A study of Impulse Buying in virtual communities

In theories and studies of Impulse Buying, residents´ impulse buying in Virtual communities (VCs) has been ignored. The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of factors influencing impulse buying of Chinese residents in VCs, which can help the advertisers to develop better market strategies. The authors draw on Impulse Buying theories to develop a model of the influence mechanism of users in VCs on the behavioral of impulse buying. The model is tested using data collected among Chinese virtual communities´ consumers. The findings illustrate the importance of advertising form, knowledge sharing in a virtual community, the virtual community favorite, impulse buying experiences, users´ familiarity and individual instant decision to the residents of virtual communities´ impulse buying. The findings of this study have important implications to virtual community or impulse buying researchers. The results of this study also have several important implications for practitioners of advertising in China.