulsive purchase
(Ruvio and Belk, 2013). Needless to say, various facets of this
intriguing phenomenon have been attracting deserved attention
from the researchers across the globe.
Starting with the early work related to definition of impulsive
buying (e.g. Stern, 1962; Piron, 1991), gradually, various facets of the
this phenomenon—such as effect of intrinsic factors (Badgaiyan and
Verma, 2014; Foroughi et al., 2013; Flight et al., 2012), external factors
(Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011; Mehta and Chugan, 2013), in-store
music (Dube´ and Morin, 2001), in-store lighting (Summers and
Hebert, 2001), in-store scent (Mattila and Wirtz, 2001), the mood
and emotions (Foroughi et al., 2013; Solomon et al., 2012) etc.—have
been examined. Among these developments, an important contribution has been the identification of situational factors related to
impulsive buying.
Aptly defined by Dholakia (2000) as environmental and individual factors that have influence on impulsive buying, the
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A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
situational factors could either be attributed to person's situation
related to money, time, family, credit card use, etc. or could result
from the in-store situations such as sales promotions, store
environment, friendly store employees, in-store music, etc., and
hence, both personal as well as in-store situational factors have
been given due consideration in many research endeavours—such
as availability of time (Pattipeilohy and Rofiaty, 2013; Beatty and
Ferrell, 1998), money availability (Pattipeilohy and Rofiaty, 2013;
Beatty and Ferrell, 1998), the presence of companion (Luo, 2004),
store environment (Mattila and Wirtz, 2008; Chavosh et al., 2011)
etc. Importantly, considering the fact that most of the situational
factors could be controlled and/or changed by retailers mean that
insights related to relationship between situational factors and
impulsive buying behaviour could be extremely useful for retailers. Needless to say, across the globe, studies aimed at understanding the effect of situational factors on impulsive buying have
been given due importance.
Considering the fact that culture has been found to significantly
impact impulsive buying behaviour (Badgaiyan and Verma, 2014),
it is worth examining as to how do the various situational factors
impact the traditionally conservative and predominantly collectivist Indian consumers. The insights would reveal whether the
impact of situational factors is in similar lines to some similar
studies in the western countries, or does it follow a different trend.
Given the relevance of emerging economies in the global retail
context, these insights are bound to be useful for not only the
current retail players operating in India and but also for the global
heavyweights planning to benefit from a rapidly growing market.
Though in past, some studies have tried to throw light on the
impact of situational factors on impulsive buying behaviour
(Pattipeilohy and Rofiaty, 2013; Maymand and Ahmadinejad, 2011;
Jeffrey and Hodge, 2007), and on urge to buy impulsively as well
(Foroughi et al., 2013; Beatty and Ferrell, 1998), this effort differentiates
itself and gains importance on account of four reasons. First, the past
related endeavours did not consider the simultaneous impact of the
selected nine variables on both impulsive buying behaviour as well as
the urge to buy impulsively. Second, the variable economic well-being
which is envisaged to have an impact on an individual's impulsive
buying behaviour as well as the urge to buy impulsively in this study
has remained ignored in previous research efforts. Third, most of the
studies related to impulsive buying in general, and the impact of
situational factors in particular have been undertaken in Western
context, while the Asian context has largely remained oblivious; hence
this detailed study is definite to contribute to the knowledge base in
this regard. Fourth, considering the fact that Indian retail market
currently estimated at $490 billion, is projected to grow at a
compounded annual growth rate of 6 per cent to reach $865 billion
by 2023,2 means huge prospects are available for firms operating in
Indian retail sector, and hence, an improved understanding regarding
practically implementable concepts is expected to aid in improved
decision making. Thus, the study is bound to have definite implementable output from both local as well as global perspective.
Thus, as this study attempts to fulfil not only the information
gap by exploring the effect of situational factors on impulsive
buying behaviour, in an hitherto untouched Indian context,
the study's expected contribution in the form of improved clarity
regarding the quantum as well as direction of impact will help
the firms come up with improved and more accurate strategies.
Additionally, as the study contains nine independent variable and
examines 23 relationships using structured equation modelling,
the detailed study is also expected to create ripples and kick-start
many related endeavours in this field.
2
As per report published by high commission of India, available at https://
www.hcisingapore.gov.in/adminpart/uploadpdf/1494931jan2014.pdf.
With the aforesaid relevance, the study first provides the review
of the literature leading to the hypothesised relationship between the
variables followed by a note on methodology and analysis. Later,
sections related to results and discussion, and managerial implications have been presented, and finally, the last section deals with
conclusion, limitations and future scope of research.
2. Literature review and hypotheses development
As per theory of reasoned action, human social behaviour
follows reasonably and often spontaneously from the information
or beliefs people possess about the behaviour under consideration
(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The theory proposed that human
beings were usually quite rational and made systematic use of
accessible information and the intent was antecedent to the actual
behaviour. However, as rightly pointed out by Hale et al. (2002),
though the theory of reasoned action has been credited with
extremely high level of predictive capability, it primarily explains
volitional behaviours, and its explanatory scope excludes a wide
range of behaviours such as those that are spontaneous and
impulsive (Bentler and Speckart, 1979). Such behaviours are
excluded because their performance might not be voluntary or
because engaging in the behaviours might not involve a conscious
decision of the buyer (Hale et al., 2002). This is primarily the
reason why impulsive behaviour is not preceded by impulsive
buying intent in the conceptual framework. Instead, as also stated
by Hirschman (1985), consumer's own train of thoughts was
considered to trigger the desire to make an unanticipated purchase, and once triggered, the urge supposedly becomes so
powerful and persistent that it demands immediate action. Thus,
according to this understanding, the urge to buy impulsively could
be considered to be the stage prior to and leading towards the
stage of actual impulsive buying. Even Rook (1987), while attempting to identify components of impulsive buying behaviour,
observed that impulsive buying occurred when a consumer
experienced a sudden, and often powerful and persistent urge to
buy something immediately. In similar lines, Beatty and Ferrell
(1998) stated as follows:
“Felt urge to buy impulsively is a state of desire that is experienced
upon encountering an object in the environment. It clearly precedes
the actual impulse action and it is spontaneous and sudden”.
