Understanding how upward social comparison stimulates impulse buying on image-sharing social commerce platforms: A moderated mediation model of benign envy and self-esteem

The pervasiveness of image-sharing social commerce platforms has led to renewed interest in the topic of online impulse buying. These platforms possess unique characteristics that facilitate both social comparison and impulse buying behavior. However, little research has explored the relationship between upward social comparison and impulse buying in the context of image-oriented social commerce. Moreover, little is known about the underlying mechanism mediating and moderating this association. Drawing on social comparison theory, this study developed and examined a moderated mediation model which integrates upward social comparison, impulse buying, benign envy, and self-esteem to address this gap. The data was collected from 318 university students in Vietnam and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results reveal that upward social comparison directly stimulates adolescents’ impulse buying behavior, and benign envy mediates this relationship. Interestingly, self-esteem moderates the effects of upward social comparison and benign envy on impulse buying, respectively. This study provides researchers with a new approach to explain online impulse buying on social commerce platforms. In addition, our findings can serve as a reference for businesses and marketers to implement concerted strategies that encourage consumers to purchase impulsively on image-sharing social commerce platforms.