VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY VAN THANH THAO A STUDY ON THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ONLINE IMPULSE BUYING IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM MASTER’S THESIS VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY VAN THANH THAO A STUDY ON THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ONLINE IMPULSE BUYING IN THE CONTEXT OF VIETNAM MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION CODE: 8340101.01 RESEARCH SUPERVISORS: PROF. MOTONARI TANABU DR. BUI MY TRINH Hanoi, 2023 [STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT I have read and understood the plagiarism violations. I pledge with personal honor that this research result is my own and does not violate the Regulation on prevention of plagiarism in academic and scientific research activities at Vietnam Japan University (Issued together with Decision No 700/QĐ-ĐHVN dated 30/9/2021 by the Rector of Vietnam Japan University).
This dissertation is being submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the master’s degree in Business Administration. Other sources are acknowledged by giving explicit references.] The author, Van Thanh Thao ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am delighted to present this thesis, which is the result of my intensive study and personal development during my two-year studying at Vietnam – Japan university. Throughout this journey, I have faced numerous challenges but not once have I faced them alone. First, I would like to convey my profound appreciation to my thesis advisors: Prof.
Motonari Tanabu and Dr. Bui My Trinh. Their unwavering guidance and constructive feedback have pointed me in the right direction, pulling me back from many times I got off the track. Furthermore, I would like to extend my gratitude to Prof.
Yoshiki Matsui, Prof. Hisashi Kurata and Prof. Sadami Suzuki for their valuable comments during the weekly joint seminars. Second, I would like to acknowledge Mr.
Nguyen Ngoc Anh and Mr. Nguyen Anh Hao, PhD students at Yokohama National University (YNU). I consider myself very lucky to have the unconditional helps from my seniors at YNU. Being able to share my ideas with them and at the same time receiving practical advices from them helped me improve a lot in all aspects of my thesis.
Third, I am grateful for the constant encouragement of my friends and my fellow classmates. Whenever I was overwhelmed with the feelings of depression and self-doubt, they would always be there to cheer me on and remind me that I am capable of overcoming any obstacles. Lastly, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to all the professors and faculty members of Vietnam Japan University, Yokohama National University and Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (the program assistant) for their support during the past two years.
This thesis is dedicated to each and every one of you. The author, Van Thanh Thao ABSTRACT Purpose – This study aims to identify factors that influence impulse buying and the consequences of impulse buying towards livestreaming shopping in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 140 responses were collected using questionnaire survey methodology. Due to small sample size, data were subsequently analyzed using PLS-SEM.
Finding – The result finds positive and significant relationships between parasocial interaction and the two dimensions of flow state (enjoyment and concentration) whereas it finds no significant relationship between emotional contagion and these two dimensions. Both enjoyment and concentration have an influence on impulse buying. Besides, the study shows a significant connection between impulse buying and process regret whereas it shows no significant connection between impulse buying and outcome regret as well as satisfaction. Practical implications – E-retailers and E-marketers should leverage the combined effect of emotional contagion and parasocial interaction to stimulate impulse buying in a livestream environment.
At the same time, they should help consumers reduce process regret by providing adequate information and assistance based on suggestive recommendations so that customers can make more informed decisions. Although, customers’ satisfaction toward products during the post-purchase phase depend on other factors rather than the degree of impulse buying, e-retailers and e-marketers can still take advantage of the customer’s satisfaction towards the buying process by reminding them of this type of pleasure. Keywords: Live commerce, Impulse buying, Parasocial interaction, Emotional contagion, Flow state, Regret, Satisfaction, S-O-R theory. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
Research objectives and research questions .7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Review of S-O-R theory. Review of related definitions. Parasocial interaction and Emotional contagion as Stimuli.
Flow state as Organism. Impulse buying as Response. Satisfaction and Regret as Consequences. Review of related studies.
Emotional contagion and Flow state. Parasocial interaction and Flow state. Emotional contagion and Parasocial Interaction. Flow state and Impulse buying.
Impulse buying and Regrets. Impulse buying and Satisfaction. Regrets and Satisfaction .18 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Sampling and Data collection.
Data analysis methodology. Assessing the measurement model. Assessing the structural model .24 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND RESULTS. Assessing the measurement model.
Assessing the structural model. Limitations and future research directions .53 APPENDIX 2: MEASUREMENT SCALE .58 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Recent studies investigating factors that drive impulse buying behavior in Live Commerce. Related literature in the consequences of impulse buying.
Indicator and Construct Reliability. Discriminant validity - Fornell Larcker criterion. Discriminant validity - HTMT. Discriminant validity – HTMT (bootstrap).
Collinearity statistics (VIF) of exogenous variables .38 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. The measurement model. The structural model .37 ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CONC : Concentration EC : Emotional contagion ENJ : Enjoyment IBB : Impulse buying behavior PI : Parasocial interaction OUTREG : Outcome regret PROREG : Process regret SAT : Satisfaction S-commerce : Social commerce S-O-R : Stimulus – Organism – Response iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.78 million Vietnamese Internet users (approximately 52.6 percent of Vietnamese population) purchase consumer goods via the Internet (Simon, 2022). It is even accelerated by Covid-19 as consumers come to realize the convenience of online shopping.
