The effect of perceived scarcity on impulse-buying tendencies in a fast fashion context: A mediating and multigroup analysis
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management
ISSN: 1361-2026
Article publication date: 22 August 2023
Issue publication date: 26 April 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the relationships between perceived scarcity, fear of missing out (FOMO) and impulse-buying tendencies (IBT) in the fast fashion context in both scarcity and non-scarcity conditions. Additionally, this study examines whether these relationships vary depending on the type of scarcity messages: limited-quantity scarcity (LQS) and limited-time scarcity (LTS).
Design/methodology/approach
We used written scenarios, and each participant was assigned to one of the experimental or control groups for LQS and LTS conditions. Using a structural modeling approach, we tested the conceptual model and analyzed the data through SmartPLS version 4. We conducted mediating and multigroup (MGA) analysis.
Findings
We found that perceived scarcity directly increases IBT and that FOMO partially mediates this relationship across all samples. The MGA findings also revealed that hypothesized relationships were not significantly different across LQS and LTS groups, suggesting that the effect of scarcity messages may be context specific.
Originality/value
Previous studies have yielded mixed results on the effects of different scarcity messages on consumer behavior. This study contributes to the literature by providing evidence of the direct relationship between perceived scarcity, FOMO and impulse buying in the fast fashion context. The study supports the idea that the effect of different types of scarcity messages is context specific, suggesting that the relationship between scarcity perceptions and consumer behavior may vary depending on the product category and cultural context.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Present address: Hakan Cengiz was a visiting scholar at the time of the submission at Arizona State University, Social Work Department, Phoenix, AZ.
Data availability: The datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Informant Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the present study.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval: The institutional review board approved all procedures performed in our study at the participating university (blinded for review) All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.
Author Contributions: The actual contributions of authors differed significantly from the originally expected contributions at the beginning of the project. Hakan Cengiz contributed to the study's conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Mehmet Senel. Hakan Cengiz performed analysis and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Citation
Cengiz, H. and Şenel, M. (2024), "The effect of perceived scarcity on impulse-buying tendencies in a fast fashion context: A mediating and multigroup analysis", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 405-425. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-03-2023-0082
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited