Abstract
Fast food vendors use a sensory cue to trigger impulsive buying behaviour. Though impulse buying has gained interestamong researchers, little has been done concerning food in Ghana. The purpose of the study was to investigate thecontribution of the sensory cue on customer’s emotions and cognition and impulsive buying behaviour. The study findsanswers to the succeeding research questions: what sensory cue impacts on consumer emotion and cognition? And doesemotion and cognition influence consumer’s impulsive buying behaviour. A proposed theoretical model identifies visual,audio, and tactile dimensions as the sensory cue, emotions, and cognitive as mediation variable and impulsive buyingbehaviour as the outcome. Data were collected from 241 customers who were residence in Tema and have patronizedthe services of food vendors for a minimum of two years using a convenience sampling technique. The suggestedhypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The result of thestudy shows that visual, audio, and tactile dimensions have a positive relationship with emotion but a negativerelationship with cognition. Regarding directs effect, the study revealed that there is a positive relationship betweenemotion and impulsive buying behaviour whiles cognition has a negative effect on impulsive buying behaviour. Thestudy recommended that managers must induce impulsive buying using characteristics of the food they serve and theenvironments in which they operate to stimulate customers' arousal and pleasure and provide enough information toalleviate the risk customers consider before buying food. The findings may not be generalized since the data wascollected in specific areas in Tema.
 Citation: Edward Markwei Martey, Racheal Markwei Martey and Kingsford Adenutsi. The influence of sensory cue onemotion, cognition and impulse buying behaviour of fast-food vendors in Ghana, 2020; 5(4): 12－29.
 Received: October 23, 2020Accepted: December 31, 2020
Highlights
1.1 Background Over the past decade, many researchers have tried to understand what triggers impulse buying behaviour
From the literature reviewed and data analyzed, it comes out that, visual, audio, and tactile dimensions have a positive effect on customer emotions: pleasure and arousal while cognitive is reduced by the visual, audio, and tactile dimensions
It has been realized that as customers are aroused by sensory cues, there is is a perceived risk aspect that discourages impulsive buying behaviour
Summary
1.1 Background Over the past decade, many researchers have tried to understand what triggers impulse buying behaviour. Studies have shown an association amongst sensory cues and impulse buying of food (Crouch, & Ong, 2008). These claims have not been substantiated with scientific methods (Köster, 2009) or descriptive techniques (Murray, Delahunty, & Baxter, 2001). Many food joints have sorted to using fresh scents to appeal to the emotions of customers to buy impulsively. It appears that food is cooked after orders have been placed and the smell is found during cooking. Sensors appeal to a customer’s emotional mechanism to impulse buying behaviour. (Chang et al, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