The basic reason leading to the association between ‘the urge to
buy impulsively’ and the ultimate act of ‘impulsive purchase’ has
been attributed to physical proximity resulting from in-store
browsing (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998), which in turn, has been
considered to instigate or impact the urge, and ultimately, the
urge has been linked to impulsive buying (Foroughi et al., 2013;
Beatty and Ferrell, 1998). This clearly explains the link between the
urge to buy impulsively and the actual impulsive buying behaviour. However, since impulse to buy something is hedonistic and
complex (Trandafilović et al., 2013), and is supposed to result in
emotional conflict oscillating between a feeling of satisfaction and
a feeling of guilt, perhaps this was the reason why urge to buy did
not always result in actual impulsive buying (Trandafilović et al.,
2013; Harmancioglu et al., 2009). But then, an important question
remains as to how do the various situation factors – including the
personal factors such as money availability, time availability,
family influence, credit card use, etc. and the in-store factors such
as sales promotions, store environment etc.—affect the constructs
‘urge to buy impulsively’ and the ‘impulsive buying behaviour’. If
the proposition that all impulsive purchases were preceded by
strong urge to buy impulsively holds true, then, even the impact of
these factors should significantly impact both these constructs.
This is the reason why the model links the nine situational factors
to both the ‘urge to buy impulsively’ as well as the ‘impulsive
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
buying behaviour’. These nine situational factors comprise of the
five personal factors, namely, money availability, economic wellbeing, family influence, time availability, and credit card use, and
the four in-store factors, namely, sales promotion, store environment, friendly store employees, and in-store music. It is envisaged
that the situational factors related to the person and those related
to the store would impact the individual's urge as well as
the actual impulsive behaviour. Further, to compare as to how do
the situational factors impact both the mentioned constructs, the
hypotheses ‘a’ and ‘b’ have been framed for assessing the impact of
each situational factor on both these constructs.
Additionally, two control variables, namely, ‘age’ and ‘gender’
were also included in the model. The theoretical backdrop to the
hypothesised relationships between the variables has been mentioned hereunder.
2.1. Impulsive buying behaviour and urge to buy impulsively
As per Beatty and Ferrell (1998), an important distinction needs to
be made regarding the construct of ‘urge to buy impulsively’ and the
actual impulsive purchase. According to researchers, urge to buy
impulsively is a state of desire that is experienced upon encountering
an object in the shopping environment such as a specific product,
model or brand (Rook, 1987; Dholakia, 2000; Mohan et al., 2013).
This means, the urge to buy impulsively precedes the ultimate
impulsive consumption (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998) and is thus
expected to be positively associated with the actual impulsive
buying. It has been suggested that as consumers browse around in
a store, they experience more and more urges, and their likelihood of
engaging in an impulsive purchase increases (Beatty and Ferrell,
1998). In fact, many studies (Hanzaee and Taherikia, 2010; Foroughi
et al., 2012; Mohan et al., 2013; Beatty and Ferrell, 1998) have
reported that urge to buy impulsively is indeed positively related to
impulsive buying behaviour. Thus, we propose that
H1. ‘Urge to buy impulsively’ positively affects impulsive buying
behaviour
2.2. Situational factors related to the person
As already discussed, the situational factors impacting an
impulsive purchase could be emanating from either person's
situation related to money, time, family, credit card use, etc. or
could result from the in-store situations such as sales promotions,
store environment, friendly store employees, in-store music, etc.
The theoretical premise for the hypothesised relationships
between the various personal factors and the two dependent
constructs has been discussed hereunder.
2.2.1. Effect of money availability
Availability of money can be defined as the amount of budget
or the extra funds that individual feels to spend on moment or that
day (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998). The availability of money has been
considered an important facilitator in the impulsive buying
process (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998), as it is considered to affect the
purchasing power (Foroughi et al., 2012) of the concerned individual. In this regard, Luo (2004) pointed out that availability of
money increased the likelihood of an impulsive purchase. Also, as
per Huang and Hsieh (2011), shoppers may feel aroused when
they perceive having extra money to spend, thus eliciting positive
emotional states. This, in a way, means that money availability is
likely to positively impact the urge to buy impulsively as well as
the impulsive buying behaviour. Thus, authors feel that as more
money will mean more opportunity through increased browsing
(Beatty and Ferrell, 1998) as well as capability for an individual
to indulge in purchase activities, it is expected that money
147
availability will increase the urge to buy impulsively as well as
the likelihood of an individual indulging in impulsive purchase.
Hence, it is being proposed that money availability will have a
significant positive effect on the construct ‘urge to buy impulsively’ as well as on the construct impulsive buying behaviour.
Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H2A. Money availability positively affects impulsive buying
behaviour
H2B. Money availability positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.2.2. Effect of economic well being
Economic well being refers to the overall financial health of the
individual (Badgaiyan, 2014). This is different from the variable
money availability on the account that an overall financial position
of the individual is being considered during the measurement of this
variable and the perspective considered in its evaluation is relatively
long term. It is expected that though impulsive buying behaviour is a
spontaneous phenomenon, however, its seeds are assumed to be
rooted in the deep down well being of the financial health of the
individual. Thus, those who score high on the economic well being
scale are assumed to be more impulsive buyers as compared to those
who score relatively low on it. Hence, it is being hypothesised that
H3A. Economic well being positively affects impulsive buying
behaviour
H3B. Economic well being positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.2.3. Effect of family influence
Based on the assumption that friends and relatives may
reinforce shopper's purchase decision, resulting in more purchases, the role of companions in affecting purchasing outcomes
has also been recognised in many studies. It was noted that stores
that attracted more couples, friends or groups of shoppers usually
had better results in terms of performance (Underhill, 1999). As
pointed out by Parboteeah (2005), the presence of peers increases
the urge to purchase, and the presence of family members
decreases it. The basic underlying reason for this could be the fact
that consumers may find family members more concerned with
economic issues and may thus consider impulsive purchasing as
undesirable (Luo, 2005). However, the counterview as also highlighted in the findings of Lin and Chen (2012) suggests that
increased susceptibility to interpersonal influence results in
greater tendency to buy on impulse. Even Anić and Radas (2006)
based on their research findings indicated that companions and
presence of children positively influenced purchasing outcomes.
Also, the findings from Badgaiyan and Verma (2014) indicated that
family oriented collectivists were more impulsive than the individualists. Thus, authors feel that in the traditionally collectivist
society such as India, where family needs are valued more than
individual needs, it is very much likely that in presence of family
members, the impulsive purchase might increase given the desire
within the individuals to buy for the other family members. Thus,
it is being hypothesised that
H4A. Family influence positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H4B. Family influence positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.2.4. Effect of availability of time
Time spent during shopping has also been identified as a factor
affecting impulsive buying. Even the marketing literature, consistent with economic theory, has assumed a relationship between
time scarcity and consumers demand for products that offer
convenience (Holbrook and Lehmann, 1981). Thus, it was reported
(Underhill, 1999; Mesiranta, 2009; Foroughi et al., 2012; Jeffrey
and Hodge, 2007) that the longer the shopper remained in a store,
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the chances of him or her making an impulsive purchase
increased. In the same vein, the studies by Nicholls et al. (1997)
found that shoppers who spent more time in the store purchased
more items and spent more money than the ones who were quick
to buy. An important study that highlighted this relationship
between time spent and impulsive purchase was by Beatty and
Ferrell (1998) who concluded that the time a consumer has for
shopping determines whether he or she will be impulsive or not.
