The Exploration of the Influencing Factors of Impulsive Purchasing and the
Construction of the Model
--On the Basis of the researches of Cultural Difference and Mental Accounting
Jun-feng Liao, Xun-qi Liu, Xi-chen Dong
School of Economics and Commerce , South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.
（ljf@scut.edu.cn, liuxunqi@126.com, xcdong@yahoo.cn）
Abstract - impulsive purchasing is a special irrational
purchasing behavior, the factors of which have been always
the spotlight of the researches from the scholars and the
merchants[1]. Because of the Internet, the shopping
environment has changed and broken the limitation of space
and time, many new characteristics has emerged in the
impulsive purchasing, even some traditional factors has
gotten changeover. This article has collected the research
literature of the influencing factors of impulsive purchase,
and had further researches of the mechanism, process,
personal traits and the psychological change of consumers.
Therefore, it proposes the new factors that affect impulsive
purchasing, and build purchasing models of impulsive
purchasing based on mental accounting, and the frame
models of impulsive purchasing based on cultural difference
and mental accounting.
Keywords - Impulsive Purchasing, Influencing factors,
Cultural Difference, Mental Accounting
I. THE BACKGROUND OF RESEARCH
A. The Cause of Impulsive Purchasing
Impulsive purchasing is of high proportion in
people’s daily life. [2] (Stern) It even amounts 80% for
some types of products.( Abrallams，1997;Smit，1996)
The factors affecting the impulsive purchase of
consumers include: the type of commodity,(Kollat,
David, Ronald[3]), the sale strategies (Lili Wang, Wei lv,
Jing Huang, Lin Jiang), the emotional state of consumers
when they are buying(Xiucheng Fan, Yunlai Zhang), the
self-regulating and self-building of the customers( Fengjie
Jing,
Suhong
Xiong)
and
the
purchasing
environment(West[4]) etc. [5]
3) Have not concerned on the implicit and moderate
Chinese culture, the conservative consumption concept
brought by the culture, the change of the mental
accounting caused by the consumption concept, and the
influence on making impulsive purchasing decision.
C. The Propose of Research Topic.
In the research of mental accounting and the
consumption decision, Aimei Li proposed the relations
between the mental accounting and the irrational
consumption. Though, to certain degree, there are
intersections of irrational consumption and impulsive
purchase, there is still difference. Therefore, Li’s research
makes us doubted whether the impulsive purchase could
be triggered by the change of the mental accounting, since
the irrational consumption could be caused by that.
Besides, Daqiang Sun gave another point of view. In his
research of mental accounting and cultural difference, he
proposed that the mental accounting has distinguished
cultural characteristic, moreover, it should be defined as a
decision behavior based on “limited ration” or “ecologic
rationality”, rather than “unreason” or “irrationality”.
That is to say, Sun’s research has pointed out the
drawback of the Li’s, and not clearly given the inter
relations of the mental accounting , cultural difference
and impulsive purchasing, which has given direction for
academic researches, also left room for the latter ones.
II. THE THEORETICAL FRAME OF THE RESEARCH
B. The Drawback of the Current Research
A. The Research Statement of Impulsive Purchasing in
Real and Virtual World
The current researches has based on theories of the
impulsive purchasing, online shopping, mental
accounting, cultural difference, but there are still three
parts in need of improvement.
1) Have not taken these as pre-conditions :the
emotions of income source, the psychological store frame
and the beforehand operational program.
2) Ignore the reasons of impulsive purchasing and the
subtle psychological change of consumers.
1) The Theories of the Impulsive Purchasing
Since 1950s, the researches on impulsive purchasing,
conducted by scholars from home and abroad, could be
divided into four phases:
The 1st phase: equals impulsive purchasing as
non-planned purchasing （ DuPontStudies,1945-1965;
Katona& Muller , 1955）
The 2nd phase: the researches of impulsive
purchasing focusing on the product categorizing. （Stern，
1962；West,1951；D'Atoni&Shenson，1973）。
The 3rd phase: scholars starting concentrating on the
stimulation
of
the
sale
environment[6]
（Piron,1991;Puri,1996;Peck & Childers,2006；Jianhuang
Lin，2005, the personal characteristics of the consumers[7]
(Rook ,1987; Beatty & Ferrell ,1998 ; Piron ,1991) and
the psychological change（Rook & Hoch[8]，1985）[9].
