A study on how social media influences on impulsive buying

Abstract

AbstractThe rapid development of the Internet has led to a shift in how people communicate, with social media becoming an essential vehicle for communication and information exchange. In this context, social media influencers have emerged. With expertise in a particular field and strong influence, they can change customers' attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Although social media influencers have been widely studied in the marketing field, most scholars at this stage mainly study the change in customers' attitudes and purchasing behaviors towards brands, without considering the contingency of consumers' participation in influencer marketing activities in the context of social media. Plus, researchers did not pay sufficient attention to customers' impulsive purchasing behaviors. Thus, this article investigated the factors influencing customers' impulsive buying behavior in social media influencer marketing situations. This study built an elaboration likelihood model (i.e., ELM) to explore the factors and mediating variables contributing to customers' impulsive buying behavior. Questionnaires were used to explore the factors influencing customers' impulsive buying behavior in a social media influencer marketing context. Respondents' attitudes on each dimension were measured using well‐established scales from existing research, and the data were processed to draw conclusions. Findings showed that in the influencer marketing context, consumers' perceived social value and influencer expertise would not directly impact their impulsive buying behavior. Functional and emotional values could lead to impulse buying behavior, while social values would not lead to customer inspiration. Moreover, authenticity and influence both contributed to impulsive buying behaviors. The findings might have important implications for influencer marketing and further studies on impulsive buying. Companies should select authentic and influential influencers; what's more, the influencers should be sincere and enhance their influence to gain consumers' trust.