Why Should Impulse Buying be Restricted to Product Purchases? Investigating its Relevance And Incidence in Services Context

Abstract

Impulse buying is a common phenomenon in consumer behavior however it has been studied mostly in the context of product purchases and not services. In today–s market, consumers spend much more time and resources in buying and consuming services compared to products. Moreover, most consumers act impulsively one time or another and this is shown to influence their buying behavior. Therefore, it may be reasonable to assume that consumers would buy services also impulsively. However, there is little research into impulse buying in services and its similarities or differences with that in products. This paper addresses this important gap in existing research and proposes a conceptual framework integrating learning from both impulse buying and services marketing fields, based on which several testable propositions are also put forth.