https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4005-6004
Abstract
The number of studies on the fear of missing out (FOMO) has increased with the increasing variety of phenomena discussed. However, researchers observe that not many studies in the marketing context explore this FOMO condition in depth. The field of psychology still dominates in exploring the FOMO phenomenon. This systematic literature review analyses and synthesises developments, antecedents, and emerging responses to FOMO in a broad context of consumer behaviour. This study employs a systematic literature review, analysing 42 empirical studies from the SCOPUS and Web of Science databases. The findings indicate that FOMO is often associated with negative psychological situations. Still, without realising it when studying FOMO in the marketing context, it turns out that it gives a response that positively impacts consumption behaviour.
1. Introduction
The presence of social media has generated numerous benefits as well as its own set of problems. One term that illustrates this double-edged sword is “fear of missing out” (FOMO). On the one hand, FOMO is often associated with negative behaviours that emerge from using social media (Rautela & Sharma, Citation2022). However, on the other hand, marketers can perceive it as an opportunity that must be utilised to acquire customers by leveraging the emotional and psychological states of the target market (Zhang et al., Citation2022)
The term FOMO, an acronym for fear of missing out, was first included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. Subsequently, in 2014, a renowned magazine called Forbes published an article titled “Do you have FOMO: Fear of Missing Out?” In that article, FOMO was depicted as a modern perspective related to the proverb “the grass is always greener on the other side,” where individuals are associated with feelings of disconnection and dissatisfaction, and, to make matters worse, social media becomes the fuel for those emotions (Hedges, Citation2014). This notion is further supported by media reports on FOMO in relation to consumers, indicating that in 2018, 74% of Americans prioritised experiences over products. Consumers also reported increased spending on experiential consumption, such as subscription fees for streaming TV, concerts, games, extreme sports, and travelling (Morgan, Citation2015).
Since then, research on FOMO has rapidly grown and developed in various disciplines, including education, management, and psychology (Tandon et al., Citation2021). This concept was first recognised as a psychological phenomenon observed in the use of social networking sites by a British psychologist (Przybylski et al., Citation2013). The term was then conceptualised using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan, Citation2015). From the SDT theory, it was found that FOMO is a concept that arises because individuals have low life satisfaction and fail to meet three basic psychological needs, leading to a desire to compare themselves with others’ lives. These three basic psychological needs include the capacity to act in the world (competence), individual initiative (autonomy), and connection with others (relatedness) (Dogan, Citation2019; Przybylski et al., Citation2013).
Literature related to FOMO can be categorised into two domains: non-marketing and marketing. However, psychology has investigated FOMO more intensively than marketing (Abel et al., Citation2016; Przybylski et al., Citation2013). Most conceptual and empirical research on FOMO in the non-marketing field assumes that FOMO is a personality trait focused on negative psychological impacts (Dogan, Citation2019). In the marketing field, FOMO is often associated with its impact on excessive consumer behaviours, such as bandwagon consumption behaviour (Kang & Ma, Citation2020), conspicuous consumption (show-off tendency) (Argan et al., Citation2022), and purchases influenced by others (conformity consumption) (Kang et al., Citation2019). Research on FOMO related to consumer behaviour was initially initiated by Conlin et al. (Citation2016) who discussed how FOMO predicts an individual’s speed and desire to consume television. Other marketing literature also reveals that when social media content includes elements of FOMO, it has been proven to positively impact high levels of brand excitement and engagement (Kang et al., Citation2019).
The previous literature overview shows that within a 10-year period since research on FOMO first appeared in scientific journals, researchers’ interest in consumer behaviour in the context of FOMO has begun to develop, although it remains fragmented and not comprehensive. According to Kardes et al. (Citation2010), consumer behaviour is a very broad context for discussing how consumers engage in consumption activities (purchase, use, and disposal) and how consumers’ emotions, mentality, and behaviour respond to these consumption activities.
Therefore, a comprehensive mapping of the FOMO concept in the context of consumer behaviour needs to be conducted. One appropriate method is to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR). This SLR study aims to answer the following research questions:
RQ1.
