Does Mass-media Fuel, and Easy Credit Facilitate, Impulse Buys?

Huovinen PasiRouvinen Petri

This paper studies whether exposure to mass media and liking advertising are associated with an increased impulse buy tendency, and whether the availability of a credit card acts as a facilitating stimulus. It is found that impulse buys are positively associated with exposure to commercial television, but not to other forms of mass media. For females, liking advertising in general is positively associated with impulse buying; for males, having a preference for informative advertising is negatively associated with impulse buying. For both, credit card use facilitates the behavior. Besides being robust and statistically significant, these effects are qualitatively quite large.

Publication info

Series
Discussion Papers no. 1126
Date
2008
Keywords
buying behavior, impulsiveness, mass media, advertising, credit cards
JEL
D12,E21,G21,L82,M37
Pages
15
Price
10 €
Availability of print version
Language
English