However, it is worth mentioning that some contrary results have
also been found wherein no effect of the availability of time on
impulsive buying was reported (Pattipeilohy and Rofiaty, 2013;
Maymand and Ahmadinejad, 2011). Interestingly, Foroughi et al.
(2012) not only reported that time availability significantly
affected the positive mood, they also reported that positive mood
was, in turn, found to be significantly impacting the urge to buy
impulsively. It is thus hypothesised that
H5A. Time availability positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H5B. Time availability positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.2.5. Effect of credit card use
Many studies (Hirschman, 1979; Roberts and Jones, 2001) have
indicated that impulsive buying behaviour may be accelerated by
credit card use. In this regard, Feinberg (1986) performed four
experiments and reported that the presence of credit card cues
increased the probability, speed, and magnitude of spending.
Similarly, Roberts and Jones (2001) found that credit card use
encouraged excessive spending, while Soman (2001) reported that
those who used credit cards usually made extra purchases and also
tended to spend over their means. Also, as mentioned by
Karbasivar and Yarahmadi (2011), widespread credit card use
reflected consumer preferences regarding prearranged lines of
credit and could be impacting impulsive behaviour. Thus, evidence
suggests that credit card use could be a facilitating stimulus
impacting both the urge to buy impulsively as well as the ultimate
impulsive consumption. Thus, it is hypothesised that
H6A. Credit card use positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H6B. Credit card use positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.3. Situational factors related to stores
In lines with the aforementioned relationships related to
personal factors, the following sub-sections discuss the past
evidences and understanding related to the hypothesised relationships between the in-store factors and the two constructs of urge
to buy impulsively and the impulsive buying behaviour.
2.3.1. Effect of sales promotion
According to Etzel et al. (2001) sales promotion aims to
stimulate customer demands and encourages consumers to make
immediate purchases of a particular brand. Apart from influencing
the actual purchase, an effective and well planned promotion also
stimulates consumers' buying intentions (Palazon and Ballester,
2011). Various research findings have confirmed that consumers
tend to be more impulsive when there are sales or product
discounts (Laroche et al., 2003; Liao et al., 2009; Tinne, 2011;
Virvilaite et al., 2009). Needless to say, based on research evidences, it would be appropriate to hypothesise that
H7A. Sales promotion positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H7B. Sales promotion positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.3.2. Effect of store environment
In the beginning, Applebaum (1951) suggested that impulsive
purchase can be instigated by consumer's exposition to a stimulus of
the environment; later, other researchers (Stern, 1962; Rook, 1987;
Mohan et al., 2013) also indicated that the sudden emergency to buy
seems to be motivated by the visual confrontation with the product or
by stimuli of the environment. In same vein, Babin and Kim (2001)
reported that store space containing arrangement of the commodities,
lighting, and using the colours can significantly affect the purchase
behaviour of consumers, while Xu (2007) pointed out that store
environment influences the consumers' emotional state which may
ultimately result in impulsive buying. Needless to say, although some
studies (Nicholls et al., 1997) did report contrary findings, not many
would agree in totality that store environment did not influence
purchasing behaviour. This was corroborated by the finding of Mihic
and Kursan (2010) wherein results showed that the purchase environment factors intensified impulsive purchase behaviour. A run
through the literature reveals that store environment promoted
impulsive buying, and a number of authors (e.g. Iyer et al., 1989;
Crawford and Melewar, 2003; Mattila and Wirtz, 2008; Chavosh et al.,
2011; etc.) have reported ‘store environment’ being an important
determinant of unplanned impulsive purchases. Since store environment is expected to impact shoppers' feeling of arousal and pleasure
(Graa and Dani-elKebir, 2012), it is obviously expected to impact the
urge to buy impulsively as well. Thus, it is hypothesised that
H8A. Store environment positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H8B. Store environment positively affects urge to buy impulsively
2.3.3. Effect of friendly store employees
The presence of well behaved salesperson in the store could act
as an extraordinary service to consumers. It is supposed that by
providing information about goods, different alternatives, and
solving related queries, the shop staff stimulates process of
impulsive purchasing (Virvilaitė et al., 2011). The fact that persuasive and friendly salesperson triggers impulsive purchases among
consumers has been highlighted in many research outcomes
(Crawford and Melewar, 2003; Parboteeah, 2005; Tendai and
Crispen, 2009). This, to some extent, could be attributed to the
fact that praise from salesperson during the shopping may
increase the chances of impulsive purchase (Yu and Bastin,
2010), and also the fact that professional staff may reduce frustration of consumers by giving support during the process of buying
(Parboteeah, 2005). Thus, based on the research evidence, it can be
inferred that well trained store employees could very well instigate and influence the urge to buy impulsively through persuasive
and meaningful conversation ultimately leading to impulsive
purchase. Hence, it is hypothesised that
H9A. Friendly store employees positively affect impulsive buying
behaviour
H9B. Friendly store employees positively affect urge to buy
impulsively
2.3.4. Effect of store music
The power and presence of music in human lives are well
known, as music is considered to have soothing, and relaxing
touch capable of affecting the shoppers from the moment they
step through the door. Studies indicate that arousal induced by
music and aroma results in increased pleasure levels, which in
turn positively influences approach behaviour, and satisfaction
with the shopping experience (Morrison et al., 2011). It has been
pointed out by researchers (Areni and Kim, 1994; Donavan and
Rossiter, 1982) that music has the ability to influence a purchase
decision making process and carefully selected in-store music can
establish the right mood and thus the purchase outcome (Kellaris
and Kent, 1992). Also, it has been reported that music along with
lighting is an important trigger that creates an urge to purchase
impulsively (Eroglu and Machleit, 1993). Considering the positive
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
relationship between in-store music and purchase outcomes, it is
being hypothesised that
H10A. Store music positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H10B. Store music positively affects urge to buy impulsively
149
Kursan, 2010) showed that with respect to impulsive behaviour
there was not any significant difference between males and
females, while some studies have revealed opposite results too,
such as Cobb and Hoyer (1986) and Mai et al. (2003) reported that
men were more impulsive in buying as compared to women. Thus,
it can be safely hypothesised that
2.4. The control variables age and gender
H12A. Gender is significantly related to impulsive buying behaviour
As already mentioned in the conceptual framework, the age
and gender have been considered as control variables expected to
be related to both ‘urge to buy impulsively’ as well as the
‘impulsive buying behaviour’ (Figs. 1 and 2). The past studies have
indicated that in general, younger individuals have been found to
have higher impulsive buying tendencies compared to older
individuals (Wood, 1998; Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001). In this
regard, Bellenger et al. (1978) found that shoppers under 35 were
more prone to impulsive buying compared to those over 35 years
old, while research on trait impulsiveness indicated relatively
higher scores for young consumers than the older ones (Eysenck
and Eysenck, 1985). This might be attributed to relatively lesser
self-control exhibited by younger buyers with older individuals
demonstrating greater control over emotions than the younger
adults (Kacen and Lee, 2002). Some other studies have indicated
that impulsive buying behaviour has been found to be related to
age (Wood, 1998; Gutierrez, 2004). It is thus, hypothesised that
H12B. Gender is significantly related to urge to buy impulsively
H11A. Age is significantly related to impulsive buying behaviour
H11B. Age is significantly related to urge to buy impulsively
In the same lines, studies have revealed that gender has been
significantly related to impulsive buying behaviour (Rook and
Hoch, 1985; Coley and Burgess, 2003; Gilboa, 2009; Verplanken
and Herabadi, 2001; Gutierrez, 2004). Also, lsler and Atilla (2013)
stated that females were more inclined for instinctive shopping
than males. This might be attributed the differences in emotional
expression (Fisher and Dubé, 2005) between men and women.
