The Relationship between Consumer Product Involvement, Product Knowledge and Impulsive Buying Behavior

Impulsive buying behavior is a common phenomenon but the topic has so far received little academic attention. Therefore, understanding consumers' impulsive buying behavior is important for both the academic and business sectors. To the knowledge of the authors, there have been no studies that have considered the relationship between consumer product involvement, product knowledge and impulsive buying behavior. Thereby, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among those three variables. In this study, we use the consumer product involvement as independent variable, product knowledge as intervening variable and impulse buying behavior as dependent variable. We also add in three control variables ( price consciousness, age, and consumer materialism), so that we could purify the relationship betwe]en consumer product involvement and impulse buying behavior. The main object of this study is based on the general consumer. In this study, 400 questionnaires were sent and the effective rate was 83%. Through the regression analysis found that the higher the consumer product involvement, the higher product knowledge and impulse buying behavior. Finally, implications for managers and scholars are also discussed. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.