A Study of Influence of Demographic Factors on Consumer Impulse Buying Behaviour

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International Journal of Management and Strategy http://www.facultyjournal.com/ (IJMS) 2012, Vol. No.3, Issue 5, July-Dec.2012 ISSN: 2231-0703

International Journal of Management and Strategy ISSN: 2231-0703

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A STUDY OF INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ON CONSUMER IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOUR

Abu Bashar, Assistant Professor, Brown Hills College of Engineering & Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, India.

Irshad Ahmad, Assistant Professor, Brown Hills College of Engineering & Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, India.

Mohammad Wasi, Lecturer, Al-Falah School of Engineering & Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, India.

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of the paper is to determine the correlation of consumers’ demographic factors on theimpulse buying behavior with respect to a number of single impulsivity indicators and one collectiveindicator. The paper consists of theoretical and research aspects. The first part encompasses theoretical insights into the secondary research regarding impulse buying while the practical part presents themethodology and primary research results. With respect to the subject matter, research goals as well as

previous findings and primary research results, corresponding hypotheses were set and mainlyconfirmed. Inter variable correlation and regression analysis has been performed to test the hypothesis.The results showed that demographic factors, such as the disposable income and age, are related to most impulse buying indicators and to the impulsivity collective indicator. However, Educational qualificationand gender produced marginal association with impulsive buying behaviour. The paper also summarizesresearch limitations as well as the work contribution and future research guidelines.

Keywords : Impulsive buying, Consumer behaviour, Buying Decision, individualism, gender, age group,marital status, profession

1. INTRODUCTION

Recently, consumers have been undergoing a major transformation from passive buyers to active

enhancers or creators of new consumption experiences, proactively taking part in the process of





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collaborative marketing. The experiential paradigm of consumer behaviour views consumption

as a holistic expression of symbolic meanings, hedonic (emotional) responses, and sensory

pleasures (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1986; Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982). Echoing this view,

evolutionary and rational choice theorists have contended that human experiences and impulse

buying should be interpreted as a consequence of cognition-based interactions between humans

and their environments (Clark, 1997; Dreyfus, 1991). That is, individuals react to particular

experiences that cause contextually embodied cognition and engage in context-specific behaviors

which ultimately leads to impulse buying. Therefore, it is critical to recognize this conceptual

base-linking behaviour in its context and empirically develop conceptual measures to ascertain

the roles of consumers’ demographic factors in their purchase behaviour.

Previous studies of shopping behaviour have emphasised some aspects of shoppers’ behaviours

related to purchase motives (Arnold & Reynolds, 2003; Eastlick & Feinberg, 1999; Buttle &

Coates, 1984), shopping benefits (Babin et al., 1994; Park, 2003; Hwang, 2010), and search

experiences (Bloch et al., 1986; Mathwick et al., 2003).

Such studies have typically approached shopping behaviour from rational (utilitarian) as well as

emotional (or hedonic) perspectives. Shopping involves diverse facets of shoppers’ experiences

requiring a substantial level of interactions among shoppers, salespeople, and the store’s

atmosphere. Given this characteristic, the shopping process entails sensory, emotional, and

rational experiences that shoppers may encounter in an interactive fashion. For instance,

shoppers, upon entering a store, come into contact with store atmospherics that stimulate their

sensory appeals, such as the store’s merchandise display, interior, aroma, lighting, and

background music. Such sensory stimuli can then evoke emotional responses such as joy,

delight, and excitement, among others. While searching for desired goods, shoppers have rational

experiences (e.g., they process information for alternative product choices), in this course they

subconsciously get involved in impulse buying.