Interestingly, some other studies (Ghani et al., 2011; Mihic and
3. Methodology and analysis
Data collection was personally undertaken by the authors and for
selecting respondents, purposive sampling was used. The primary
reason for selecting purposive sampling was a) as no fixed list can be
prepared about the prospective consumers as to who shall be and
when will they be visiting the concerned outlet for any purchase,
probability sampling could not be a realistic technique, and b) as nonserious respondents were likely to affect the real outcome of the
research, it was considered that purposive sampling be used and only
genuinely interested candidates be approached and requested for
furnishing information and opinions. To avoid nonresponse bias,
respondents were assured about the confidentiality of the research
and were briefed about the importance of the research as well. The
tests for response bias, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
conducted to test whether there were any significant differences in
our variables based on the respondents' gender and age, and nonsignificant results were obtained. The variables in the study were
selected as per the judgment of subject experts after careful survey of
the literature.
For finding the right sample size, the authors looked at various
possible perspectives, including a) sample size determination
tables (maximum sample size of 384 as per Krejcie and Morgan
(1970)); b) type of scales used in the instrument (calculations
revealed a maximum sample size of 384 for 7 point Likert-type
scale); c) a-priori power analysis estimation using Gnpower
(sample size of 400 based on the possible data analysis
Personal Factors
Money Availability
Economic Wellbeing
Family Influence
Urge to buy
impulsively
Time Availability
Credit-card Use
In-store Factors
Sales Promotions
Impulsive Buying
Behaviour
Store Environment
Friendly employees
Age
Store Music
Fig. 1. Conceptual framework.
Gender
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Fig. 2. Structural Equation Model.
techniques); and d) based on the number of factors to be analysed
(sample size of 500 as suggested by Comrey and Lee (1992)). Thus,
the maximum of the four possibilities was selected and hence a
sample size of 500 was considered adequate. However, even
though data were collected personally, taking an even safer
perspective, the authors targeted a sample size of 525. With few
minor incomplete and unclear responses, the final sample size was
508. The sampling profile has been presented in Table 1.
a confirmatory factor analysis since the researcher specifies which
factors will load on which constructs a priori and the assessment
of the measurement model determines the extent to which the
observed variables load on the latent variables (Byrne, 2010).
Results indicated that all the factors loaded adequately on the
related constructs with construct-wise average factor loading
exceeding the threshold value of .7 (Byrne, 2010) and all the
individual items loadings being more than .4 (Ferdinand, 2006).
3.1. Research instrument
A two step data analysis process was adopted. First, the
development of measurement was used to assess the overall
measurement strength of the constructs along with their validity.
Later, structural model was developed for testing the hypothesised
relationships in the study.
3.2.1.1. Common method variance test. Since in survey research
mono-method bias is expected to influence responses and hence
results, after examining measurement model, common method
variance test was conducted. For this, all the variables were loaded
on one factor to examine the fit of the confirmatory factor analysis
model. Results indicated extremely poor fit, with almost all the
indicators showing poor fit scores χ2 ¼1620, p ¼.000; GFI¼ .69;
CFI¼.65; TLI¼ .61; and RMSEA ¼.13. Thus, as per Podsakoff et al.
(2003), the absence of common method variance was confirmed.
Results from measurement model were used to test the
discriminant and convergent validity of the constructs. As clear
from the table showing results related to validity examination, for
all the constructs the two necessary conditions for discriminant
validity (MSVoAVE, and ASV o AVE) were fulfilled. Similarly, for
assessing the convergent validity, the three conditions (a. Composite Reliability (CR) being greater than .7; b) Composite Reliability
(CR) being greater than Average Variance Extracted (CR 4AVE);
and c) Average Variance Extracted (AVE) being greater than .5)
were found to be satisfied. Thus, the model had excellent convergent as well as discriminant validity (Tables 2–4).
3.2.1. The measurement model
The measurement model specifies the latent variables under
study and their associated observed variables, as well as the
theoretical relationships underlying the construct. It is similar to
3.2.2. The structural model
The measurement model showed that constructs were related to
each other with visibly acceptable levels of convergent validity,
discriminant validity, and reliability. Thus, structural model showing
The data was collected through direct surveys using questionnaires given to the respondents. Scale items were adopted from
previous studies and Cronbach's alpha was calculated to check the
reliability of measurement instruments. In addition, the researchers also conducted interviews with respondents to obtain information with their shopping behaviour during their visit to the
shopping mall. An inferential statistical method used to test the
causal relationships in the study was the Structural Equation
Model (SEM) using Amos. 20. The details regarding the measurement constructs are mentioned below.
3.2. Confirmatory analysis using Structural Equation Modelling
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
151
Table 1
Sampling profile.
Gender
Age
Marital status
Employment status
Education level
Income level
Male
Female
Less than 20 years
Between 20 and 30 years
Between 30 and 40 years
Between 40 and 50 years
More than 50 years
More than 60 years
Single
Married
Divorced
Widowed
Employed
Not-employed
Middle school or below
High school only
Diploma
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree or above
Below INR 1.5 lakhs (less than $2727)
Between INR 1.5 and INR 3.5 lakhs (between $2727 and $6364)
Between INR 3.5 lakhs and INR 5.5 lakhs (between $6364 and $10,000)
Between INR 5.5 lakhs and INR 7.5 lakhs (between $10,000 and $13,637)
Above INR 7.5 lakhs (above $13,637)
Frequency
Per cent
Cumulative %
267
241
62
241
104
35
38
28
256
233
8
11
306
202
15
36
93
211
153
164
181
74
47
42
52.6
47.4
12.2
47.4
20.5
6.9
7.5
5.5
50.4
45.9
1.6
2.2
60.2
39.8
3.0
7.1
18.3
41.5
30.1
32.3
35.6
14.6
9.3
8.3
52.6
100
12.2
59.6
80.1
87.0
94.5
100.0
50.4
96.3
97.8
100.0
60.2
100.0
3.0
10.0
28.3
69.9
100.0
32.3
67.9
82.5
91.7
100.0
Table 2
Reliability of constructs used in the study.
