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

Li Xiang, Xiabing Zheng, Matthew K.O. Lee and Dingtao Zhao

International Journal of Information Management, 2016, vol. 36, issue 3, 333-347

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Social commerce platform; Parasocial interaction; Urge to buy impulsively; Impulse buying tendency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401215001036
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ininma:v:36:y:2016:i:3:p:333-347

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2015.11.002

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Information Management is currently edited by Yogesh K. Dwivedi

More articles in International Journal of Information Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().