A Cross-cultural Study On The Effects Of Social Popularity And Deal Scarcity On Consumers’ Purchase Behavior

This research examines how social popularity and deal scarcity of a product affect consumers’ purchase behavior on e-commerce websites and how such effects vary across Eastern and Western cultures. Drawing on construal level theory(CLT) and research on cultural effects, this study reveals that social popularity, indicated by the number of customers that have already purchased the product, will have opposite effects on the purchase intention of consumers from different cultures. Moreover, there will be a negative interaction between social popularity and deal scarcity for both cultures, such that the effect of social popularity will be weakened when scarcity is high.