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2. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

It is seen that shopping mall owners tried to exploit impulses, which are associated with the basic

need for instant satisfaction. A buyer in the shopping store might not specifically be shopping for

the confectionary goods like, sweets, chocolates, bubble gums, mints and biscuits. However,

related confectionary items disp layed at prominent places will certainly attract buyer’s attention

and trigger impulse buying behavior in them. This phenomenon can easily be understood with

the help of two principles/forces as a part of psychological review of literature, which interprets

impulses as the consequences of these competing principles/forces. These principles are well

presented in the papers of Freud (1956) and Mai,et al.(2002). These principles are stated below:

a. First, the pleasure principle

b. Second, the reality principle

The pleasure principle is related to immediate satisfaction felt by consumer whereas the reality

principle is related to delayed gratification. There is always an ongoing competition between

these two forces represented as principles within the buyer when they enter a shopping store with

the intention to buy. As a consequence impulse related behavior overcomes them because

impulses are usually difficult to resist and involve premeditated pleasurable experiences, as of

study of Rook (1987).

In this paper we are interested in finding associations among variables (demographic and

socioeconomic) regarding spending to different impulse buying patterns related to diversified

groups of buyers.

This paper will certainly add value to the existing knowledge base and simultaneously give us

courage to indulge in further advance researches in the field of management sciences. This study

is also useful for retailers and manufacturers who want to improve their understanding regarding

consumer impulse buying behavior.





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3. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the research study is to test the association of the independent variables that are;

age, gender, income group, educational qualification, profession regarding consumer purchasing

with the dependent variable that is; impulse buying behavior of consumers who shop in the area

of Delhi & NCR.

4. LITERATURE REVIEW

Moods also influence the impulsive buying behavior. Researchers found that that the respondents

were of the opinion that the most frequently mentioned mood state for stimulating impulse

purchase was “pleasure” followed by mood states “care free” and excited”. Consumer believes

that, impulsive buying helps in extending these feelings.

Most of researchers’ findings are that positive moods facilitate impulsive buying, but a few

researchers also found that “negative” moods also facilitate impulsive buying (Gardner & Rook,

1987) Negative moods adversely affect “self control”, therefore, the individual fell prey to

impulsive buying (Herman & Polivy, 2004). Consumer in negative mood turns to purchasingwith the hope that this would alleviate their unpleasant mood.(Mick & Demoss, 1990).

Researchers have found a relationship between age and impulsive buying. Impulsive buying

tends to increase between the ages 18 to 39, and then it declines thereafter (Bellenger

&Robertson & Hirshman, 1978). An inverse relationship was found between age and impulsive

buying. It was also found that the relationship is non monotonic. It is at a higher level between

age 18 to 39 and at a lower level thereafter (Wood, 1998).

A relationship between gender and income was also found. Men and Women relate the material

possession differently. The research demonstrates that women preference is for items related to

elemental values, while men preference is for items related to leisure and finance. The reasons

for the respective preference were that women value their possessions for “emotional” and





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“relationship” reasons. Men on the other hand value their possession for “functional instrument

reasons”. It was also found that the men purchase items for personal identity reasons

(independent). Women on the other hand make purchase for social identity reasons (Ditmar et al,

1995).

Impulsivity is a personality trait defined as a tendency towards acting without forethought,

making quick cogni-tive decisions, and failing to appreciate the circumstances beyond the here

and now (Barratt, 1993). It is one of those dimensions of individual differences that are

frequently associated with the biological bases of personality; a state involving non-specific

physiological activation and the non-directional component of alertness (Anderson and Revelle,

1994). For over fifty years, consumer researchers have strived to form a better definition of

impulse buying.Early studies on impulse buying stemmed from managerial and retailer interests. Research in this

vein placed its emphasis on the taxonomic approach to classifying products into impulse and

non-impulse items in order to facilitate marketing strategies such as point-of-purchase

advertising, merchandising, or in-store promotions. This approach is limited by a definitional

myopia, which simply equates impulse buying to unplanned purchasing (Bellenger et al., 1978;

Kollat and Willet, 1967; Stern, 1962). Impulsive buying has been defined as the spontaneous or

sudden desire to buy something, and when compared to more contemplative approaches to

decision- making, is considered emotional, reactive, and “prone to occur with diminished regard”

for the consequences (Rook, 1987: 191).