Construct
Number of items
Cronbach alpha
Urge to purchase (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998)
Money availability (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998)
Economic well being (Rosenstone et al., 1986; Wu, 2006)
Family influence (modified version of Mihic and Kursan (2010))
Time availability (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998)
Credit card use (modified version of Karbasivar and Yarahmadi (2011))
Sales promotion (adopted form Karbasivar and Yarahmadi (2011) and Youn and Faber (2000))
Store environment (Badgaiyan, 2014)
Friendly employees (Mihic and Kursan, 2010)
Store music (Mihic and Kursan, 2010)
Impulsive buying behaviour (modified version of Mattila and Wirtz (2008))
3
3
3
3
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
.85
.82
.86
.82
.75
.84
.83
.74
.91
.82
.78
the hypothesised relationships between the latent constructs and the
paths between the latent variables and their associated observed
variables was examined and relationships between the independent
variables and the dependent variables were modelled.
The results related to goodness of fit evaluation indicated decent fit
for the structural model. The chi-square test results were decent
CMIN/DF¼ 2.617, while other indicators showed decent fit for the
model (GFI¼.902, RMSEA¼.056, AGFI¼.86, CFI¼ .952, TLI¼.937).
Based on the recommendations of Hair et al. (2010) that insufficiency
of goodness fit models associated with the Chi Square test results may
be accepted on condition that the CFI or TLI value reaches .95 or more
and less than the value of RMSEA .08, the structural model was
accepted to be fit for testing the hypothesis.
3.2.3. Hypotheses testing
All hypotheses were tested using confirmatory analysis in
structure modelling. The results of hypotheses testing are summarised in Table 5.
4. Results and discussion
As clear from Table 5, all five personal factors impacting the
purchase situation, namely, money availability (beta¼.064, p¼.049),
economic well being (beta¼.052, p¼.020), family influence,
(beta¼ .187, p¼ nnn), time availability, (beta¼ .132, p¼ nnn), and
credit card use (beta¼ .068, p¼ nnn) had significant positive impact
on impulsive buying behaviour. On the other hand, only two –
money availability (beta¼.354, p¼ nnn) and credit card use
(beta¼ .118, p¼ nnn) – out of the mentioned five personal factors
were found to significantly impact the urge to buy impulsively.
In the same vein, regarding the impact of four in-store factors,
results revealed that sales promotion (beta ¼.163, p ¼ nnn), store
environment (beta ¼.076, p ¼ nnn), and friendly store employees
(beta ¼.228, p ¼ nnn) significantly affected impulsive buying behaviour. Interestingly, the results related to impact of in-store factors
on ‘urge to buy impulsively’ indicated that only friendly store
employees (beta ¼.535, p ¼ nnn) were found to have significant
impact, while the other three factors were found unrelated.
Importantly, store music was found to be unrelated to both the
‘urge to buy impulsively’ (beta ¼.035, p ¼.221) as well the ‘impulsive buying behaviour’ (beta ¼ .037, p ¼ .065).
Also, with regard to the control variables, results indicated that
while the construct ‘urge to buy impulsively’ was found insignificantly related to both age (beta ¼ .027, p¼ .340) as well as
gender (beta ¼ .011, p¼ .882), impulsive buying behaviour was
found to be unrelated to gender (beta ¼.038, p ¼.457), but was
significantly negatively related to age (beta ¼ .084, p ¼ nnn). This
152
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
Table 3
Item measurement properties.
Construct
Item
Loading
Urge to purchase
I experienced a number of sudden urges to buy things I had not planned to purchase on this trip.
On this trip, I saw a number of things I wanted to buy even though they were not on my shopping list.
On this trip, I felt a sudden urge to buy something.
I did not feel I can afford to make any unplanned purchases on this trip.
I feel that I had enough extra money on this shopping trip so that I can splurge a little if I find something I really like.
I was on tight budget on this shopping trip.
Would you say that you are financially better off or worse off than you were a year ago?
In comparison to the cost of living, how has your income changed during the last year?
For last year or so, how have you been feeling about your financial health?
When shopping with family members, I buy more products.
When I am with family members, I end up spending more than planned.
I impulsively buy a product because of my family members.
I have limited time available to me for this particular shopping trip.
The amount of time pressure I feel on this shopping trip could be characterised as.
I generally use credit card.
I mostly avoid purchasing through credit card.
I use credit card to buy impulsively.
If I see discount price, I tend to buy impulsively.
If I see an interesting promotional offer (reduced price, sales etc.) on in-store signs, I tend to buy.
I am more likely to make an unintended purchase if the product has a sale or clearance sign.
The store had a pleasant shopping environment.
The store environment was excellent.
I did not find the store environment pleasant.
Friendly and skilled staff often talks me into buying a product I didn't plan to buy.
Employees in the store affected my buying behaviour and choice.
Sales people turn my product queries into a product purchase.
Nice music can induce me to buy more.
Music in the store positively affects my shopping.
Music in the store had no affect on my buying.
I ended up spending more money than I originally set out to spend.
I bought more than what I had planned to buy.
I indulged in impulsive buying.
.808
.933
.892
.953
.806
.763
.765
.985
.933
.962
.696
.835
.745
.809
.772
.827
.978
.936
.908
.705
.925
.494
.864
.976
.925
.863
.634
.971
.918
.890
.838
.659
Money availability
Economic well being
Family influence
Time availability
Credit card use
Sales promotion
Store environment
Friendly employees
Store music
Impulsive buying behaviour
Table 4
Validity examination results for the measurement constructs.
IBB
PFAMILY
SPromo
SEnviron
SEmp
SMusic
TAvail
CC
EW
MA
UTB
CR
AVE
MSV
ASV
IBB
.842
.823
.890
.819
.945
.887
.753
.897
.926
.881
.911
.643
.705
.733
.615
.851
.729
.605
.745
.809
.713
.773
.203
.187
.232
.226
.548
.096
.181
.095
.138
.404
.548
.087
.096
.107
.111
.174
.048
.098
.046
.068
.137
.223
.802
.404
.380
.234
.345
.001
.215
.173
.235
.226
.450
PFAMILY
SPromo
SEnviron
SEmp
SMusic
TAvail
CC
EW
MA
.336
.355
.229
.319
.187
.253
.452
.482
.475
.310
.343
.203
.265
.296
.432
.280
.411
.184
.270
.479
.740
.161
.271
.028
.078
.271
.239
.253
.426
.401
.127
.129
.309
.332
.372
.636
UTB
.840
.340
.377
.266
.231
.251
.299
.276
.433
means, as per the results, impulsive behaviour varies negatively
with age, while it does not vary with gender.