What are the predictors of FOMO in the context of consumer behaviour?
RQ2.
What responses are exhibited by FOMO in the overall context of consumer behaviour?
A previous SLR on FOMO was conducted by Tandon et al. (Citation2021); however, it focused only on themes, research gaps, limitations, and recommendations regarding FOMO as a whole from the beginning of the first research on FOMO until 2019. Thus, the present research is also expected to contribute to the study of FOMO, its implications, benefits, and challenges in consumer behaviour within the marketing context.
2. Literature review
Research on FOMO is growing rapidly in various disciplines, including education, management, and psychology (Tandon et al., Citation2021). This concept was first recognized as a psychological phenomenon that was observed to the use of social networking sites by a British psychologist named (Przybylski et al., Citation2013). This term then began to be conceptualized using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Since that it FOMO was found as a concept that arises because individuals have a low level of life satisfaction. Those condition is caused by the unfulfillment of three basic psychological needs, so the feeling to compare themselves with the lives of others arise. These three basic psychological needs are including the capacity to take action in the world (competence), individual initiative (autonomy), and connectedness with others (relatedness) (Dogan, Citation2019; Przybylski et al., Citation2013).
Przybylski et al. (Citation2013) examine an assessment of FOMO conditions in individuals, the results were each individual was found to be able to feel FOMO sensitivity at different levels and FOMO had a tendency to be felt by young people. The study also found that individuals who have a low level of satisfaction with basic needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) will have a high level of FOMO.
The FOMO phenomenon is a trend that appears and spreads on social media. The FOMO situation is getting worse with the increasingly massive of social media users demanding to be connected in the network. So that in recent studies, FOMO is often associated with dysfunctional psychological life such as sleep disturbances, productivity, and neurodevelopmental disorders (Argan et al., Citation2019). Psychosocial foundations are also often considered based on a person’s attitude or behavior, so that determinants such as conspicuous social behavior, lone envy, and social exclusion also appear (Reagle, Citation2015). FOMO is also found indirectly associated with an individual’s willingness to participate, buy, and consume as has been formed by social media in terms of liking, envy, or competition (emulation).
However in marketing field, there are still limited studies regarding FOMO, but in the last decade several concept development studies have begun to examine the relationship between FOMO, social media, and consumption behavior (Argan & Tokay-Argan, Citation2018; Argan et al., Citation2019; Hodkinson, Citation2019). The term FOMO is becoming more prevalent with the increasingly intense use of social media so that individuals are increasingly pursuing an excessive life (Alt, Citation2015). FOMO has a stronger foundation because of the effects of social media that build a comparative evaluation of one’s situation with others (Hayran et al., Citation2016). In the context of consumption, recent research broadens the conceptualization of FOMO by introducing a new construct, namely consumer-centric FOMO initiated by (Good & Hyman, Citation2020; Hodkinson, Citation2019). Consumer-centric FOMO is built on the definition of FOMO as a personal tendency related to the context of consumption so that it is conceptualized as a concern of not getting a product or engaging in an experience (consumption) (Good & Hyman, Citation2021). FOMO’s consumer-centric definition suggests a feeling of worry about loss that is relatively but more directly related to consumption behavior.
3. Methodology
3.1. Structure of the review
The systematic literature technique is reliable for synthesizing a study because it strictly follows reproducible and explicit scientific guidelines and procedures (Gopalakrishnan & Ganeshkumar, Citation2013). In addition, systematic literature review is also an effective method for examining the state of knowledge and identifying gaps in research domains that allow researchers to provide future research directions (Paul & Criado, Citation2020). Therefore, the researcher decided that a systematic literature review is an appropriate method for FOMO-related topics by identifying trends and patterns and examine the evolution of the topic of FOMO in terms of consumer behaviour.
3.2. Search strategy
The authors chose Scopus and Web of Science databases since they followed several published articles in top-ranking journals (Redine et al., Citation2022; Tandon et al., Citation2021). The following keywords were used in conducting a systematic search “(TITLE-ABS-KEY(Fear of missing out OR FOMO)) AND (consum* behav*) AND (LIMIT-TO (OA, ‘all’))”. The choice of keywords is determined by the objective of this systematic literature review research, which is to determine the relationship between FOMO and consumer behaviour.
