The Role of Need for Cognitive Closure, Psychological wellbeing, and Social Factors on Impulse Purchasing

Previous studies of impulse buying have long been studied and mainly focused on factors linked to marketing mix variables, situational factors, and consumer demographics and traits. Recently, new distribution channels such as home shopping channels, discount stores, and Internet stores operating 24 hours increase possibility of the consumer’s impulse purchase. However, previous literature has predominantly focused on situational and marketing variables and thus lacks studies considering critical consumer characteristics. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study investigates whether impulse buying tendency has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior, and how consumer characteristics such as need for cognitive closure (NFCC), psychological wellbeing, and susceptibility to interpersonal influence affect impulse buying tendency. The survey results showed that consumer affective impulsivity has a strong, positive impact on behavior; that high NFCC is related to cognitive impulsivity, whereas psychological wellbeing constructs are rarely associated with affective and cognitive impulsivity; and that while informational influence is negatively associated with, normative influence is positively linked to impulsivity. The results demonstrated theoretical implications suggesting that impulsivity is mainly driven by avoidance of negative psychological traits such as NFCC, and these trait variables should capture negative side and avoid studying positive aspects of side of the consumers such as psychological wellbeing. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed in conclusion.