The 4th phase: the cross-cultural and cross-channel
researches. The cross-cultural researches was first
proposed by the South Korean scholar Lee an the
American scholar Aaker[10]. They pointed out the
difference in the impulsive purchasing behavior of Asians,
Europeans, and Americans. Meanwhile, the researches
based on the on-line consumption were also hot among
the academics. The impulsivity in online shopping is
higher than that through traditional channels.
（Jeffrey&Hodge,2007；Dawson, Kim）
2) The Process and Influencing Factors of Impulsive
Purchasing.
After putting together the beforehand researches,
Dholakia proposed the integration model of the causes
and process of the impulsive purchasing in 2000. He
summarized the causes of impulsive consumption: the
stimulation of the market, the characteristic of impulsivity,
the situational factors, and the psychological reaction of
the consumers after stimulation. The reaction includes:
limiting factors, recognition assessments, and resistance
strategies, which could eventually form or resist the
impulsive consumption.
B. The Theory of Mental Accounting
Mental accounting is the psychological process of
coding, categorizing, and assessing the results, especially
the economic results. （ Thaler[11] ， 1980 ， 1985 ；
Kahneman&Tversky[12] [13]，1981，1984）
Shefrin and Thaler（1988） and Selart etc.（1997）
had conducted researches on mental accounting
respectively in different regions, and they drew totally
opposite conclusion, but they did not continue further
researches on the portraits of the mental accounting with
various cultural background.
Aimei Li, Wenquan Ling(2004) and Daqiang
Sun(2008) has respectively explored the field of mental
accounting targeted on Chinese, and proposed cultural
difference existing in the recognition mechanism of
Chinese mental accounting.
C.
Hofstede published Culture Consequences in 1980, in
which he summarized the four dimensions of comparative
cultural difference: 1. Individualism / Collectivism; 2.
Power Distance; 3.Uncertainty Avoidance; 4. Femininity /
Masculinity. [14]
D. Mental Accounting 、 Cultural Difference and
Impulsive Purchasing
Now there is still a few researches conducted for
impulsive consumption in the view of mental accounting
and cultural difference, however certain progress has been
made in the influence of cultural difference on impulsive
purchase, and it’s said that consumers from individual
cultural background is easier to buy impulsively than
those from collective ones. [15] （Kacen& Lee,2002）
besides, scholars from home and abroad have proposed
the effect of mental accounting on the impulsive purchase
many times.(Aimei Li, Wenquan Ling,2004; Daqiang Sun,
2008). Nowadays no scholars explore the influence of
mental accounting on impulsive purchasing. Mental
accounting, however, affects irrational decision a lot,
when we combine the theory of mental accounting and
the consuming field, we could reasonably conclude that
the mental accounting adjusts the behavior of impulsive
purchasing.
III.THE PROPOSE OF THE MODEL
Based on the model of Dholakia[16], Fengjie Jing,
Suhong Xiong, we integrated the current theoretical
model of impulsive purchasing, and combined the theory
of mental accounting, then concluded the basic research
frame[17].(See figure)
The Theory of Cultural Difference
In the research field of cultural difference, many
scholars have made excellent achievements, among which
Hofstede’s theory of cultural value factors is most
representative.
Fig.1:The Impulsive Purchasing Model Based on Mental Accounting
On the basis of summarizing the beforehand
researches[18], this model has added the adjustment of
mental accounting to the online impulsive purchasing,
which includes the income resources of mental
accounting, the structure of mental accounting, the
expense difference varied from different structures. The
mental accounting is a way of regulating and controlling
to the individual deciding behavior. Through the
researches of the effects of the mental accounting to the
standard assessment and the traits of self-control[19], we
investigated the effect of the mental accounting to the
online impulsive purchasing, enriched and perfected the
research frame of impulsive purchase. [20] [21]
Fig.2:The impulsive purchasing model frame based on the cultural
difference and mental accounting.
