A Study on the Model for Psychological Motives of Compulsive Buying Online in China

Most prior researches of compulsive buying focused on compulsive purchase behavior offline. This paper, combining with the specific consumer culture in China, constructed and tested a model of psychological motives of compulsive buying online(CBO). The results confirmed previously documented point that materialistic value and psychological motives significantly affect compulsive buying tendency online (CBTO). Our extra findings were that: (1) materialistic value mediates the relationship between psychological motives and compulsive buying tendency online. (2) Psychological motives contain virtual experience motives other than emotional-related and identity-related motives. This paper is a new expansion of the study on psychological motives of compulsive buying and it provides some guiding significance for e-commerce practice.