The product-specific nature of impulse buying tendency

Previous studies have treated the impulse buying tendency as a generalized consumer trait consistent across product categories. This study extends previous conceptualizations and treats impulse buying tendency as context or product category specific. The results indicated that a product-specific conceptualization of the impulse buying behavior was a better predictor of actual impulse purchasing behavior when compared to general impulse buying tendency for two product categories. In addition, involvement was found to be an important variable impacting consumers' tendencies to purchase products of a particular product category on impulse. Implications and areas for future research are also addressed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.