While impulsive buying is often emotion-related (Eysenck et al., 1985), there is evidence of a

cognitive component in impulsive behavior (Hoch and Loewenstein, 1991; Rook and Fisher,

1995); individuals are shown to consider an impulsive act a priori then engage in the behavior

because it is believed to be appropriate. In this case, short-term benefits may be chosen despite

their potential for “serious long -term consequences,” depending on the situation or a person s

“chronic values” (Puri, 1996: 88). Although some individuals are more likely than others to





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satisfy hedonic goals by acting on impulse, “not all reward seekers are impulsive” (Ramanath an

and Menon, 2006: 640).

Impulsive buying has been described as making unplanned and sudden purchases, which are

initiated on the spot, and are accompanied by a powerful urge and feelings of pleasure and

excitement (Rook, 1987). In response to this definitional problem, researchers began to focus on

identifying the internal psychological states underlying consumers impulse buying episodes

(Rook, 1987; Rook and Gardner, 1993; Rook and Hoch, 1985). Impulse buying was redefined as

occurring "when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buying

something immediately.

The impulse to buy is hedonically complex and may stimulate emotional conflict; also, impulse

buying is prone to occur with diminished regard for its consequences" (Rook, 1987: 191). In the

same vein, Hoch and Loewenstein (1991) explained impulse buying as a struggle between the

psychological forces of desires and willpower. The shift in defining impulse buying has drawn

particular attention to systematically investigating factors that may underlie or cause impulse

buying. This work includes examinations of the mood-impulse buying relationship (Gardner and

Rook, 1988; Rook and Gardner, 1993); the relationship between affective states, in-store

browsing, and impulse buying (Jeon, 1990); the holistic processing and self-object meaning-

matching in impulsive buying (Burroughs, 1996); and the normative influences on impulse

buying (Rook and Fisher, 1995).

There are several complementary models of purchase behaviors employed in consumer research,

such as utility-maximization, decision-making, behavioral influence, hedonic, and meaning-

transfer perspectives, and often purchase behavior is best explained by a combination of

perspectives (Arnould et al., 2004). However, impulse buying do not conform to any of the so-

called rational, economic, or decision-making perspec-tives and instead seem to be associated

with complex hedonic psychosocial motivations and low-effort, feeling-based decision-making





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(Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Hoyer and Macinnis, 2001). Prior research has described risk

taking in product choices, innovativeness in the adoption of new products and retail facilities,

variety seeking in purchase behavior, browsing, looking at window displays, and recreational

shopping as examples of exploratory consumer behaviors. These behaviors have the capacity to

lead individuals to exciting and novel purchase experiences, offer a change of pace and relief

from boredom.

As affective responses partially responsible for impulse buying, feelings of pleasure and

excitement have been assumed to take place before unplanned behaviours or during/after a

purchase. Some studies have considered the sudden buying urge as a type of pathological

compulsive behaviour and regarded regret as a post-impulse behaviour resulting from buyingsomething unnecessary (Dittmar & Drury, 2000).

Here the question is whether the type of in-store experience plays some role in inducing impulse

buying. Previous studies have shown that a positive store atmosphere can lead to approach

behaviours, which encourage shoppers stay longer in the store, spend more money, or engage in

impulse buying (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Foxall & Greenley, 2000; Sherman et al., 1997).

Although affective experiences have been found to influence impulse buying (Donovan &

Rossiter, 1982; Beatty & Ferrell, 1988), no study has examined the relationship between

demographic factors and impulse buying.

The store atmosphere has long been regarded as an important purchase-inducing factor because it

has considerable influence on the shopper’s perception of a store’s image, which is formed based

mainly on a wide r ange of the store’s tangible attributes such as its exterior/interior, lighting, and

display, among others (Milliman, 1982; Sparks, 1992; Baker et al., 1994; Doyle & Broadbridge,

1999). Zimmer and Golden (1988) suggested that the store’s image is an aggreg ate construct

representing its attributes, overall impression, business type, business typicality, product

relevance, and behavioural relevance. In particular, previous studies of the store atmosphere have





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suggested that affective responses to the store’s atmosphere are associated with impulse buying

(Beatty & Ferrell, 1988; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982).