Total annual spend on online purchases of Vietnamese consumers is projected to grow 4.5 times from USD 12 billion in 2021 up to USD 56 billion in 2026 (Praneeth et al. With the growth of the Vietnamese e-commerce market, online impulse buying has been reported as a notable accompanying phenomenon on national TV channels and news. It is said that the online shopping environment is more conducive to impulse buying behavior than their offline counterpart because it liberates consumers from the limitations that they would feel during offline shopping activities (e. shop locations, opening hours and product availability) (Chan et al.
Over the past few years, a new form of E-commerce has emerged and transformed the online shopping experience dramatically, that is: Live Commerce. Via livestreaming, consumers can interact with sellers in real time, resulting in an intimate experience even without actual human contact. According to a report by Lazada (2021), in the third quarter of 2021, the total revenue through LazLive (Lazada's livestream channel) increased more than eight times compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. With its unique characteristics, Live Commerce is believed to stimulate impulse buying to a greater extent.
The “live” factor allows customers to “capture lots of physical, social, and emotional cues present in the livestreaming environment” (Wang et al.2), thus, propels them to act quickly and spontaneously. As Live Commerce is one of the latest trends in e-commerce, there is a need to gain greater insights into how it promotes online impulse buying behavior. Last but not least, there has been a concern about balancing the benefits between sellers and buyers in the context of impulse buying. From the sellers’ standpoint, they encourage consumers to buy just one extra thing to increase sales and gain more profits, 1 regardless of that item being bought impulsively or not.
However, from the consumers’ standpoint, impulse buying could lead to both satisfaction and detrimental outcomes. On the one hand, impulse buying can be perceived positively as a valued shopping behavior for fun, fantasy and gratification rather than a mere acquisition of goods (Hausman, 2000). On the other hand, impulse buying can be perceived negatively because it happens under consumers’ weakness of will and careless thinking which may lead to their unsatisfactory choices such as financial difficulties, product disappointment and feelings of guilt (Rook, 1987). In this case, even though it may bring higher revenue to the sellers, impulse buying can result in complaining, switching to an alternative, and negative word of mouth which in turn, have the potential to harm and damage the business’s overall success.
It is very important that E-retailers and E-marketers understand how consumers perceive their post-purchase experience after an impulse purchase in order to make informed adjustments to their business strategies accordingly. Theoretical necessity Numerous researchers have investigated impulse buying behavior in both offline and online environments over the past fifty years. However, the applicability of previous studies to the context of live streaming is subject to debate, considering livestreaming a novel form of online shopping (Lo et al. There are few studies investigating impulse buying in Live Commerce, as shown in Table 1.
Recent studies investigating factors that drive impulse buying behavior in Live Commerce Study A content brief Gong and The study analyzed the influence of product characteristics on Jiang (2023) consumer’s impulse buying based on product involvement theory. Huo et al. The study investigated the impact of social presence and sales (2023) promotion (stimuli) on impulse buying behavior (response), mediated by the flow experience (organism). Li et al.
The study explored the effect of social presence (stimuli) on impulse (2022) buying (response) with pleasure and arousal as mediating factors (organism). 2 Lin et al. The study examined the influence of demand, convenience, (2022) interactivity, and playfulness on consumers' perceived enjoyment which then drove consumers’ impulsive buying intention. Lo et al.
The study demonstrated how parasocial interaction, social (2022) contagion, vicarious experience, scarcity persuasion, and price perception (stimuli) resulted in impulsive buying urge (response) via cognitive-affective processing (organism). Ming et al. The study examined how the social presence of live streaming (2021) platforms, of viewers, of live streamers and telepresence (stimuli) affected consumer trust and flow state (organism), ultimately leading to impulsive buying (response). The current study makes valuable contributions to the existing literature by exploring the impact of the two factors – parasocial interaction and emotional contagion on the formation of impulse buying behavior.
These two factors are assumed to contribute to the enhancement of real-time interaction between the anchor (the livestreamer) and the viewers (the buyers), considering real-time interaction the most distinctive nature of Live Commerce. Parasocial interaction has been investigated frequently in social media commerce context and in relation to purchase intention but it is rarely put into the context of Live commerce and impulse buying (e. Lo et al. Emotional contagion makes even less appearance in this context, closest to the social contagion addressed in the study of Lo et al.
This study deepens the understanding of emotional contagion in relation to impulse buying and also makes a new assumption about the relationship between Emotional contagion and Parasocial interaction. Stimulus – Organism – Response (S-O-R) framework is employed to elucidate a thorough mechanism on how parasocial interaction and emotional contagion are translated into impulse buying through the mediation of the two dimensions of flow state: Concentration and Enjoyment. Moreover, recent systematic literature review of impulse buying, such as the studies of Abdelsalam et al. (2020), Chan et al.
(2017), Iyer et al. (2020) and Redine et al. (2023), reveal that out of the whole purchase journey, the antecedents or the trigger phase is where the majority of impulse buying researches has been focusing on. 3 Outcomes resulting from impulse buying, on the contrary, have received less attention (see Table 1.
As consequences from impulse buying determine consumers’ relationships with the retailers, it is critical to study the consequences of impulse buying and gain better understanding of the entire customer journey from pre-purchase to post- purchase phase. Related literature in the consequences of impulse buying Study A content brief Barta et al.