Title: COVID-19 and its impact on online impulse buying behaviour: empirical evidence from the Kingdom of Bahrain

Authors: Mahmood Asad Moh'd Ali; Abu Bashar; Mustafa Raza Rabbani; Mohd. Atif

Addresses: College of Business Administration, University of Bahrain, Sakhir, Kingdom of Bahrain ' School of Management, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, India ' College of Business Administration, University of Khorfakkan, Sharjah, UAE ' Department of Commerce and Business Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

Abstract: The world has changed entirely because of the COVID-19 outbreak and so has the global economy. The impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the global economy is growing with intense economic consequences and is expected to be catastrophic in the long-term. This tragedy has a larger impact on the global economy as compared to the great economic depression and global financial crisis. The paper intends to examine the probable moderating impact of COVID-19 outbreak and demographic factors (age, gender, and marital status) on the consumer online impulse buying behaviour in the Kingdom of Bahrain. For determining the moderating impact of COVID-19 pandemic on online impulse buying behaviour, structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed. The result shows that COVID-19 has negatively affected the hedonic motivation while utilitarian motivation has seen a surge for online impulse buying behaviour. The paper outlines important theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: COVID-19; online impulse buying; hedonic motivation; utilitarian motivation; online shopping; age; gender; marital status; Bahrain.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2024.141510

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2024 Vol.28 No.3/4, pp.457 - 479

Received: 19 Apr 2022
Accepted: 28 Jul 2022
Published online: 18 Sep 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article