Thus, the results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that
out of the total 23 hypotheses, 13 hypotheses were found to be
supported. Interestingly, majority of hypotheses (8 out of a total of
9) relating to the impact of various situational variables on
impulsive buying behaviour were found to be supported, with
the only exception being the variable store music. On the other
hand, only 3 out of a total 9 similar hypotheses were found to be
supported for the impact of situational variables on the variable
‘urge to buy impulsively’.
Importantly, results have highlighted that the impact of situational
factors—both personal and in-store—on impulsive buying behaviour
appeared to be different as compared to the impact of these factors on
the urge to buy impulsively. This, in itself, is an important finding that
highlights the difference between the two constructs of ‘impulsive
buying behaviour’ and ‘urge to buy impulsively’ even though the two
constructs showed highly positive significant association. While
almost all but one situational factor was found to be significantly
impacting the actual impulsive buying behaviour, only three of these
factors, namely, money availability, friendly store employees, and
credit card use were found to be affecting the ‘urge to buy impulsively’.
This clearly raises question on the proposition that ‘urge to buy
impulsively’ is a prior stage of impulsive buying behaviour (Beatty
and Ferrell, 1998; Foroughi et al., 2012), because as results showed
many of the situational factors were found to be unrelated to ‘urge to
buy impulsively’ while still being found to be significantly affecting the
impulsive buying behaviour. This means the effect of situational factors
on impulsive buying behaviour has not been found to be routed
through the urge to buy impulsively.
However, as the analysis showed that hypothesised relationship between the urge to buy impulsively and the actual impulsive
buying behaviour was significantly positive, it could be safely
inferred that the two constructs were highly related. This is in line
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
153
Table 5
Summary of results related to hypotheses testing.
Hypotheses
H1: ‘Urge to buy impulsively’ positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
Hypotheses related to personal factors
H2A: Money availability positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H2B: Money availability positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H3A: Economic well being positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H3B: Economic well being positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H4A: Family influence positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H4B: Family influence positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H5A: Time availability positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H5B: Time availability positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H6A: Credit card use positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H6B: Credit card use positively affects urge to buy impulsively
Hypotheses related to In-store factors
H7A: Sales promotion positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H7B: Sales promotion positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H8A: Store environment positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H8B: Store environment positively affects urge to buy impulsively
H9A: Friendly store employees positively affect impulsive buying behaviour
H9B: Friendly store employees positively affect urge to buy impulsively
H10A: Store music positively affects impulsive buying behaviour
H10B: Store music positively affects urge to buy impulsively
Hypotheses related to control variables
H11A: Age is significantly related to impulsive buying behaviour
H11B: Age is significantly related to urge to buy impulsively
H12A: Gender is significantly related to impulsive buying behaviour
H12B: Gender is significantly related to urge to buy impulsively
with results from studies by Beatty and Ferrell (1998) and
Foroughi et al. (2012) and it must be noted that even if the felt
urge to buy impulsively did not turn out to be the necessarily
preceding stage of impulsive buying, it could be assumed to be an
important and significant component of actual impulsive behaviour. The discussion on specific findings is mentioned hereunder.
4.1. Influence of situational factors related to the person
All five personal factors were found to be impacting impulsive
buying behaviour. However, the fact that money availability and
credit card use were found to be significantly impacting the urge
to buy impulsively, while economic well being was found to be
unrelated clearly shows that ‘urge to buy impulsively’ was a
construct impacted by immediate availability of finances. At the
same time, the construct impulsive buying behaviour being significantly related to money availability, credit card use and even
the economic well being showed that it was being affected by both
the short-term as well as the long-term economic well being.
Specifically, though money availability was found to be significantly
affecting both the urge to buy impulsively as well as the impulsive
buying behaviour, however, a close look at the beta coefficient values
for the two relationships clearly reveals the fact that impact of money
availability seemed to be far greater on the ‘urge to buy impulsively’
than the actual impulsive buying behaviour. This, in a way, indicates
that there is every possibility that money availability affects the urge to
buy impulsively, which in turn, under the affect of other stimulating
factors, be ultimately resulting in impulsive buying. These results
related to significant relationship between money availability and
impulsive buying behaviour justify research results of Babin et al.
(1994) and Beatty and Ferrell (1998) and also corroborate the research
findings of Mai et al. (2003) who opined that the availability of money
was a facilitator in the impulsive buying process. However, these
findings are contrary to some studies as well (e.g. Pattipeilohy and
Rofiaty, 2013; Maymand and Ahmadinejad, 2011) wherein it was
reported that there was no effect of the availability of money on
impulsive buying.
p
Result
9.998
nnn
Supported.
.033
.046
.022
.032
.032
.046
.033
.046
.019
.027
1.973
7.713
2.323
1.316
5.782
.104
3.999
.587
3.551
4.323
.049
nnn
.020
.188
nnn
.917
nnn
.557
nnn
nnn
Supported
Supported
Supported
Not Supported
Supported
Not Supported
Supported
Not Supported
Supported
Supported
.163
.102
.076
.003
.228
.535
.037
.035
.039
.055
.022
.032
.035
.045
.020
.029
4.219
1.865
3.403
.080
6.576
11.97
1.84
1.22
nnn
.062
nnn
.937
nnn
nnn
.065
.221
Supported
Not Supported
Supported
Not Supported
Supported
Supported
Not Supported
Not Supported
.08
.02
.038
.011
.019
.028
.051
.073
4.36
.954
.743
.148
nnn
.340
.457
.882
Supported
Not Supported
Not Supported
Not Supported
Estimate
S.E.
.320
.032
.064
.354
.052
.043
.187
.005
.132
.027
.068
.118
C.R.
Another personal factor, economic well being, was found to
have significant positive relationship with impulsive buying behaviour and had an insignificant effect on the urge to buy impulsively. This indicates two important aspects; a) that the construct
impulsive buying behaviour though seems to be reflecting the onthe-spot buying behaviour, still, it is impacted by the longer term
economic well being of the concerned individual, and b) that the
urge to buy impulsively is more impacted by the short run money
availability rather than the long run economic well being. This,
also in a way, beautifully highlights the difference between the
constructs of impulsive buying behaviour and the urge to buy
impulsively with the later being even more instantaneous and
short-term oriented than the former.
