The conflicting effects of self-construal on impulsive buying tendency toward unhealthy food: the moderating role of future time perspective

Abstract

This study extends the understanding of if and how consumer impulse buying tendency toward unhealthy food can be explained by the conflicting and interactive mechanisms of individual differences in self-construal and future time perspectives. Based on a survey sample of 439 Vietnamese consumers, this study adopts a structural equation modelling approach for second-order constructs and moderating effects to test hypotheses. The study confirms that interdependent and independent self-construal are structured as second-order individual constructs, and that interdependent self-construal has a negative impact, while an independent self-construal positively affects impulse buying tendency toward unhealthy food. In particular, besides having a direct negative effect on this tendency, future time perspectives have opposite moderating effects on these relationships.