According to Beatty and Ferrell (1988), store atmospherics such as the store’s display, aroma,

colour, and music draw attention, influence purchase motives, elicit moods, and induce impulse

buying, which clearly indicates a need for considering not only emotional but also sensory

stimuli inside the store when examining the effects of in-store experiences on impulse buying.

Donovan and Rossiter (1982) examined the relationship between the store’s atmosphere and

purchase intentions by employing the Mehrabian-Russell model and a sample of 11 retail outfits

and reported that pleasure increases the probability of overspending, providing support for the

validity of considering sensory experiences as a valid source of shopping pleasure leading toimpulse buying.

On the basis of above literature the following hypothesis have been designed to study, analyze

and understand the impact of demographic factors on the consumer impulse buying behaviour.

5. HYPOTHESIS AND RESEARCH QUESTION

The hypotheses formulated after review of the literature are given below:

H1: Age of the consumers has a strong association with the impulse buying behavior of the

consumers.

H2: Income level of consumers has a strong association with the impulse buying behavior of the

consumers.

H3: Gender of consumers has a strong association with the impulse buying behavior of the

consumers.





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H4 : Educational qualification of consumers has a strong association with the impulse buying

behavior of the consumers.

H5: Nature of job has a strong association with the impulse buying behavior of the consumers.

The testing of the hypotheses is confined to the primary data collected from the area of Delhi &

NCR.

Research question : How much variance in impulsive buying can be accounted for by

demographic factors?

6. METHODOLOGY

The objective of the study is to analyze the degree of association between demographic factors

and impulse buying behaviour of consumer in Delhi & NCR. The Stratified random sampling

(Two stage sampling) was adapted in the study and the primary data from 250 customers was

collected with the help of structured questionnaire consisting of various closed and open ended

questions. Percentage analysis, inter variable correlation and regression analysis are used to

interpret the findings.





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7. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Table 1: Gender of respondents

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid Male 121 48.4 48.4 48.4

Female 129 51.6 51.6 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

The above table shows that 48.4% of male and 51.6% female respondents, it shows that more

females are making purchasing as compared to men.

Table 2: Age of respondents

Age in years


Vali

d

18-25 24 9.6 9.6 9.6

25-32 113 45.2 45.2 54.8

32-39 88 35.2 35.2 90.0

39-46 22 8.8 8.8 98.8

46 and above 3 1.2 1.2 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0





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Majority of respondents are in age group of 25-32 (45.2%) years and 32-39 years (35.2%) both

of this age group alone contains around 78% of total respondents. Therefore, it may be

concluded that most of the shoppers are in 25-39 years of age.

Table 3: Disposable Income of respondents

Disposable Income


under 5000 23 9.2 9.2 9.2

5000-10000 101 40.4 40.4 49.6

10000-15000 84 33.6 33.6 83.2

15000-20000 39 15.6 15.6 98.8

20000 and above 3 1.2 1.2 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

Most of the respondents are having disposable income between 5000-15000 (74%).

Table 4: Nature of jobs of respondents

Nature of job

Frequency Percent

Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Government Employee 67 26.8 26.8 26.8

Private sector 163 65.2 65.2 92.0

self Employed 20 8.0 8.0 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

Majority of respondents (65.2%) are in private sector jobs.





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Table 5: Frequency of weekly store Visit

Frequency of weekly store visit

Frequency Percent

Valid

Percent

Cumulative

Percent

once a week 10 4.0 4.0 4.0

twice a week 142 56.8 56.8 60.8

Thrice a week 80 32.0 32.0 92.8

four times a week 13 5.2 5.2 98.0

more than four times 5 2.0 2.0 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

Majority of respondents are visiting twice (56.8%) and thrice (32%) a week to the stores.

Table 6: Marital status

Marital Status

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid married 170 68.0 68.0 68.0

unmarried 80 32.0 32.0 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

Table 6 shows that 68% of the total respondents are married.





