A dual systems model of online impulse buying

Consumers often communicate with other consumers and perform impulse buying behavior on social commerce websites. Based on stimulus-organism-response framework and dual systems theory, the present study examines the effects of social interactions and self-control on consumers' impulse purchase.

An online survey consisting of 315 participants on social commerce websites was recruited to empirically examine the proposed research model. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was employed to analyze the research model.

Our main findings indicate that (1) source credibility, observational learning and review quality are important antecedents of perceived usefulness of online reviews, (2) source credibility, observational learning and perceived usefulness positively affect positive affect, which further results in urge to buy and impulse buying, (3) self-control weakens the effect of positive affect on urge to buy impulsively and also weakens the effect of urge to buy impulsively on impulse buying behavior.

The present study will bring more attention to social interactions in social networks in practice and encourage scholars to pay more attention to the reflective system in online impulse buying.