3.3. Study selection
Study selection methodology has been reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., Citation2010).
3.4. Journal selection and inclusion/exclusion criteria
Prior to selecting relevant academic articles for this review of the literature, the researcher determined the inclusion and exclusion criteria for previous studies (Redine et al., Citation2022; Tandon et al., Citation2021). Based on these references, the inclusion criteria for articles in the systematic literature review are as follows: 1) a scientific work, 2) written in English, 3) published in a peer-reviewed journal, 4) an empirical research topic related to FOMO, 5) can be accessed in full-text.
The first search of the selected database using specific keywords in January 2023 yielded 170 articles. The first step was to screen for duplication, after which 11 articles were excluded from further screening. The next screening step was to apply inclusion and exclusion criteria to the remaining 159 articles. The first criterion was to remove articles written in a language other than English. As a result, seven articles were removed.
The second criterion requires that the article be published in a peer-reviewed journal. As a result, two articles did not meet this criterion and were removed. The third criterion was to screen the title, abstract, and keywords. Screening ensures that one of the three elements must contain the FOMO keyword, including “consum”, “consumer”, or “behave”. Consequently, 104 articles did not meet this criterion and were removed.
The final criterion was that the articles be fully downloadable. Even though the researcher has limited the search to only articles that can be accessed in full, some articles could not be accessed in full text. As a result, six articles did not meet this criterion and were removed.
After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the remaining 42 articles were subjected to the subsequent screening procedure. To ensure objectivity in this systematic literature review, the full texts of all articles were downloaded and analysed. Figure depicts some of the steps taken during the article search and implementation of the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Figure 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria step.
4. Findings and discussions
4.1. Development of FOMO in consumer behaviour context over the years
The first step in the systematic literature review process is to reveal the articles concerning the year of publication. Figure shows developments in the 2016–2019 period; there were only three FOMO-related articles on consumer behaviour in an average year. The first article on the FOMO topic related to consumer behaviour examines how humans consume television shows and fantasy sports. This article was published in 2016 (Conlin et al., Citation2016; Larkin & Fink, Citation2016). The graph then depicts a substantial increase in the number of articles published annually from 2020 to 2022. Due to the ever-increasing use of social media, which virtually governs all facets of human life, positive research trends on consumer behaviour-related topics related to FOMO are growing. The growth is indicated by statistical data showing that 16 million messages, 1.7 million Facebook content, and 231.4 million e-mails were sent through internet media every minute in April 2022 (Statista, Citation2022). However, this research cannot describe the growth that will occur in 2023 because this systematic literature review was carried out at the beginning of the year.
Figure 2. The development of FOMO topics related to consumer behaviour.
4.2. Journals of publication
The next step of this systematic literature review was to examine journals that publish articles related to FOMO in the context of consumer behaviour. Almost all journals in the search strategy have Q1, Q2, and Q3 quartiles (see Table ). The most common journals containing articles on this topic are Sustainability (5 articles), Psychology and Marketing (3 articles), Journal of Consumer Behaviour (2 articles), Innovative Marketing (2 articles), and Frontiers in Psychology (2 articles). The rest of the journals were only found to contain one FOMO-related article in the context of consumer behaviour.
Table 1. Journals and number of publications
4.3. Authorship
Next, we examine the most cited FOMO-related studies within the context of consumer behaviour. Table demonstrated that the most cited articles were published between 2021 and 2022, indicating that researchers’ interest level in FOMO studies in the context of consumer behaviour has increased. For instance, one article (Li et al., Citation2021) had 110 citations, followed by another (Alabri & Yan, Citation2022) with 109 articles. Therefore, within the context of consumer behaviour, these two articles are the most influential studies in contemporary research on FOMO.