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Table 7: Educational Qualification

Educational Qualification

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative

Percent

Valid matriculation 90 36.0 36.0 36.0

Intermediate 98 39.2 39.2 75.2

Graduate 27 10.8 10.8 86.0

Post Graduate 28 11.2 11.2 97.2

P.Hd 7 2.8 2.8 100.0

Total 250 100.0 100.0

Table 7 shows that most of the respondent are having educational qualification up to

matriculation (36%) and intermediate (39.2%). These two accounts for 75.2% of cumulative

percent.

Testing of hypothesis

Table 8 Inter-variable correlation matrix

Age in years

Educational

Qualification

Impulse

Buying

Disposable

Income Nature of job Gender

Age in years 1 .073 .204 .159 .017 -.052

Educational

Qualification .073 1 .146 .056 .057 -.091

Impulse

Buying .204 .146 1 .750 .107 .108

Disposable

Income .159 .056 .750 1 -.009 -.146

Nature of job .017 .057 .107 -.009 1 -.039

Gender -.052 -.091 .108 -.146 -.039 1





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Table 9 Regression analysis of impulsive buying with independent variables

Impulse Buying

Estimate (R2) S.E. C.R. P

Age in years 0.05 0.034 1.488 0.137

Educational

Qualification 0.059 0.03 1.997 ***

Disposable Income 0.184 0.03 6.125 ***

Nature of job 0.077 0.027 2.811 ***Gender 0.046 0.029 1.572 ***

*** is significant at the 0.05 level.

The data is analyzed by using means, correlation, and regression analysis. Tables 8 and 9 show

the correlation between the variables used in this study. Analyzing the table, we notice a

significantly strong correlation between Impulsive buying behavior and age (R= .204 significant

at the 0.01), verifying H1 of the study. Moreover, it is also observed that both impulsive buying

behavior and demographic factors that have been considered in the study (Age R=0.20,

Educational Qualification R=0.14, Disposable Income R=0.75, Nature of job R=0.10, Gender

R=0.10 significant at the 0.01), hence providing support for approval of H2, H3, H4 and H5. In

addition to studying the relationship of demographic factors with impulsive buying behaviour, it

has also been attempted to determine the main important factors impacting impulsive buying

behaviour of consumers. As this is quite obvious that educational qualification is minutely

positively correlated with impulsive buying (R=0.146), while disposable income is considerable

positively correlated with impulsive buying (R=0.750). It has also been very much clear thatthere is not a substantial impact of gender (R=0.10) and nature of job (R=0.10) on the behaviour

of consumers towards impulsive buying.





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In this study, we also had one very important research questions. How much variance in

impulsive buying can be accounted for by demographic factors? The demographic factors

accounts for a total variance of 36.6% (R2=0.366) in impulsive buying. Disposable Income

explain the most variance in impulsive buying with 18.4% (R2=0.184). It is also worth

mentioning that the variance explained by age in years is not significant at 95% confidence

interval.

8. CONCLUSION

This study has identified positive relationship between impulsive and demographic factors.

Among the demographic factors, impulsive buying were positively correlated with all the factors

that have been considered for current study, which means that individuals having enoughdisposable income, medium in age are more likely to display impulsive buying behaviors.

Moreover, impulsive buying behaviors are positively affected by the demographic factors.

Moreover, results also show that majority of the variance in impulse buying is explained by

Disposable income. This shows that individuals that are having good earnings and have enough

money to spend on shopping are more likely to display Impulsive-buying behaviors. On the

contrary, a non-significant amount of variance is explained by age in years. Several important

limitations must be kept in mind when considering the results of this study. The use of a small

sample in the region of Delhi & NCR is an obvious limitation here. Moreover, it is necessary to

replicate the findings using a large and dispersed sample of consumers.

Overall, this study has attempted to develop our understanding of the causes of impulse buying

behaviors. This behavior may well stem from several different causes that include demographic

factors as one of the most important among it. The relationship of the underlying demographic

factors and impulsive buying behaviors seemed both logical and useful, and is deserving of

further study.

9. REFERENCES





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A Study of Influence of Demographic Factors on Consumer Impulse Buying Behaviour

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