Investigating Impulse Buying and Variety Seeking: Towards a General Theory of Hedonic Purchase Behaviors

Sharma, Piyush; Sivakumaran, Bharadhwaj; Marshall, Roger

Investigating Impulse Buying and Variety Seeking: Towards a General Theory of Hedonic Purchase Behaviors

Piyush Sharma, Nanyang Business School, Singapore

Bharadhwaj Sivakumaran, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India

Roger Marshall, Nanyang Business School, Singapore

Although impulse buying (IB) and variety seeking (VS) are both low-effort feelings-based behaviors with similar underlying psycho-social processes, there is no general theory to explain such hedonic purchase behaviors. This paper explores similarities and differences between these behaviors using a conceptual framework incorporating three relevant consumer traits – consumer impulsiveness, optimum stimulation level and self-monitoring. The findings from two studies across student and retail customer samples, show that consumer impulsiveness and optimum stimulation level influence both behaviors positively, whereas self-monitoring influences IB negatively and VS positively. Self-monitoring also moderates the influence of consumer impulsiveness and optimum stimulation level on purchase decisions, negatively for IB and positively for VS.

Citation:

Piyush Sharma, Bharadhwaj Sivakumaran, and Roger Marshall (2006) ,"Investigating Impulse Buying and Variety Seeking: Towards a General Theory of Hedonic Purchase Behaviors", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 33, eds. Connie Pechmann and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 388-389.

Authors

Piyush Sharma, Nanyang Business School, Singapore
Bharadhwaj Sivakumaran, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India
Roger Marshall, Nanyang Business School, Singapore

Volume

NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 33 | 2006

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