Does buyer-seller personality match enhance impulsive buying? A green marketing context

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the effect of buyer-seller personality similarity on consumers’ impulsive buying. Based on interpersonal similarity theory, the results revealed that buyer-seller similarity in agreeableness and openness increased impulsive buying of agreeable and open-minded buyers with a stronger effect of agreeable buyer-seller dyads. While neurotic buyer-seller dyads showed a significant negative effect on impulsive buying of neurotic buyers. Interestingly, conscientious and extraverted buyer-seller dyads failed to show a significant connection with the impulsive buying behavior. Thus, this study proposes that buyers exhibit different impulsive buying behavior when they interact with corresponding sellers due to their personality matching (mismatching).

Highlights

1. Buyer-seller similarity in agreeableness and openness increases impulsive buying of agreeable and open-minded buyers.

2. Buyer-seller similarity in neuroticism reveals a negative relationship with impulsive buying of neurotic buyers.

3. Buyer-seller similarity in conscientiousness and extraversion shows no relationship with impulsive buying of conscientious and extraverted buyers.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been partially supported by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71672026, 71972030, 71902021), Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program (XLYC1804007) and the Humanity and Social Science Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (18YJC630247).