Understanding Impulsive Buying Behavior in Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce, under the mature development of mobile devices and mobile technology services, has gradually influenced consumer shopping behavior and e-commerce patterns. The majority of past research of mobile commerce has concentrated on mobile technology and consumer shopping behavior. Fewer works took a mobile media application point of view to discuss the effects of mobile devices, mobile service performance and content on consumers' impulse buying intent. Therefore, the aim of this study is to take the perspective of mobile media technology convergence on combination with the impulsive personality of consumers and flow experience to understand the impulsive purchase intent of consumers on mobile commerce platforms. Data collected from 322 customers of the iTunes (App store) provide strong support for the research model. The results indicate that a higher level of impulsivity reduces the effect of enjoyment on irresistible urge to buy. The data also show that emotional conflict, positive buying emotion, mood management, cognitive deliberation, disregard the future and unplanned buying are important to impulsivity formation and thus relevant within the context of impulse buying intention. The survey results provide service providers to design applications that attract consumers to make impulse purchases.