Does binge-watching affect impulsive paid subscription? An investigation of the mechanism and boundary

Video-on-demand platforms encourage binge-watching (BW) to stimulate paid subscription. Despite decades of research, there is no academic consensus on the definition of BW, resulting in inconsistent findings regarding its effect on impulsive paid subscription. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response theory, we develop a conceptual model to explore the mechanism that links the stimulus (BW), consumer organism (attractiveness, identification, involvement, and parasocial interaction), and response (impulsive paid subscription). We also investigate how the boundary condition of BW (number of episodes watched) affects this mechanism. We conducted an online survey and two quasi-field experiments to collect data and verify the hypotheses. Our findings confirm that compared with non-BW, BW triggers higher impulsive paid subscription. This main effect can be explained through the enhanced attractiveness, identification, involvement, and parasocial interaction produced by BW. Moreover, BW can be validly defined as watching at least three episodes of a program, which reveals significant differences in viewers’ impulsive paid subscription. Implications for future BW research and marketing strategies for video-on-demand platforms are also discussed.