Mapping Research Insights on Impulse Buying: A Systematic Literature Review Using Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Growing environmental changes, economic downturns, increasing conflicts, proliferation of internet, social media and digital technologies have changed the dynamics of buying. Consumers have become mindful of what they want and come more prepared before shopping but also end up making spontaneous purchase decisions that are mostly unplanned, termed as impulse buying. The current research offers a detailed analysis of impulsive buying using a systematic literature review (SLR). Following the application of selection criteria, this research included a total of 151 papers sourced from 32 journals with high impact factor, using the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection Database. By adopting a holistic approach, this study investigates impulse buying behaviour in both traditional brick-and-mortar stores and online environments. The bibliometric findings were generated using VOSviewer software. The findings of this systematic review of literature indicates the following conclusions: (a) the extant literature on impulse buying is divided into two broad spectrums- one is the impulse buying in offline/ traditional shopping context and the other one deals with the online impulse buying; (b) the studies on antecedents on impulse buying are higher in number, followed by studies across different e-commerce platforms; (c) there are limited studies that focus on developing scales and measures of impulse buying.