EXPLAINING IMPULSE BUYING IN SOCIAL COMMERCE THROUGH PARASOCIAL IDENTIFICATION: THE ROLES OF CREATOR AUTHENTICITY AND FEAR OF MISSING OUT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/b71m1b21Keywords:
Social Commerce, Parasocial Identification, Creator Authenticity, Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), Impulse Buying Behaviour, Influencer MarketingAbstract
Social commerce has revolutionized online shopping by bringing social interaction, user-generated content, and eCommerce together in an immersive environment. While previous research has focused on the effects of parasocial relationships or impulse buying behavior separately, there is a lack of research in understanding the combined effect of creator authenticity and fear of missing out (FOMO) on impulse buying through parasocial identification (PSID). This study is based on Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) model and aims to investigate how creator authenticity, social attraction and FOMO influence consumers' impulse buying behaviour through the mediation of parasocial identification as the psychological mechanism.
Using secondary survey data from a data set of social commerce users who have active social commerce accounts on creator-driven digital platforms & partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) we evaluated measurement and structural models. The findings show that creator authenticity and social attraction positively contribute to parasocial identification. Moreover, parasocial identification has a positive effect on impulse buying behaviour, thus reinforcing its importance as a mediation mechanism between the creator's characteristics and its consumers' purchase responses. Additionally, FOMO also proves to be a substantial direct predictor of impulse buying, emphasizing the psychological urgency in social commerce contexts.
The study advances the social commerce and consumer behaviour research field by building upon the S–O–R model and incorporating creator authenticity, FOMO, and parasocial identification into a single model. The results offer actionable insights for content creators, marketers, and platform developers aiming to enhance customer interaction and drive purchasing decisions by delivering genuine and emotionally compelling digital experiences.
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