With different cultural background, the tendency of
impulsive purchasing in online shopping varies. The
cultural difference if one of the individual traits of
consumers, therefore the consumers with different
cultural background are varied in the structure of mental
accounting and the tendency of impulsive purchasing.
Through the research on the cultural difference, we could
find out the effect of the cultural difference on the
people’s mental accounting in respective regions, and
further investigate in the influence of it on the online
impulsive purchasing.
purchasing based on mental accounting and the frame
model of impulsive purchasing based on cultural
difference and mental accounting.
Through the analysis of the current researches,
certain progresses have been made in the research of
cultural difference and impulsive purchasing. Besides,
consumers from individual cultural are easier to shop
impulsively than those from collective culture. （Kacen&
Lee,2002 ） in the field of psychology, scholars has
proposed many times that the cultural difference has
impact on the mental accounting.(Aimei Li, Wenquan
Ling,2004; Daqiang Sun, 2008)
Therefore, on the basis of the current researches and
the construction of the models, we could propose:
1) The theory of mental accounting has impact on the
standard assessment and the self-control trait, and
adjustment on the impulsive purchasing.
2) The mental accounting has distinguished cultural
characteristics. In other words, consumers with different
cultural background are varied in their mental accounting
structure and the tendency of impulsive purchase, which
further influence the impulsive purchasing in shopping.
This model has based on the mental accounting
theory and the cultural difference to explore the impulsive
purchasing in online shopping. The research includes that
whether these factors would have significant effect on
triggering the impulsive purchasing, and date back to its
causes, processes, results and impacts.
Fig.3:The tendency model of impulsive purchasing on the basis of
cultural difference and mental accounting
On the basis of the summary of the beforehand
researches, the lessons learnt from the drawback of them,
through the introduction of the metal accounting theory
and the cultural difference, we find out the individual
traits and the mediator variable that influence on the
standard assessment and the self-control, which helps
further explore in the theories of on-line impulsive
purchasing, and give guidelines for the practice in the
on-line marketing.
IV.THE CONCLUSION AND DIRECTION FOR
FUTURE RESEARCHES.
Through the analysis of the influencing factors of
impulsive purchasing, this article, on the basis the already
known influencing factors of the impulsive purchasing
and the model, comprehensively analyzes the impact of
cultural difference and mental accounting on the
impulsive purchasing, and build the model of impulsive
3) The impulsive purchasing is not absolutely
“irrational”. It is more of “limited rationality” or
“ecological rationality”.
In the future researches, first of all, the theory of
mental accounting borrowed from the psychology could
be further applied in the researches of the impulsive
purchasing. Some scholars have used the mental
accounting theory in studying the irrational consumption
before, but the other researches have proved that the
behavior influenced by the mental accounting is not
irrational ,but limitedly rational.
Second, there are researches of the cross-cultural
mental accounting and impulsive purchasing. On the
cutting-edge research in the impulsive purchasing is the
cross-cultural research. The mental accounting has
distinct cultural characteristics. Besides, the cross-cultural
mental accounting has adjustment on the behavior of
impulsive purchasing.
Third, the impulsive purchasing is in the
circumstance of Internet. Thought some scholars have
conducted researches in the field, which is still on the
exploring phase without enough researches on the
forming mechanism of the online impulsive purchasing,
this field is still belong to the cutting-edge of the
academic researches.
Innovations, specially, have been made in the
impulsive purchasing model and its variables. The
research starts from a new perspective to study the
consumers’ behavior on the online impulsive purchasing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by Guangzhou Program
of Philosophy and Social Science under Grant of 10Y64
and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities of China under Grant of 2011SM022.
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