Regarding the variable family influence, the results indicated a
significant positive impact on impulsive buying behaviour, while
the ‘urge to buy impulsively’ was not found to be impacted. This
means that the presence of family members during the shopping
trips tended to increase impulsive purchases. This according to
results because shoppers tend to buy more products and spend
more money when accompanied by other people. The basic reason
for this according to Tinne (2011) was somewhat on account of
perceived self-discrepancy and an attempt to use material goods
to compensate the discrepancy, the presence of others increased
the likelihood of impulsive purchase. In Indian collectivist culture,
where the importance is given to relationships of the social group
in general, it is expected that people shopped more impulsively
when accompanied by the loved ones.
Another personal factor, the availability of time had the
significant positive effect on impulsive buying behaviour, while it
was not found to be impacting ‘urge to buy impulsively’. The
finding related to the significant positive effect of availability of
time on impulsive buying behaviour is similar to the findings of
Beatty and Ferrell (1998) who reported that time available did
have a positive and significant effect on in-store browsing thus
increasing the possibility of impulsive buying. The fifth personal
factor, credit card use also had significant positive impact on ‘urge
to buy impulsively’ as well as ‘impulsive buying behaviour’. This
154
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
corroborates the findings of Feinberg (1986) and Roberts and Jones
(2001) and highlights the facilitating nature of credit cards on
consumer spending.
4.2. Influence of in-store situational factors
Out of the four in-store variables, only store music was found to
be unrelated to impulsive buying behaviour, while the remaining
three factors, namely, sales promotion, friendly store employees,
and store environment, were found to significantly impact the
impulsive buying behaviour. Strangely, results indicated that sales
promotion had insignificant relationship with urge to buy impulsively, however, with p value (.06) being very close to significance
does indicate that there might be different results with bigger
samples. However, on expected lines, results indicated that sales
promotion had significant positive impact on impulsive buying
behaviour.
Coming to the impact of store environment, results indicated
the significant positive effect on impulsive buying behaviour,
while for the variable ‘urge to buy impulsively’ the effect was
insignificant. The significant positive effect of store environment
on impulsive buying behaviour is in line with the results from
Mattila and Wirtz (2001) who reported that consumers who rated
the environment significantly more positively exhibited higher
levels of impulsive buying behaviour. Also, Abdolvand et al. (2011)
reported similar results from their study while stating that
positive circumstances created by store environment were a main
factor in impulsive buying (Liao and Wang, 2009; Schiffman and
Kanuk, 2010). This finding was, however, contrary to the results
from Anić and Radas (2006), who reported that consumers that
found store atmosphere enjoyable did not spend more money and
did not purchased more items than shoppers who did not find
store atmosphere enjoyable.
Interestingly, results indicated that friendly store employees
were capable of positively impacting impulsive buying behaviour
as well as the urge to buy impulsively. In fact, the beta value being
more for the ‘urge to buy impulsively’ than ‘impulsive buying
behaviour’ could be indicative of the fact that talks from friendly
store employees first effect the urge to buy impulsively, which in
turn, culminates into actual impulsive purchase. This significant
positive effect of friendly store employees on impulsive buying
behaviour is similar to the findings of many other studies (Mattila
and Wirtz, 2008; Crawford and Melewar, 2003; Parboteeah, 2005;
Tendai and Crispen, 2009) and contrary to the findings of Park et
al. (2006) who reported negative impact of the interaction with
employee assistance on the tendency to buy impulsively. This
clearly calls for the possible important role sales people could play
in instigating impulsive purchase.
Also, results indicated that store music did not affect the
constructs, the ‘urge to buy impulsively’, as well as the ‘impulsive
buying behaviour’. This is contrary to the findings of Underhill
(1999) who reported that music was one of the factors affecting
the process of decision of the consumer.
4.3. The control variables
The study used age and gender as the control variables to
assess the possible variation in ‘impulsive buying behaviour’ and
the ‘urge to buy impulsively’. Results indicated that while the
construct ‘urge to buy impulsively’ was found insignificantly
related to both age as well as gender, the construct impulsive
buying behaviour was found to be unrelated to gender but was
significantly negatively related to age.
In past, conflicting results have been obtained related to the
relationship between gender and impulsive buying. While some
studies reported females to be more impulsive than males, (Lin and
Lin, 2005; Ghani et al., 2011), some other studies found men to be
more impulsive than women (Cobb and Hoyer, 1986; Wood, 1998;
Mai et al., 2003). Interestingly, our findings show that impulsive
buying behaviour does not vary with gender, which indicates that
the likelihood of females indulging in impulsive purchase is as high
as males. This clearly indicates the growing social equality of the
modern era and also highlights the fact that with more and more
working women, the conservative mindset of females has taken a
definite shift. For marketers, this should be an opportunity to target
both the groups with equal efforts.
5. Managerial implications
The study findings could provide valuable insight to practitioners. The strong correlation between the constructs of ‘impulsive buying behaviour’ and ‘the urge to buy impulsively’ could be
inferred to mean that if the marketers succeed in influencing the
urge through situational and marketing related factors, then, there
was every possibility that the urge might ultimately culminate into
actual impulsive buying.
Considering the fact that money availability was found to be
significantly impacting both, the urge to buy impulsively as well as
the impulsive buying behaviour, marketers could be benefitted
from this finding. Though retailers cannot directly increase the
pocket size of the consumers, still, they can create a financial
confidence in the consumers and can encourage credit spending so
that consumers who do not have cash at that moment do not shy
away from making purchases. Further, more credit facilities and
payment in parts could be made available to the customers so that
the negative effect of cash crunch is not reflected in the customers'
purchase decisions.
Given the fact that variable measuring relatively longer term
economic state, the economic well being, has also been found to
positively impact impulsive buying behaviour, the retailers call
should be “to make hay while the sun shines”. This means, that as
shoppers are impulsively willing to spend more during economic
good-times, the retailers should try to offer more varieties and
more options to the customers during the economic boom times.
As overall economic health of the country is duly reflected in the
individuals' economic health, taking a cue from the national
economic scenario, retailers can plan strategies to optimally utilise
the economic condition. Contrarily, during the economically tough
time, the retailers can plan accordingly so that huge inventories do
not pile up.
Also, it is important for marketers to encourage family shopping to take advantage of the positive effect of the presence of
family members. May be, special family contests in promotional
events, or the day's ‘best family award’ kind of activities could be
started with a view to encourage customers to shop with their
family members. Further, special schemes for group shoppers or
family shoppers could also be initiated with a view to encourage
family shopping. In addition to this, retailers can also develop
promotional messages that promote the idea of shopping together.
Overall, this finding could be immensely useful from retailers'
prospective as it provides huge scope to instigate impulsive buying
behaviour while promoting the collective culture of shopping.
