The RELATIONSHIP of EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE and IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR

Year 2013, Volume: 13 Issue: 26, 180 - 206, 01.12.2013

Didar Büyüker İşler Gaye Atilla

Abstract

Motivation lies behind all consumer behaviors. Motivation is the driving force
that prompts the person and it is the profound desire to satisfy a need. (Karalar, 2006: 87).
Motivation is counted as one of several other internal and external factors that affect the
buying behavior of the consumers. Motive is a broad concept that involves the wishes,
desires, needs, impulses as well as interests.
It is not possible not to make use of emotional data once a certain product is
attracted. The word “emotion” derives from the root “motere” that means “to move” in
Latin. Meaning of the root switches to “to move away” once it gets the prefix “-e”; which
could also mean that each emotion triggers an action. (Goleman, 2001: 20)
Importance of understanding how people think and how they use their emotions
in daily life is increasing day by day. Despite the importance of emotion in decisionmaking
process, it is still not clear how emotional information of customers is processed
in order to take efficient decisions. (Kidwell vd., 2008: 154).
Goleman (2001: 50-51, 2003: 11) designates emotional intelligence as a group
consisting of some characteristics such as „galvanizing self into action, proceeding despite
the challenges, delaying satisfaction by controlling the drives, empathizing with others as
well as cherishing hope. He also describes emotional intelligence as a basic life skill. He
signifies this as controlling emotional drives, understanding others‟ feelings and running
relationships well.
When it comes to decision-making, the first intelligence type that comes to
mind is cognitive intelligence which involves rgw intellectual, analytic, logical and
rational skills of the individual. It comprises all oral, spatial and mathematical skills. It
measures how fast new information is learned, how long objective information is stored in
the memory. It evaluates if numbers are used adeptly and abstract thinking and analytical
problem solving ability. (Stein ve Book, 2003: 27-28). Nevertheless, intelligence without
emotional intelligence or an emotional intelligence without cognitive intelligence is only a
piece of solution on the path to achievement. This reminds of someone who considers
establishing a new business and cares his/her feelings and intuitions as well as his detailed
research regarding the relevant business area. (Yaylacı, 2006: 30).
Consumer emotional intelligence is designated as an individual‟s skill in using
emotional information with expertly in order to attain desired consumer output. Consumer
emotional intelligence comprises combination of all first-degree emotional skills which
enable individuals to distinguish their emotional patterns interpretation. (Kidwell vd.
2008: 154).
Diversity of personal characteristics cause variety of purchasing behaviors. In
this sense, it is quite natural that logical individual and emotional individual might choose
different destinations for holiday (Karalar, 2006: 106). Customers can buy a product in
order to change a depressive mood, present an identity or just to have fun besides the need
for it. This irrational buying type is defined as impulse buying. (Verplanken ve Herabadi,
2001: 71). Within this study the term „Impulse Buying‟ shall be used. For this definition,
several other terms like motivational, instinctual, intuitional, sudden, unplanned purchase
for this concept in Turkish language.
Impulse buying is identified as buying which hasn‟t been planned before
entering shopping centre but resulted in immediate, spontaneous and severe buying behavior as a result of being exposed to a stimulus in shopping place, which could also be
designated as consumer‟s irresistible buying. (Özdamar, 2011: 54). According to another
definition, impulse buying is designated as attempts intended to increase image of the
self. It is especially more visible among trendy clothing. It can be stated that highly
motivational buyer is under the influence of irrational decisions which put forward
sensational attraction rather than rational decisions such as price. (Erkmen ve Yüksel,
2008: 686). Impulse buying involves emotional and cognitive psychological processes.
Emotional process involves irresistible desire for buying, positive buying feeling as well
as temper management while cognitive process involves cognitive inspection, ignoring
unplanned purchasing and future.
Consequently, that individuals have different personality traits results in
different consumption styles. When the biological and psychological factors which serve
to explain human behavior added this process, it can be stated that buying behavior has
taken place under lots of different factors. Recently, the term „emotion‟ comes into
prominence in consumer behavior as in many other fields. Affordability of a product
which doesn‟t cater to emotions is suspicious. Thus, the bond between product and
individual is a must for the salability of a product. Businesses struggle to design brands,
products and services which appeals to consumer‟s heart and brain together.
Thus, in this study, the effect of emotional intelligence dimensions on impulse
buying tendencies of 18-30 age range young‟s who are thought to shop frequently is
measured. Namely, the link between increases and decreases in impulse buying behaviors
of participants and emotional intelligence aspects is tried to reveal. The survey applied for
these purposes is comprised of three sections. In the first section, „Impulse Buying
Tendency Scale‟ comprising 20 articles and developed by Verplanken and Herabadi
(2001) in order to determine young consumers‟ impulse buying tendency; in the second
section, (Wong & Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, 2002) Sensational Intelligence
Scale owned by Wong and Law are used. These two scales hold 5 point Likert scale
features which own options such as (5) strongly agree- (1) strongly disagree as well as
points changing from 1 to 5 points. The third section involves demographical questions.
Research‟s population comes from young shoppers aged 18-20 in IyaŞ Park Shopping
Centre in Isparta district. 300 young consumers determined by simple random sampling
method among this population comprise the sample of the research. 289 out of 300
surveys hold useable quality. Thus, the rate of return of these surveys is 96%.
First of all, when demographical data acquired from these surveys is analyzed, it
is seen that 64,1 of participants is female and 35,9% is male; 40,6% is aged 21-23 and
37,2% is aged 24-26. It has also been set that 19% of the participants is student, 15,9% is
civil servant, 17,0% is housewife, 13,5% is worker and % 13,1 is freelancer. As for the
educational backgrounds of the participants, 49,6% of them stated that they hold a
bachelor degree while 28,2% is high school graduates. As for the level of income of the
participants, 45,3% of them stated that they earn 1000 TL and below while 34,6% earn
around 1001-1500 TL. In this study, Cronbach‟s Alpha method which states internal
consistency measure of statements in the scale is used. Cronbach Alfa value is 0,806. In
reliability analyses of scales conducted to test the totality of sizes, alfa coefficients are
0.648 for impulse buying tendency scale and 0.846 for emotional intelligence scale. In
this section of the research, with the help of data acquired from sample, factor analysis
has been applied in order to reduce emotional intelligence scale to sizes and investigate its
affect on impulse buying tendency by naming these sizes. In concerned literature, as Hair (1988) et al., Hattie (1985) et al. proposed factor coefficients formed by gathering
variables whose factor loading is above 0,50. During the factor analysis conducted by
using main coefficients and Varimax factor rotation methods, Barlett‟s sphericity value
has been found significant and KMO value has been found higher than estimated value as
(0.839). As a result of the analysis, 4 factor form has been acquired such as “Dimension
of Evaluation of Others‟ Emotions”, “Dimension of Organization of Emotions”,
“Dimension of Evaluation of Self Emotions” as well as “Dimension of Emotions Use”. In
the study following the factor analysis, it has been tried to demonstrate which of the
emotional intelligence dimensions are meaningful that might have impact on the existence
of impulse buying behavior tendency.
For this purpose, average is found for every participant by converting dependent
variable impulse buying tendency into discontinuous various having only bilateral level.
Average of the scale is between maximum 4.25 and minimum 1.80. If average of
participant answers given to questions in impulse buying tendency scale is above 3, it is
accepted that they have got impulse buying tendency (this is designated with 1) or
otherwise they lack impulse buying tendency (this is designated with 0). Thus, a new
variable has been constituted. In this way, dependent variable has 2 results which could be
predisposed for regression analysis. As a result of the logistic regression analysis, it has
been put forward that there is a meaningful correlation between impulse buying tendency
variable and two sub-dimensions of emotional intelligence. “Dimension of Evaluation of
Others‟ Emotions” and “Dimension of Emotions Use” sub-dimensions of emotional
intelligence hold a meaningful correlation with impulse buying tendency coefficient. To
put it more clearly, it has been proven that people who own the ability of perception and
understanding of others‟ feelings and those who have the ability of utilizing emotions by
canalizing their emotions to constructive activities and personal performance and people
who generally have a positive mood show impulse buying tendency. That people who can
read others‟ emotions in a way own impulse buying tendency can be explained as the
sensibility to outer world‟s signals.

