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Situational Factors Inuencing Impulse Buying

Behavior of Algerian Consumer

A. Graa,

M. Dani-elKebirDepartment of Business, Faculty of Economic and management sciences,Djilali Liabes University, Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

Abstract: This paper investigates the inuence of situational factors on the impulse buying behavior ofalgerian consumer using a Mehrabian and Russells framework. The results suggest that a consumers

emotions can be a mediating factor in the impulse purchase process. In this study, we identify and explorehow situational factors and emotional states may inuence impulse purchase behavior. By tapping the

responses of 687 consumers in the area of Algeria west, we obtain that there is a positive relationshipbetween independent and dependent variables. According to the results; pleasure was associated with

design, whereas arousal was associated with perception of crowding , but dominance was linked to timespent in the store.

Keywords:Impulse Purchasing, Situational Factors, Mehrabian & Russells Model, Algerian Consumer

Introduction

Connected to social and eco-nomic changes in Algeria overthe last decade, such as dra-matic increases in disposable

income, variety of products inlocal market and credit facili-ties, have produced a differentclimate in which individualsmake consumer choices and asa result increase the behavior ofimpulse buying.

It is important for the retailplayers to be able to understandthe different factors affectingthe extent in impulse buyingbehavior. So, there are many

factors which affect Consum-ers Impulse Buying Behavior in

Algeria market but we are onlyanalyzing some situational fac-tors which are: store environ-ment (atmosphere, design andemployee assistance), time pres-sure and perceived crowding.

The literature suggests thatconsumer emotions inuenceshopping behavior in a number

of different ways, including im-pulse purchasing (Gardner &Rook, 1988; Rook, 1987). In this

direct effect of the three emotion-al responses as they proposed byMehrabian and Russell (1974)which were labeled as pleasure,arousal and dominance, on therealization of an impulsive pur-

chase and to examine in whatmeasure these emotional statesmediate the effect of some situ-ational variables on this behav-ior.

Purpose of the Study

This study aims to examinethe role of situational factorsthat are: store environment, per-ceived crowding and time pres-sure in inuencing algerian con-sumer to do an impulse buying.In addition, the authors seek toinvestigate the association ofthe mediating variables that areemotional states as they pro-posed by Mehrabian and Rus-sell with, on the one hand, theindependent variables that arethe situational predictors and,Secondly, the dependent vari-

able that is; impulse buying be-havior of consumers who shop inthe area of Algeria west

The Literature Review

The importance of under-standing impulse purchasing inretail stores was rst identiedin the marketing literature over

sixty years ago (Clover, 1950).Impulse purchasing accountsfor a substantial percentage ofthe products sold across a broadrange of product categories (Colband Hoyer, 1986; Hausman,2000; Rook and Fischer, 1995).Research on impulse buying hasbeen based on varying concep-tual denitions of the constructand has focused primarily on in-store retailing.

A decade after Clovers (1950)preliminary research study onimpulse purchases, Stern (1962)delineated four distinct types ofimpulse buying: pure, reminder,suggestion, and planned impulsebuying: (i) Pure impulse buying:is a novelty or escape purchase

which breaks a normal buying

pattern, (ii) Reminder impulse

buying: occurs when a shopper

sees an item or recalls an advertisement or other information

and remembers that the stock


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(iii) Suggestion impulse buy

ing: occurs when a shopper sees

a product for the rst time andvisualizes a need for it, and (iv)

Planned impulse buying: takes

place when the shopper makes

specic purchase decisions on

the basis of price specials, coupon offers and the like.

Sterns (1962) contribution isquite signicant, because eventoday most research studies usehis concept of impulse purchasesas a starting point (Beatty andFerrell, 1998; Dittemar and oth-ers, 1996; Han and others, 1991;Rook, 1987).

Applebaum (1951) introduced

the notion of exposure to stimu-lus into the concept of impulsebuying, and dened impulse buy-ing as buying that presumablywas not planned by the custom-er before entering a store, butwhich resulted from a stimuluscreated by a sales promotionaldevice in the store. Althoughthis was an improvement overthe earlier denition, it was stilla limited denition because the

stimulus that Applebaum (1951)discusses is restricted to salespromotional devices in the storewhich the consumer could be us-ing as an external memory aid.Over time, researchers began tolook at consumer characteristicsrather than product characteris-tics or stimuli as it was agreedthat impulse purchasing is notconned to any particular prod-

uct or product category (Rook,1987). The hedonic or affectivecomponents of this type of pur-chasing became central in manystudies (Cobb and Hoyer, 1986;Piron, 1991; Rook, 1987; Wein-burg and Gottwald, 1982). Rook(1987) reported that consumersoften felt a calling to purchasethe product.

