Impulse buying behaviour: an emerging market perspective

Impulse buying accounts for a substantial volume of goods and services, across product categories and geographies. The phenomena takes on interesting possibilities in the emerging economies where the changing socio-economic situation has led to a substantial rise in consumers' dispositional needs alongside emergence of modern retail. While the construct has been widely researched, the studies have been largely fragmented in their approach, either examining isolated antecedents or the stages in the process. Thus, there is a dire need to comprehend the phenomena in its unique entirety. This paper, on the basis of extensive literature review proposes a conceptual framework that considers impulse buying both as a proactive phenomenon driven by personality factor as well as a reactive phenomenon driven by the stimulus: product and physical surroundings; which is further moderated by various personal, social, demographic and situational factors. The authors posit that these various forces tend to act upon a consumer simultaneously and not necessarily in the same direction.