Table 2. Ten Most cited studies (2016–2023)
4.4. Research setting
This systematic literature review study also analysed the countries in which the studies were conducted. China (five studies) and India (four studies) were identified as research backgrounds for FOMO in the context of consumer behaviour (see Table ).
Table 3. Countries and number of publications
4.5. Frequently used variable
In this systematic literature review, the researcher also synthesised by developing an integrated conceptual framework based on a literature synthesis (see Figure ). Based on the findings in Table , the researcher categorises the influences that lead to the emergence of FOMO situations in consumer behaviour into four major categories. These categories include psychosocial factors, usage factors, external-related factors, and physiological factor When an individual is experiencing FOMO, this condition can be described as an emotional or affectional response (Przybylski et al., Citation2013). Individuals will continue to process mental or cognitive responses requiring thought processes. The last method is that individuals will show behavioural reactions in the form of decisions or actions, which are the benchmark for the success of a marketing strategy. The researcher also described each category in the proposed framework.
Figure 3. An integrated framework of FOMO within the consumer behaviour context.
Table 4. Widely used variable/constructs
4.5.1. Antecedents of FOMO within the context of consumer behaviour
4.5.1.1. Psychosocial factors
According to researchers, there are 12 psychosocial factors such as life satisfaction, psychological needs, self-concept, consumer need for uniqueness, consumer independence, social comparison, need to belong, fear of exclusion, fatigue, social isolation, social anxiety, and perceived centrality. Concerning the theory of self-determination, FOMO is a psychological condition resulting from dissatisfaction with the fulfilment of psychological needs in humans. In addition, FOMO and its influence on healthy behaviour when using social networking sites and smartphones were measured using the variable of low levels of individual life satisfaction, and the results were consistent in showing a correlation between the two (Sha et al., Citation2019). It has been suggested that a person’s FOMO level can be evaluated in part by assessing their personality traits variables, such as anxiety, loneliness, self-esteem, and depression (Przybylski et al., Citation2013).
Other researchers also tested self-perspective as a factor causing FOMO,specifically self-concept (Zhang et al., Citation2020) and self-relevance (Ilyas et al., Citation2022). According to self-concept, psychological dissatisfaction interfering with a person’s self-concept can cause FOMO. A person’s self-concept is divided into personal and public domains (Zhang et al., Citation2020).
Argan et al. (Citation2022) relate this phenomenon to the fact that humans are social beings who can be socially motivated and concerned about the judgements of others and look differently. That study investigates whether consumers’ need for uniqueness (CNFU) can predict the level of FOMO in each individual. It is consistent with previous studies Dinh and Lee (Citation2022b), who examining social comparison in the context of social media can motivated FOMO on trendy products so it can affect the buying intention.
Research on how group members behave regarding FOMO was also reviewed (Alabri & Yan, Citation2022). The researcher observed that when a member of a group is increasingly attached to that group, it implies that inclusion in the group (perceived centrality) is driven by a higher need to belong (need to belong) and the possibility of experiencing a higher sense of fear of being ostracised (social exclusion). When that happens, the individual will be more preoccupied with other people’s valuable experiences, making them more vulnerable to experiencing FOMO-laden context situations.
Fatigue as a feeling of tiredness in certain situations is also known to affect consumer purchase intentions reinforced by the presence of FOMO. in research (Zaman et al., Citation2022), the context of fatigue used was during the COVID-19 pandemic as a result of social restrictions for people to travel.
4.5.1.2. Usage factor
Numerous studies have found that FOMO antecedents are psychological factors (Przybylski et al., Citation2013). However, it turns out that when this SLR is completed, a similarity emerges related to individual use of smartphones and social media. In addition, the frequency of individuals spending time in cyberspace also impacts the presence of FOMO situations (Wadsley et al., Citation2022). Some individuals consider social media use the most essential activity of the day, leading to an obsession with these apps. Social media engagement refers to the extent to which participants use it in their daily lives and can lead to high participation in social media applications (Przybylski et al., Citation2013).
User engagement through FOMO is known to increase a person’s probability of disclosing information about themselves as well as their social capital (Sultan, Citation2021c).
