Research On The Influence Of Self-Construal And Construal Level Focus On Consumer’s Impulse Buying Behavior

Impulse buying is pervasive and has been studied by western researchers foralmost60years. In recent years, with the rapid growth of Chinese economy andthe change of consumer’s consumption attitude, impulse buying is accounting formore and more proportion of Chinese retailing.The present domestic and foreign studies mainly focused on aspects ofresearch on impulse buying, such as: marketing stimulation, situation andindividual characteristics. The research of marketing stimulation and situationmainly focused on online impulsive buying behavior. As the attention of theacademic research on consumer behavior, impulsive buying related research alsostarted the study of their individual characteristics. And due to modern businessneeds refinement and personalized marketing strategy, many scholars startedfocus on individual characteristics research, thus in view of the consumerresearch to the plot can be done down-to-earth.The development of study in psychology and further understanding ofindividuals provides theory for further study of impulse buying based onconsumer’s personality traits. Self-Construal refers to an individual’s sense ofself in relation to others. Two primary types of Self-Construal have beenidentified: the independent and the interdependent. People with independentSelf-Construal see the self as stable and separate from interpersonal context andvalue self-promotion, autonomy, assertiveness, and uniqueness. People withinterdependent Self-Construal, on the other hand, see themselves as more flexibleand intertwined with the social context and value maintaining group harmony andfitting in. Accordingly, Self-Construal is assumed to affects how individualsperceive the normative evaluation and the extent to which individual comply with it. Construal level theory as a current concern in the social psychology theory,scholars carried out extensive research and application. And there are manyresearches on the relationship between Construal level and impulse buying.In the study, Self-Construal theory was used to explore how it affects theimpulse buying, add Construal level as an adjusted variable. This research usedthe questionnaire and scenario simulation method to collect the data, and do someanalysis of variance and regression analysis. The main results are as follows:(1)Different levels of Self-Construal with different impulse levels. Theindependent have higher level of impulse buying than the interdependent.(2)The interdependent with high level of Construal have lower level impulsebuying than those with low level of Construal(3)The independent with high level of Construal have higher level impulsebuying than those with low level of Construal(4)Impulse buying tendency and impulsive buying behavior are positivecorrelation.The findings suggest that retailers should put more attention on consumerswith independent Self-Construal. Especially in some buying situations which arenot consistent to traditional value, the retailers should make the independentconsumers to affect dependent ones.