Keywords

Emotional intelligence, Impulse buying, Consumer Behaviour, Factor Analyses, Logistic Regression

DUYGUSAL ZEKA VE DÜRTÜSEL SATIN ALMA DAVRANIŞI İLİŞKİSİ

Abstract

Bireylerin kişilik özelliklerinin farklı olması tüketicilerin satın alma davranışında birbirinden farklı olmasında etkindir. İnsan davranışını yönlendiren biyolojik ve psikolojik etmenler de sürece eklendiğinde satın alma davranışı pekçok faktörün bombardımanı altında gerçekleşmektedir denilebilir. Fiziksel ve işlevsel faydaların ötesinde “duygu” son yıllarda pek çok alanda olduğu gibi tüketici davranışları konusunda önem kazanmaya başlamıştır. Duyguya hitap etmeyen bir ürünün satın alınabilirliği şüphelidir. Bu yüzden ürün ile birey arasında duygusal bir bağ kurmak ürünün satılması için bir gerekliliktir. Bu çalışmanın amacı daha sık alış veriş yaptığı düşünülen 18-30 yaş arası gençlerin duygusal zekâ düzeylerinin dürtüsel satın alma eğilimlerine etkisini araştırmaktır. Araştırmada Wong ve Law’ın Duygusal Zekâ Ölçeği (WLEIS, 2002) ve dürtüsel satın alma eğilimlerinin belirlenmesi için Verplanken ve Herabadi (2001) tarafından geliştirilen Dürtüsel Satın Alma Eğilim Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma 289 genç tüketici üzerinde yapılmıştır. Bulgular gençlerin sahip olduğu duygusal zekâ düzeyinin dürtüsel satın alma davranışına etki ettiğini ve duygusal zekânın 2 alt boyutu ile dürtüsel satın alma eğilimi arasında anlamlı bir ilişkinin bulunduğunu ortaya koymuştur.

Keywords

Duygusal zekâ, Dürtüsel satın alma, Tüketici davranışı