Keeping in mind the significant positive impact of time availability on impulsive buying behaviour, retailers must try to affect the
time shoppers think they have available in the store. This can be
done by making the entire shopping experience more efficient and
may be help desks could be established to help the consumers who
seem to be in hurry. Additionally, appropriate displays and interesting events, friendly staff, appropriate aromas and lighting might also
encourage customers to spend more time at the store, thereby
resulting in impulsive purchases. Thus, the entire shopping
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
experience must be carefully planned so that consumers feel that
every moment spent inside the worth was a pleasant experience.
Based on the finding that highlighted positive influence of
credit card use on impulsive buying behaviour, credit card use
should be encouraged so as to further increase the chances of
impulsive buying. Though it might just sound to be overtly
stretched suggestion, however, efforts could be made to provide
the instalment based payment options to the purchase of even
small ticket items so that the possible postponement on account of
unavailability of money at the buying point could be overcome.
Also, retailers could come up with special schemes such as
discounts on buying through credit cards so that consumers could
be more encouraged to develop the habit of credit card usage.
Expectedly, with results indicating significant relationship
between sales promotion and impulsive buying behaviour, marketers can go for the use of sales promotion for their weaker
brands or even for stronger brands in case the inventories have
piled up. However, it is important to note that though sales
promotions remain one of the oldest and most preferred methods
of increasing sales, there can always be relevant questions raised
about the long term effect of sales promotions on consumer
attitudes of the promoted brand.
Considering the positive relationship between store environment and impulsive buying behaviour, from retailers' point of
view, they need to ensure that customers' feel good factor is
assessed not only in terms of the quality of the product or the
monetary discounts on offer, but also on the overall store feel. For
this, on periodic basis, efforts should be made to take customer
feedback about their overall feel within the store and efforts
should be made to improve the store atmosphere.
Also, as friendly sales employees were found to be significantly
affecting the impulsive buying behaviour, notwithstanding the fact
that every additional sales guy adds onto the company cost, still,
firms should try to not only assess properly the number of sales
guys in the stores but should also look to evaluate their effectiveness and should try to provide necessary training for developing
the requisite convincing and impulse instigating skills.
Lastly, in view of the significant inverse relationship between
impulsive buying and age, retailers need to ensure that they focus
more on younger individuals as the chances of impulsive buying is
more with adolescents and young buyers rather than with relatively older group of buyers. Thus, from designing promotional
messages to deciding about the gift offers, the taste of the youth
should be given due consideration.
6. Conclusions, limitations and scope for future research
The important conclusions along with the limitations and
future scope for related research are being discussed hereunder.
6.1. Conclusion
The study presents useful insight about the role of situational
factors in impacting impulsive buying behaviour. The very fact that
study tested 23 hypotheses, had 11 variables, and was based on
analysis of 508 responses using a sophisticated analytical technique of Structural Equation Modelling indicates the rigour and
comprehensiveness of the study.
Interestingly, the fact that 8 situational variables—money availability, economic well being, family influence, sales promotion, store
environment, friendly store employees, time availability, and credit
card—were found to be significantly affecting impulsive buying
behaviour sums up the important contribution of this empirical
research. Given these results, retailers in Indian context in particular,
and in culturally similar subcontinent countries in general, could
155
develop effective marketing strategies to fully exploit the plethora of
opportunities in retail sector through optimal instigation of impulsive
buying. The fact that study incorporated hitherto overlooked variable
such as economic well being means not only instantaneous perspective was considered, but also, a holistic view was considered regarding
the factors impacting in a given purchase situation.
The significant positive effect of money availability, credit card
use, and economic well being on impulsive buying behaviour
clearly highlighted the impact of finance in impulsive buying. This
indicates that though purchasing power of the individuals has
surely been improving with economic development, financial
considerations still affect the impulsive purchase decisions. Thus,
marketers should try to carefully plan not only the pricing
strategies but also the promotional policies to benefit from
consumers ‘go for discount’ mindset. Also, with results indicating
the positive effect of store environment and family influence,
marketers should aim to develop strategies to create a homely and
full-of-comfort feel in the stores.
These findings not only add to the knowledge base in Indian
context, but could also be useful for marketers who could frame
strategies to ensure that impact of situational factors in affecting
impulsive purchase is optimally utilised. The considerable potential of situational factors in impacting impulsive behaviour coupled
with an ever growing retail sector clearly indicates that global
retail giants could effectively use the various stimulating strategies
to optimally utilise the potentially lucrative Indian market. With
insights from this study, retailers may be able to better understand
and predict the effects of situational factors on consumers' shopping behaviour. Research results indicate that managers need to be
sensitive to the fact that the family members' presence positively
influences purchasing outcomes. Thus, they should design such
store environment that would attract a lot of shopping parties,
parents with children, and foster discussion among them at the
same time.
Another significant contribution of the study has been examining the construct ‘urge to buy impulsively’ and its association with
various situational variables. The results indicated that urge to buy
impulsively is significantly affected by availability of money,
friendly store employees and credit card use. This highlighted
the fact that store employees impact the urge to buy which is then
converted into impulsive buying behaviour. Further, on one hand,
the strong positive effect of ‘urge to buy impulsively’ on ‘impulsive
buying behaviour’ reflected the close association between the two
constructs, while on the other hand, the fact that urge to buy
impulsively was only being affected by three situational variables
highlighted difference between the urge and the actual impulsive
buying behaviour.
Overall, the research endeavour throws light on important
implementable aspects related to retail marketing has examined
important and relevant relationships and has suggested practically
implementable implications. Needless to say, apart from adding
onto the knowledge base, the research is bound to provide
strategic aid to retail organisations.
6.2. Limitations and scope for future research
Although this study produced some meaningful insights, still,
there are some limitations as well. Like most marketing research, the
study used a one-time collection of data and might have missed out
on the considered opinion of the respondents. If responses could be
collected periodically stretched over a longer duration, further
information as to how consumer impulsive behaviour changes could
be noted and so could be the impact of situational factors.
Also, considering the fact that the research was conducted in
the Malls of the capital city, there was every possibility of finding
differing outcomes if the research was repeated in the smaller
156
A.J. Badgaiyan, A. Verma / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 22 (2015) 145–157
cities. Thus, prior to generalisation of findings, further studies
need to be undertaken with wider spread of sample units.
Further, with the trend shifting towards online purchasing,
research investigations could be undertaken to assess the impact
of related situational factors in online context. Research may be
conducted in other store types to see whether the same patterns
of situation dimensions and consumer purchasing behaviour
emerge there.
Lastly, more extensive samples and possible comparison in different geographical areas could also be undertaken and a combined
influence of both situational as well as psychological variables could be
assessed to find out their cumulative impact on impulsive buying.
Acknowledgements
The authors want to extend their gratitude towards the Editor
and the anonymous Reviewers for their indispensable and valuable suggestions and comments that improved the quality of the
paper significantly.
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