Factors that affect the impulsive buying behavior of Chinese college students

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to find out whether the impulsive buying behavior of Chinese college students will be influenced by certain financial factors, such as virtual credit card use, the amount of monthly pocket money provided by parents and preparation of a budget or a shopping list. Also, this study aims to find out the influences of personality traits, like self-control, self-esteem, and risk-taking, on the impulsive buying behavior. In order to find out the potential relationships between these independent factors and the dependent factor, a logistic regression model was adopted. Analyzing a sample consisting of 209 Chinese college students, it is found that all of these factors have a relationship with impulsive buying. The use of virtual credit cards and the preparation of a budget or a shopping list will decrease the tendency of impulsive buying. Also, the likelihood of impulsive buying increase when pocket money increases. Further, lack of self-control, high level of self-esteem and high level of risking taking can boost impulsive buying. These results can help us clarify the triggers of Chinese college students and thus understand more deeply about their purchasing behavior.