A Study Of The Effects Of Need For Cognition And "Face" On College Students' Impulse Buying

People's living standards have been significantly improved along with the continuous and rapid development of China's economy,and people's consumption capacity has also been continuously improved.Impulse buying,thus,is a frequent activity in China.Consumers do not need to carry cash when shopping.With mobile payment options,such as We-chat and Aliay,consumers simply need to scan the bar codes on their cell phones to complete a transaction,The emergence of these diversified payment methods increases the proportion of impulse buying year by year.In addition,the emergence of online shopping allows consumers to enjoy convenient,high-quality and less-expensive products or services without going out.Online promotions,such as the "Double Eleven",also stimulates impulse buying.All these have made impulse consumption a hot topic among researchers.The current study examined the relationships among cognitive needs,value of"Face" and impulse buying of college students.After the literature review of previous research on cognitive needs,"Face" and impulse buying,research hypotheses were proposed.Data were collected through online distribution and on-site distribution of questionnaires.A total of 453 valid questionnaires were collected.Descriptive statistics,T-test,variance analysis,regression analysis were conducted to analyze data,using SPSS 24.0.Results showed that,(1)The level of cognitive needs was high for most college students.They also highly valued "Face" and were prone to impulse buying.(2)The levels of impulse buying,cognitive needs and "Face" varied across gender,grade,family residence,monthly living expenses and income.Specifically,as the grade increased,impulse buying also increased gradually.With the increase of monthly living expenses and the level of family income,impulse buying also increased gradually.Male students had a higher level of cognitive needs than females.The level of cognitive needs of urban college students was higher than that of rural college students.The cognitive needs of junior and senior students were higher thanthose of freshmen and sophomores.Male students paid more attention to "Face" than females.Urban college students paid more attention to "Face" than rural college students.(3)Cognitive needs had a significant negative effect on impulse buying,that is,the lower the level of cognitive needs of college students was,the more likely they were to present impulse buying behaviors.(4)"Face" and its two sub-dimensions(keeping "Face" and being afraid of losing "Face")had significant positive effects on impulse buying.That is,the more that college students value "Face",the more likely they would present impulse buying behaviors.(5)There was an interaction between "Face" and cognitive need.That is,with the increase of the level of cognitive needs,the positive prediction effect of "Face" on impulse buying gradually decreased.