Feeling better when buying more? Harmonious passion and obsessive passion in online food group buying

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand consumers’ passion types in online food group buying (OFGB) and the following outcomes in buying behavior and mental status.

Design/methodology/approach

The research setting of this study is a Facebook group specifically for food buying, with population of 2,387 members who are interested in OFGB. Among 2,387 members in the case group, there were 1,286 members clicked on the questionnaire, and 254 of them participated in the survey and returned valid responses. In total, 254 valid questionnaires were collected for 19.75 percent usable response rate (254 out of 1,286).

Findings

Results of this study proved that harmonious passion can improve both long-term intrinsic enjoyment and short-term positive feelings, while exert no effects on impulse buying. On the other hand, obsessive passion can significantly stimulate both impulse buying and compulsive buying, and strengthen short-term positive feelings as well.

Originality/value

It is interesting to find that buying more does not make consumers feel better based on the evidence that impulse buying and compulsive buying performed no positive influences to both short-term and long-term mental status.

Citation

Wang, Y.-C. and Tsai, C.-T.S. (2017), "Feeling better when buying more? Harmonious passion and obsessive passion in online food group buying", British Food Journal, Vol. 119 No. 6, pp. 1263-1275. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-07-2016-0309