As researchers began to focuson the behavioral dimensions

of impulse buying they movedaway from viewing impulse buy-i l d h

Rook and Hoch (1985) state thegrowing consensus among re-searchers when they suggestthat dening impulse purchas-ing as unplanned is neither asufcient condition nor a neces-sary condition for construal as

an impulse purchase, since con-sumers clearly use store layoutas external memory aid. In fact,consumers may plan impulsebuys. Rook (1987) discussessituations wherein consumershave occasionally described howthey plan to go on impulse buy-ing excursions.

Rook (1987) suggests impulsebuying occurs: when a consumer

experiences a sudden, often persistent urge to buy something

immediately. The impulse to buy

is hedonically complex and maystimulate emotional conict.

Also, impulse buying is prone to

occur with diminished regard

for its consequences.Peron (1991) argues Rooks

denition is too narrow sinceit implies that emotional andcognitive reactions must ac-

company the purchase, becausewhether or not customer experi-ences emotional and cognitivereactions may depend on the eco-nomic, personality, and culturalfactors on behalf of the customerand characteristics and price onbehalf of the product. Beattyand Ferrell (1998) overcomethe issues in Rooks denitionthat Piron (1991) argues are

problematic. Beatty and Ferrell(1998) state that: Impulse buying is a sudden and immediate

purchase with no preshopping

intentions either to buy the specic product category or to fulll

a specic buying task. The be

havior occurs after experiencingan urge to buy and it tends to be

spontaneous and without a lot ofreection (i.e. it is impulsive).

It does not include the purchase

of a simple reminder item, whichis an item that is simply outof

t k t h

Situational factors

inuencing impulse buying

behavior

Store environment

Applebaum (1951) wasamong the rst to suggest that

the impulsive purchase can beconducted by the consumersexposition at the time of his ex-perience of shopping to a stimu-lus of the environment. in thesame way, Stern (1962) showedthe existence of a meaningfulrelation between the impulsivepurchase and marketing tech-niques. These techniques createone favorable environment for

the impulsive purchase. Somemore recent works showed thatthe variable of the sale atmo-sphere (sounds, views andodors) are important stimulantsthat can produce the desire tobuy impulsively (Eroglu andMachleit, 1993; Mitchell, 1994;Donovan and others, 1994).Some elements as music, lightand the display can affect theprocess of decision of the con-

sumer (Underhill, 1999). Rook(1987), indicate that the suddenemergency to buy seems to bemotivated by the visual confron-tation with the product or bystimuli of the environment. In-deed, the interaction of the pur-chaser with the retail outlet is amain component of the impul-sive purchase decisions (Phillipsand Bradshaw, 1993). In the

same way, the designof the re-tail outlet is able of to give thepleasure and to stimulate the

visitor of the store. The differentcomponents of the environmentact directly on buyer emotionalstates (Donovan and Rossiter,1982,; Dowson and others, 1990;Hui and Bateson, 1991). It beacceptable, however, to indicatethat Park and Lennon (2006)

veried the negative impact of

the interaction with employeeassistance on the tendency tobuy impulsively


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Time pressure

Stockdale (1987) suggest-ed that people treat time as ascare resource just as they dowith space. Howard and Sheth(1969) dene the pressure time

that the inverse of the availabletime for a shopper to do the actof purchase. Time pressure willlimits the attention accordedto the elements of the environ-ment. More the consumer spenttime in the store, more he sus-ceptible to make impulse buying(Iyer, 1989; Tunic and Ligas,2003). Contrary to Au and others(1993), when they suggest thatthe impulsive purchase often

achieves in the ve rst minutesof shopping and the probabilityof its realization decreases thatthe time passed.

Perceived crowding

According to Stokols (1972),crowding results from both thedensity stimuli and personalperception to the environment.Extending the concept, the em-

pirical studies conducted byHarrell and others (1980) andMachleit and others(1994) iden-tied two dimensions of per-ceived crowding, human crowd-ing and spatial crowding. Hu-man crowding refers to a closed,conned feeling experiencedfrom high human density whilespatial crowding refers to feel-ings of restricted physical body

movement due to high spatialdensity. Several studies (Zlut-nik & Altman, 1972; Stokols,1976) demonstrated that whenthe environments restrict or in-terfere with an individuals ac-tivity, the individual perceivescrowding. This concept impliesthat density describes a stateof emotional neutral, whilecrowding has to do with a stateof strong emotional connection.

