The role of positive emotional response in the relationship between store atmosphere, sales promotion, hedonic shopping motivation, and impulsive buying in Indonesia’s largest department store

Abstract

Impulsive buying behavior has attracted many studies, yet there is an inconsistent result of factors determining impulse buying, particularly when consumers’ environment is involved. This study investigates the effects of store atmosphere, sales promotion, and hedonic shopping motivation on impulse buying mediated by a positive emotional response. The sample of this study was 175 consumers of Indonesia’s largest department store who have at least visited the store once. Data were collected using Google Forms online questionnaires and analyzed with the PLS-SEM method. The results show that sales promotion and hedonic shopping motivation directly affect the positive emotional response. Positive emotional response directly influences impulsive buying and significantly mediates the effects of sales promotion and hedonic shopping motivation on impulse buying. The store atmosphere did not affect the positive emotional responses of consumers and impulsive buying behavior. This study suggests the cruciality of positive emotional response in improving impulsive buying and, thus, such should not be ignored in consumer behavior studies. Practically, business practitioners should maintain consumers’ positive emotions to gauge their impulse buying tendency, leading to improved sales.