Gender As Moderator Of
Temperamental Background
Of Impulse Buying Tendency
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Agata Gąsiorowska
Wrocław University of Technology
What is Impulsive buying?
1960s
impulsive buying = unplanned buying
 impulsive buying as special form of unplanned
buying, activated by visual stimulus (product) and
executed in a very short time

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What is Impulsive buying?
1970s
Researchers had begun to question whether
products could be classified as impulse or nonimpulse
 All products could be purchased impulsively
 It is the consumer not the product, who
experiences impulses
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What is Impulsive buying?
1980s
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Focus on how consumer behave during shopping, and on
mental and emotional processes that might take place
Clarification of definition - Rook (1987), Rook and Hoch
(1985)
„Impulse buying occurs when a consumer experiences a
sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy
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, p.191)
Acts of impulsive buying versus impulsive buying
tendency interpreted as a trait
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Determinants of impulsive buying

Individual traits influencing impulsive buying
tendency
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Individual and situational factors that trigger
impulses in certain situation while shopping
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general impulsivity, optimal level of stimulation, temporal
orientation, materialism, money attitudes, recreational
shopping tendency, shopping style influenced by gender
affect and emotions felt during certain buying episode,
individual attitude towards promotion, atmospherics, instore stimuli, comfort and easiness of buying
Moderators that either inhibit impulsive decision like
self-control, or stimulate it, like direct access to money,
and – type of money used (cash, credit card), or
normative evaluation of impulsive buying
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Formal characteristics of behaviour
Dimensions of temperament as postulated by the
Regulative Theory of Temperament
 Based on the assumption that temperament refers
to formal attributes of behaviour expressed in
energetic and temporal characteristics
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Briskness
Perseveration
Sensory sensitivity
Emotional reactivity
Endurance
Activity
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Optimum stimulation level

From consumers perspective, high optimal level of
stimulation is associated with
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detailed analysis of advertisements
searching for information just out of own curiosity
variety seeking in consumption
risky decisions
innovative behaviour
recreational and hedonic shopping

so it also might be connected with impulsive buying tendency
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Shopping style by gender
 WOMEN
 MEN
 like
 do
shopping, even
for necessities
 pleasure in
searching, choosing
and trying
 shop slowly and
emotionally
 stimulative
impulsive buying
not like
shopping, exc.
durable goods
 shopping as a
boring obligation
 shop quickly
 instrumental
impulsive buying
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Hypotheses
H1: Gender moderates the relation between
temperamental features and impulsive buying
tendency
 H2: For women, impulsive buying tendency is
related to sensation seeking stronger than to
formal attributes of behaviour
 H3: For men, impulsive buying tendency is
related to formal attributes of behaviour stronger
than to sensation seeking

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Method - Participants
Students of linguistics, teachers, bookstore
workers, physical workers and unemployed, living
in Wroclaw, Poland
 n=180 respondents (86 men, 94 women)
 age M=31.57 years (SD 12.806)
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Method - Questionnaire
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Impulsive buying tendency
SKI Multidimensional Scale (Gasiorowska, 2003) - 23 items
 Impulse buying scale, taken from SZN Scale (Macik, Macik,
2005) - based on Hausman IBT scale (2000) and consists on
10 items
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Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (Zuckerman, 1994)
The Formal Characteristics of BehaviourTemperament Inventory (FCB-TI)
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Analysis of Correlations - SKI scale
females
Sensation seeking
Thrill and Adventure Seeking
Experience Seeking
Disinhibition
Boredom Susceptibility
FCB-TI
Activity
Endurance
Emotional reactivity
Sensory sensitivity
Briskness
Perseveration
*p< 0,05
**p< 0,01
0,045
0,228*
0,416**
0,253*
0,244*
0,099
0,055
-0,027
-0,126
0,048
males
Z-differences
-0,066
0,086
0,158
0,178
0,774
1,016
1,974*
0,548
0,026
-0,141
0,151
-0,387**
-0,349**
0,073
1,553
1,680
0,676
2,655**
1,655
0,175
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Analysis of Correlations - SZN scale
females
Sensation seeking
Thrill and Adventure Seeking
Experience Seeking
Disinhibition
Boredom Susceptibility
FCB-TI
Activity
Endurance
Emotional reactivity
Sensory sensitivity
Briskness
Perseveration
*p< 0,05
**p< 0,01
0,261*
0,411**
0,484**
0,367**
0,314**
0,103
-0,021
-0,128
-0,150
-0,031
males
Z-differences
-0,102
0,101
0,086
0,113
2,574*
2,336*
3,078**
1,891
0,028
-0,180
0,110
-0,399 **
-0,291 **
0,074
2,068*
1,987*
0,915
2,046*
1,034
0,732
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Formal Characteristics of Behaviour and
impulsive buying tendency - women
Activity
β=0.25
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SKI Scale
Endurance
Emotional reactivity
Sensory sensitivity
R2=0.06
β=0.32
R2=0.10
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SZN Scale
Briskness
Perseveration
χ2/df=1.513
RMSEA=0.076
CFI=0.930 TLI=0.915
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Formal Characteristics of Behaviour and
impulsive buying tendency - men
R2=0.28
Activity
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SKI Scale
Endurance
Emotional reactivity
Sensory sensitivity
Briskness
Perseveration
β=-0.34
β=-0.30
β=-0.36
R2=0.23
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SZN Scale
β=-0.24
χ2/df=1.452
RMSEA=0.073
CFI=0.972 TLI=0.948
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Formal Characteristics of Behaviour and
impulsive buying tendency - women
Thrill and Adventure
Seeking
Experience Seeking
R2=0.19
β=0.17
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SKI Scale
β=0.31
R2=0.29
β=0.31
Disinhibition
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SZN Scale
β=0.30
Boredom Susceptibility
χ2/df=1.528
RMSEA=0.075
CFI=0.987 TLI=0.962
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Formal Characteristics of Behaviour and
impulsive buying tendency - men
R2=0
Thrill and Adventure
Seeking
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SKI Scale
Experience Seeking
Disinhibition
Boredom Susceptibility
R2=0
Impulsive Buying Tendency
SZN Scale
χ2/df=1.077
RMSEA=0.030
CFI=0.994 TLI=0.990
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Discussion
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Gender moderates the relation between individual
differences variables and impulsive buying tendency
Women - stimulative impulse buying
desire to seek new experience might be easily fulfilled by
shopping, especially in impulsive manner
 they treat impulse buying as a kind of risky game that is to
provide high level of stimulation, needed by some consumers
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Men - instrumental impulsive buying
Low briskness and low sensory sensitivity might promote
giving in to various marketing influences, like promotion, sales,
etc.
 Men with such features cannot cope effectively with loads of
information in shopping environment, so it leads to cognitive
overload and unreflective behaviour
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