Online Shopping Procrastination: An Examination of Shopping Orientation and Impulse Buying Tendency as predictors

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Psychology - Industrial and organizational psychology, grade: 1,3, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: The aim of this study was to identify possible predictors for the phenomenon of online shopping procrastination. While there exist several findings on the topic of online procrastination, also referred to as cyber-loafing, the research on procrastinatory online shopping is still very scarce. Hence, the foremost goal was to examine why this behaviour even occurs. Building upon literature that suggests links between procrastination and impulsivity as a personality trait, one predictor that was looked at was impulse buying tendency. The other factor to possibly predict online shopping procrastination was chronic shopping orientation, assuming that hedonic shopping orientation would positively predict it, as past studies imply that procrastination is a behaviour that occurs to avoid task aversiveness, therefore choosing to engage in a more pleasant and enjoyable activity. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire, including four various scales, that was open for all sociodemographic groups. However, the majority of participants were female as well as students and the mean age was 25.32. Results confirmed the above-mentioned traits as predictors for online shopping procrastination, showing a strong positive effect for impulse buying tendency, a medium positive effect for hedonic shopping orientation and a medium negative effect for utilitarian shopping orientation as assumed. This means that people with higher impulse buying tendencies as well as those with a hedonic shopping orientation would engage in online shopping procrastination more.