Compulsive Buying Behavior: Relationship with Impulse Buying and a Proposed Model of Antecedents

The paper highlights key research findings regarding compulsive buying behavior and aims at describing the relationship between compulsive buying and an alternative buying phenomenon, i.e. impulse buying. These nonstandard buying behaviors are frequently found alongside each other in consumer research literature. Two common views of the relationship between compulsive buying and impulse buying are discussed and combined to form a hybrid conceptualization. Impulse buying is conceived to be associated with positive affective states, while compulsive buying is primarily driven by negative affect and characterized by an increasing loss of consumer self-control. A proposed model of compulsive buying antecedents is offered based on escape theory and some key findings in research. Higher levels of consumer depression, greater materialistic values, lower self-esteem, greater abilities to fantasize and tendencies to impulse buy, and higher levels of anxiety and obsessive-compulsiveness are all suggested to have direct, positive correlations with compulsive buying behavior.