Therefore, perceived crowdingis supposed to act negativelyas well on the realization of an

impulsive purchase as well as onthe emotional states of the shop-per (Machleit and others, 2000).We note also, that research onperceived crowding postulatesthat spatial density is negative-ly correlated with satisfaction

(e.g. Hui and Bateson, 1991;Machleit and others, 2005) andnumber of purchases (Grossbartand others, 1990) but humandensity is positively correlatedwith impulse purchasing (Ji-unnGer, 2004).

The Mehrabian-RussellTheory

The fundamental propositionof Mehrabian and Russells the-ory is that the impact of the situ-ation on behavior is mediated byemotional responses, so that anyset of conditions initially gener-ates an emotional (affective,connotative, feeling) reaction,which in turn leads to a behav-ioral response. Further, the uni-

verse of all possible emotionalresponses may be representedby one or a combination of threebasic dimensions: pleasure,

arousal anddominance. Plea-sure as an emotional state isdistinguished from preference,liking, positive reinforcement orapproachavoidance...since thelatter responses are also deter-mined by the arousing qualityof a stimulus (Mehrabian andRussell, 1974). It is a composite

of feelings such as happiness,contentment, satisfaction, etc.Arousal is an activity orienta-tion and is a measure of howwide awake the organism is, ofhow ready it is to act (Berlyne,1960). Finally, dominanceis a

reection of the extent to whichthe individual feels in control ofor overpowered by his environ-ment. The higher the level ofdominance perceived in the sit-uation, the more submissive isthe state of the individual.

Hypothesis

The hypotheses behind the

variables are as follows:

Relationship of situation-al factors and emotional

sates

H1. There is a positive re-lationship between store envi-ronment and the emotions of(a) pleasure, (b) arousal and(c) dominance, that shoppers ex-perience during shopping.

H2. There is a positive re-lationship between perceivedcrowding and the emotions of(a) pleasure, (b) arousal and(c) dominance, that shoppers ex-perience during shopping.

H3. There is a positive rela-tionship between time pressureand the emotions of (a) pleasure,(b) arousal and (c) dominance,that shoppers experience duringshopping.

Enviromental

stimuli

Approach or

avoidance

responsePleasure

Arousal

Dominance

EmotionalStates

Figure 1 The Mehrabian-Russell model


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Relationship of emotional

sates and impulse purchas-

ing behavior

H4. Shoppers feelings of(a) pleasure, (b) arousal and(c) dominance experienced dur-ing shopping at a store are posi-

tively related to impulse buyingbehavior.

Methodology

Sample: The consumers, whoshop in general stores, depart-mental stores, boutiques, shop-ping malls, small retail outlets,etc, in the area of Algeria westwere taken as the population forthis study. A convenient sample(non-probability sampling meth-od) of 687consumers was pooledup for the current study in whichrespondents of this study wererequested to complete the ques-

tionnaire on voluntary basis andnot a single attempt was madeto chase nonrespondents.

Instrumentation

The instrument containedsubparts. These subparts ofthe instrument were retrievedfrom different previous stud-ies. The behavioral aspect ofimpulse buying in which itemswere arranged to measure theimpulse buying tendency wasadopted from the paper of Rook

d Fi h (1995) d th

Bateson (1991), it was capturedvia two dimensions human andspatial crowding where aremeasured in three-item scale(The store was crowded, Thestore was a little too busy, andThere were a lot of custom-ers in the store). The subpartof the questionnaire regardingemotional states are mesuredthrough three dimensions: Plea-sure, Arousal and dominancefrom Mehrabian and Russells

model (1974). Indeed, severalstudies have tested the reliabil-ity and the validity of this scale(Graillot, 1998).After collecting100 responses the reliability ofthe instrument was checked bythe help of Statistical Packagefor Social Sciences (SPSS). The

value of Cronbachs Alpha was0.705, which conrmed the re-liability of the instrument andthen further responses up to687 were collected. This instru-ment basically comprised of four

t i hi h ti

Store environment: Atmosphere Design Personnel Assistance

Perceived crowding Human

crowding

Spatial

Time pressure

Emotional states Pleasure

Arousal Dominanc

Impulse

buying

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H7

H6

Figure 2.Research model

Relationship of situation-

al factors and impulse pur-

chasing behavior

H5: Store environment has apositive correlation with the im-pulse buying behavior.

H6: Perceivedcrowding has a

positive correlation with the im-pulse buying behavior.

H7:Time pressure has a posi-tive correlation with the impulsebuying behavior.

