Exploring the Social and Systemic Influencing Factors of Mobile Short Video Applications on the Consumer Urge to Buy Impulsively

Abstract

With the progress of digital and mobile technologies, mobile short video apps (MSAs) have been booming in recent years. These MSAs are expanding their role in social commerce, which has aroused scholar’s and practitioners’ attention. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response model,this study proposes an integrated model to examine the impact of social factors (perceived expertise, similarity, and familiarity) and systemic factors (personalization, serendipity, and visual appeal) on the formation of utilitarian value and flow experience, and their subsequent effects on impulsive buying. The results suggest that both social factors and systemic factors can influence utilitarian value and flow experience. Further, utilitarian value and flow experience can positively affect consumers’ impulse buying independently. The contributions of the study to both academia and practice are discussed.