The Impact of Electronic Word of Mouth on Online Impulse Buying Behavior: The Moderating role of Big 5 Personality Traits
Purpose of the paper: The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of Big 5 personality traits in the relationship between electronic word of mouth and impulse buying behavior. Design/methodology/approach: Data was gathered through self administered questionnaire from a sample of 266 Chinese and Pakistani students who were online users and studying at various institutes located in the capital city Islamabad, Pakistan. Findings: As hypothesized, impulsive buying behavior is significantly associated with electronic word ofmouth and moderating effect of Big 5 personality traits was also substantiated. The data was analysed statistically using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 to find out correlation and regression analysis between study variables, reliability of research instrument, strength of relationship between independent and dependent variables, moderating effect of Big 5 personality traits in the relationship between electronic word of mouth and impulse buying behavior was also substantiated. Research limitations/implications: Future researches may replicate our model with a larger sample size in order to enhance generalizability. It will be also fruitful to extend this research to various other online shopping environments. Practical implications: Implication suggests that online retailers and designers of shopping websites should understand the importance of online social interactions in order to encourage consumers' online buying patterns. They should integrate elements of online social interaction, together with reviews that customer placed online on websites, buying pattern, history and sales volume on their websites for the transformation of eWOM. What is original/value of paper: The social network paradigm and UGT are confirmed and validated by current study in online word of mouth context. This study stands as a pioneer that empirically scrutinize the moderating effect of these traits and reveals that online social interactions can strongly enhances consumers' purchase on impulse when individuals display the traits of i.e. extroversion, openness