Data and Sample

Research Design

further modied. Whereas, theattitudinal aspect of impulsebuying in which items were ar-ranged to measure frequencywas adopted from the paper ofKacen and Lee (2002) and thenfurther modied. This scale canalso be found in the study of Maiet al. (2002). The subpart of thequestionnaire regarding Storeenvironment was adopted fromthe paper of Greenland and Mc-Goldrick (1994) and from the

paper of Baker, where items aremeasured on three measure-ments: design, employee as-sistance and atmosphere. Thesub-part of the questionnaireregarding time pressure was ad-opted from the paper of Beattyand Ferrell (1998), where itemsare measured on three measure-ments using a likert scale rang-ing from (1= strongly disagree,5= strongly agree). The subpartof the questionnaire regardingperceived crowding was adopt-d f th f H i d


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distributed regarding, Storeenvironment, Time pressure,Perceived crowding, emotionalstates of consumer purchasingand the attitudinal aspect of im-pulse buying .

Results and discussionThe ndings on the extent of

impulsive purchases are incon-sistent with previous researcherssuch as Hausman who obtainedbetween 30 and 50 percent ofimpulse purchases among thetotal amount of purchases. Inpresent study, researchers ob-tain between 23 and 27 percent.

A survey was conducted

among a convenience sample of

687 adults who were recruitedamong customers of a wide va-riety of retail outlets in Algeriawest ranging from small shopsto mega furniture outlets. Therewere 369 women and 318 men.

Ages ranged from 18 to 73 years

(M=37.3 years, SD=12.4 years).Sixty seven participants high-est education was elementaryschool or high school, for 134participants this was a vocation-al study, for 316 this was collegeor university, and for 94 respon-dents were currently studying.Seventy six participants wereilliterate.

To rule out the argument

that emotional states were a

mediating force between socialfactors and impulse purchasebehavior, we ran a one-way

ANOVA on the pleasure, arous-al and dominance scales. Theresults for different scales wereinsignicant. The overall means

indicate that respondents inthis study rated the store envi-ronment as pleasant (M = 4.71),while the corresponding gurewas lower for both arousal di-mension (M =4.01) and Domi-nance dimension (M =3.90). Toshow that social factors affectemotional responses of consum-ers and consequently drives im-pulse buying, we ran a multiple

regression analysis:

Table 1.Statistical analysis for relationship of Social factors and emotional states

Dependant

variableIndependent variables S.E Wald df sig Exp ()

Emotional

state

Pleasure

H1aStore environment

Atmosphere

Design Personal Assistance

0.534

1.513

0.0680.258

0.345

0.475

0.2280.228

6.870

10.141

0.0891.283

1

1

11

0.001

0.001

0.2570.004

3.456

4.540

1.0700.772

H2aPerceived crowding

Human crowding

Spatial crowding

0.511

0.6550.184

0.588

0.8770.285

0.376

0.0451.067

1

11

0.421

0.3450.553

0.997

1.2010.333

H3aTime pressure 0.030 0.212 0.020 1 0.889 0.971

Emotional

state

Arousal

H1bStore environment

Atmosphere

Design

Personal Assistance

0.333

1.267

0.068

0.258

0.388

0.475

0.228

0.228

3.479

3.356

3.460

3.657

1

1

1

1

0.002

0.067

0.047

0.056

3.126

4.540

1.070

0.772

H2bPerceived crowding

Human crowding Spatial crowding

0.344

0.6460.131

0.577

0.6220.585

0.784

1.0800.050

1

11

0.3450.553

1.2010.333

H3bTime pressure 0.184 0.148 1.544 1 0.214 1.201

Emotional

state

Dominance

H1cStore environment

Atmosphere

Design

Personal Assistance

0.111

-0.131

0.646

0.356

0.596

0.585

0.622

0.600

0.652

0.050

1.080

0.352

1

1

1

1

0.461

0.823

0.299

0.553

0.844

1.139

0.524

0.701

H2cPerceived crowding

Human crowding

Spatial crowding

0.267

0.265

0.200

0.120

0.145

0.107

3.386

3.356

3.460

1

1

1

0.955

0.067

0.063

1.267

1.303

1.221

H3cTime pressure 0.009 0.049 0.067 1 0.465 0.456


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The data presented in table1, shows the results extractedon the basis of multiple regres-sion to nd the association levelbetween the Independent, themoderate and the dependent

variables. The testing of hypoth-

eses developed earlier revealedthe following results:

Coefcients of the impactof store environment on bothemotional states (pleasure andarousal) on pleasure (beta =0.534, p.001, p>.001), this lend-ing to reject H2a and H2b. Con-trary to results of pleasure andarousal, feelings of dominanceare positively related to factor of

perceived crowding (beta=0.267,p


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The effects of the store en-vironment on the impulse pur-chase behavior are examinedthrough the hypothesis 5. Asshown in Table 3, the resultssupport the hypothesis thatstore environment is positively

related to impulse buying be-havior, atmosphere (beta=0.265,p


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