4.5.1.3. External-related factors
Researchers widely regard FOMO as a psychological phenomenon distinct from context-specific influences (Good & Hyman, Citation2021; Przybylski et al., Citation2013). However, context will be consequential if marketers can create a practical service-centric approach using FOMO-laden commercial or non-commercial appeals (Good & Hyman, Citation2021). One form of commercial FOMO-laden appeals is mentioned as discount and promotional information provided by the e-commerce platform (Li et al., Citation2021).
One of creating a situation in the FOMO context is by employing influencers in a social comparison process (Dinh & Lee, Citation2022b; Parveen et al., Citation2022). The influencer’s role is to ensure that the audience continues to pay attention to their activities. The audience is expected to start comparing themselves with someone considered ideal so that a FOMO situation occurs for any product the influencer uses.
4.5.1.4. Physiological factors
Several studies related to FOMO have also examined FOMO predictors in relation to the biological characteristics of the human body (Aydin et al., Citation2021). in his research found that individuals with morning person biological rhythms will find it more difficult to be in FOMO and compulsive buying situations compared to individuals who have evening person biological rhythms. Gender is also known to be a predictor for explaining how individuals can become addicted to using the internet (Mari et al., Citation2023).
4.5.2. Mediators
4.5.2.1. FOMO-specific context
Referring to the theory of consumer behaviour, when there is a stimulus within the scope of consumer behaviour (use/consume, purchase, disposal), there are three forms of consumer response: emotional response (affection), mental response (cognition), and behavioural response (Kardes et al., Citation2010). The researcher have also discussed emotional reactions in relation to the existence of FOMO-specific contexts.
FOMO is known as an important role in the context of consumer behavior due to its symbiotic relationship (Argan & Tokay-Argan, Citation2018; Argan et al., Citation2019). A number of previous studies have also shown that FOMO mediates the effects of various individual traits and characteristics (Argan et al., Citation2022; Suresh & Biswas, Citation2020; Zhang et al., Citation2020), user engagement (Sultan, Citation2021b), social media content (Ilyas et al., Citation2022), social media scarcity (Parveen et al., Citation2022) on excessive consumption behavior (Argan et al., Citation2022; Ilyas et al., Citation2022; Parveen et al., Citation2022; Suresh & Biswas, Citation2020; Zhang et al., Citation2021) and purchase intention (Dinh & Lee, Citation2022a; Zhang et al., Citation2020)
4.5.2.2. Mental response
Mental or cognitive responses can be thoughts, processes, opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and interests in a product or service (Kardes et al., Citation2010). Within the context of consumer behaviour, Bright and Logan (Citation2018) present a unique phenomenon related to the FOMO concept, where researchers examine social media users who follow a particular brand account. These brand attributes have succeeded in getting followers to be in a FOMO situation so that they have a positive attitude towards the brand. As a result, consumers need a lot of daily information about the brand. Without realising it, it turns out that wading through the content daily can lead to fatigue, commonly known as “social media fatigue”.
The dependence on social media (social media addiction) also indicates a condition in which individuals devote a lot of time to social networking sites. Turel and Serenko (Citation2012) found that individuals with this dependence condition usually prefer to interact with other people online rather than face-to-face; this is a characteristic of FOMO behaviour. Thus, in this case, the FOMO condition, mediated by social media addiction, will increase a person’s probability of disclosing personal information (self-disclosure) in the hope that they can stay connected with other people on social networking sites (Sultan, Citation2021a).
Similar studies related to social media addiction, which is also often conceptualised by researchers as compulsive use of social media (van den Eijnden et al., Citation2016) or problematic social media use (Wolniewicz et al., Citation2018), were found to mediate the relationship between FOMO and social media fatigue (Hattingh et al., Citation2022).
Beyond the negative cognitive effects of information overload, positive outcomes are also observed in FOMO-inducing settings. Marketers can increase the likelihood of consumers purchasing hedonic goods by inviting them to engage in “what if” imaginations that are believed to evoke positive emotions (Good & Hyman, Citation2021). In this study, it was observed that individuals who are vulnerable to being in a FOMO-laden situation would not anticipate feelings of regret when buying hedonic goods. They also tend to think more positively about themselves because individuals hope to get pleasant feedback from others, which turns out to have a positive impact.
4.5.2.3. Behavioural response
Behavioural responses here include all consumer decisions and actions that can be observed during the previously identified purchase, use, and disposal activities (Kardes et al., Citation2010).
At the pre-purchase stage, researchers checked that FOMO is known to be a predictor of a person’s speed and intention in consuming television shows (Conlin et al., Citation2016). However, at this stage, the researchers also found the existence of the phenomenon of social media fatigue, which can cause a person to feel disconnected from information on social media, reducing one’s irrationality in FOMO-based consumption (Hattingh et al., Citation2022). FOMO is also known to be able to trigger pleasure fulfillment motives (intrinsic reward) and social status reward motives (extrinsic reward) (Kim et al., Citation2020)
The next stage is buying behaviour, where individuals already experiencing FOMO have a fairly high level of irrationality. The irrational buying behaviour captured by researchers is impulsive buying, which is defined as buying a product spontaneously and immediately without wise and deliberate consideration of alternative or future implications (Zhang et al., Citation2022). Other studies show that interest and willingness to make payments also increase when individuals are in a FOMO-laden situation (Dinh & Lee, Citation2022a; Good & Hyman, Citation2020; Zhang et al., Citation2020).
The next stage involves responses to consumer behaviour in using/consuming products and services. This stage reveals many variables including the term “fomsumerism”, which describes consumption behaviour resulting from FOMO (Argan & Tokay-Argan, Citation2018) (see Table ).
Table 5. Consumption behavioural response
In addition to consumption behaviour, social media use behaviour was also found, including social media interaction (Conlin et al., Citation2016), self-disclosure (Sultan, Citation2021b), social media/smartphone disorder (Sha et al., Citation2019), and continued use of social media (Li et al., Citation2021).
The last stage is the post-purchase stage or the evaluation stage. This systematic literature review found that when consumers make purchases due to a FOMO situation, there is a tendency to show negative and positive feeling. Unhappiness is found to be the negative feeling but can be attenuated by the presence of social media influencer activities (Lee et al., Citation2021). Other researchers also found that social media content that generates FOMO is also believed to be able to generate positive feelings such as satisfaction after the purchase (Ilyas et al., Citation2022), enjoyment of the brand (brand excitement), and repeated purchases (brand engagement) on culturally significant brands for consumers (Kang et al., Citation2019).
4.6. Designing an integrated conceptual framework
In this SLR study, researchers developed a conceptual framework that integrates the results of a synthesis of the literature and the most frequently occurring variables in FOMO research in the context of consumer behavior. First, this framework illustrates that there are 19 identified antecedents as predictors of FOMO in the context of consumer behavior, which in this case are shown in the red boxes on the left of the framework. These antecedents were grouped into 19 factors which the researchers grouped into four groups: psychosocial factors, use factors, external-related factors, and physiological factors. Psychosocial factors themselves include life satisfaction, psychological needs, self-concept, consumer need for uniqueness, consumer independence, social comparison, need to belong, fear of exclusion, fatigue, social isolation, social anxiety, and perceived centrality. As for usage factors include user engagement, social media use, social media addiction. For external-related factors include informational incentives and scarcity. For physiological factors include biological rhythm and gender. Second, the gray box illustrates that FOMO is assessed as an emotional response from the predictor at the previous stage. Third, the yellow box section describes the mediating variables that are widely used in FOMO in the context of consumer behavior. The mediator consists of six responses, namely social media involvement, attitude toward social media, reinforce stability and concern, social media addiction, anticipated elation, enhancement, regret, and compulsive user. Fourth, the part of the box surrounded by the dotted line is a response to consumer behavior that appears in the FOMO context. Researchers describe the response to consumer behavior as a continuous process starting from pre-purchase, purchase, use, and post-purchase. The pre-purchase process includes pace and desire to consume, social media fatigue, intrinsic rewards, and extrinsic rewards. The purchase behavior process includes impulse buying, buying intention, purchase likelihood, willingness to pay. The process of use behavior is divided into two, namely consumption behavior and social media user behavior. Consumption behavior itself includes bandwagon, herd, compulsive, millennial, conspicuous, and conformity consumer behavior. Meanwhile, social media use behavior includes social media interaction, self-disclosure, social media and smartphone disorder, and continuing to use social media. the last process is post purchase which includes customer satisfaction, brand excitement, and brand engagement.
5. Theoritical and practical implications
Several theoretical implications are derived from this review. First, the use of the FOMO concept in relation to consumer behaviour is rare in the context of marketing. This study is expected to provide researchers in the field of marketing with an overview and understanding the FOMO topic in the context of consumer behaviour. This article uses a systematic literature review to present topic developments, journal publications, authors, and variables widely used from year to year. The authors have also included a conceptual framework to illustrate how FOMO is related to the science of consumer behaviour so far. The implications of this study indicate that the FOMO concept is essential to understand and implement concerning consumer behaviour.
Second, a conceptual framework related to FOMO in the context of consumer behavior has been developed based on a synthesis of literature, antecedents, and mediators on FOMO. Based on the researchers’ observations regarding the systematic literature review, the framework proposed in this study complements what has never been revealed before, especially in the detailed process of consumption activities (pre-purchase, purchase, and post purchase stage) (Gupta & Sharma, Citation2021; Tandon et al., Citation2021). We recommend further researchers may further develop a theoretical analysis of the FOMO situation for these three specific stages of consumption activity. Several possible alternatives are conducting empirical studies by linking self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, Citation2015) and limited capacity model (Lang, Citation2006) to consumption activities (Kardes et al., Citation2010).
Third, in psychology, FOMO has been associated with negative situations due to excessive use of social networking sites; however, it has proven to provide positive impacts when studied in the science of consumer behaviour within the context of marketing. Unknowingly, buying behaviour arising from FOMO-laden situations results in feelings of positive evaluation and liking for a brand and leads to repeat purchases of that brand.
The results of the review in this study indicate that consumption activity as a result of FOMO is known to have a positive impact on a brand. So marketers also need to consider using FOMO as an effective marketing tool. Referring to Przybylski et al. (Citation2013), the sensitivity of FOMO in individuals is different, marketers can utilize the left side framework clue as a reference to be the predictors for creating marketing strategies that are full of FOMO by adjusting these characteristics, for example one of the psycho-social part is social comparison. Marketers can create strategies that can lead to upward social comparisons to be able to generate information on consumers, such as taking advantage of the presence of peers when posting something on social media that can trigger upward social comparisons. In the long run FOMO will affect the consumption process of consumers starting from pre-purchase, during purchase, during consumption, and post-purchase.
These findings will help marketers develop marketing strategies by referring to situation triggers FOMO-laden contexts such as psycho-social, usage, external-related, and psychological factor to predict how consumer response in each stage of consumption activities in the context of consumer behaviour, such as pre-purchase condition, purchasing behaviour, consumption behaviour, and also post purchase.
6. Conclusion
The purpose of this research is to systematically review the FOMO literature in the context of consumer behavior. First, this review aim to synthesize the FOMO literature in the context of consumer behavior and examine its development over time. Thus, the extant literature on FOMO in the context of consumer behavior is synthesized into several parts, namely antecedents, mediators, and consumer responses.
Second, the aim of this research is to present a conceptual framework based on the synthesis of the literature carried out. Therefore, a conceptual framework was developed, showing the antecedents and mediator variables commonly used in this research area. Future research in the FOMO domain is aimed at examining in depth the extent to which negative effects of FOMO such as social media fatigue and social media usage disorder will impact on FOMO-based consumption.
7. Limitation
This study has several limitations that must be acknowledged, including the fact that the articles analysed were limited to those that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Therefore, the findings of this study cannot be generalised to the entire FOMO research volume. Furthermore, this study only reviews articles written in English, so studies conducted in other languages are not included in this review.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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