Impulse buying questionnaire: hedonic value and FoMO

Impulse buying on TikTok Shop, Shopee or during livestreams is a topic many students choose. This template links the hedonic shopping value of Babin, Darden and Griffin (1994) and the fear of missing out of Przybylski et al. (2013) with the impulse buying tendency of Rook and Fisher (1995).

Research model

Suggested model, to be justified from your literature review: the enjoyment of shopping (hedonic value) and fear of missing out increase impulse buying tendency. The Rook and Fisher (1995) scale measures a personal tendency, so Chapter 2 needs to explain why it is the dependent variable, or you can add a separately sourced impulse buying behavior scale.

• Hedonic Shopping Value → Buying Impulsiveness (positive)
• Fear of Missing Out → Buying Impulsiveness (positive)

Questionnaire items

Original English wording. Answered on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5 = Strongly agree) unless the scale page says otherwise; (R) marks a reverse-coded item.

Hedonic Shopping Value (HSV) · Shopping value scale

Code	Item
HSV1	This shopping trip was truly a joy.
HSV2	Compared to other things I could have done, the time spent shopping was truly enjoyable.
HSV3	During the trip, I felt the excitement of the hunt.
HSV4	This shopping trip truly felt like an escape.
HSV5	I enjoyed being immersed in exciting new products.
HSV6	I enjoyed this shopping trip for its own sake, not just for the items I may have purchased.
HSV7	I continued to shop, not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
HSV8	I had a good time because I was able to act on the "spur of the moment."
HSV9	While shopping, I was able to forget my problems.
HSV10	While shopping, I felt a sense of adventure.
HSV11 (R)	This shopping trip was not a very nice time out.

Source: Babin, Darden & Griffin (1994). See Shopping value scale.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) · Fear of Missing Out scale

Code	Item
FO1	I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me.
FO2	I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me.
FO3	I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me.
FO4	I get anxious when I don't know what my friends are up to.
FO5	It is important that I understand my friends "in jokes".
FO6	Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.
FO7	It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends.
FO8	When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).
FO9	When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.
FO10	When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Source: Przybylski et al. (2013). See Fear of Missing Out scale.

Buying Impulsiveness (BI) · Buying impulsiveness scale

Code	Item
BI1	I often buy things spontaneously.
BI2	"Just do it" describes the way I buy things.
BI3	I often buy things without thinking.
BI4	"I see it, I buy it" describes me.
BI5	"Buy now, think about it later" describes me.
BI6	Sometimes I feel like buying things on the spur-of-the-moment.
BI7	I buy things according to how I feel at the moment.
BI8 (R)	I carefully plan most of my purchases.
BI9	Sometimes I am a bit reckless about what I buy.

Source: Rook & Fisher (1995). See Buying impulsiveness scale.

Tips

• The original hedonic value scale asks about one specific in-store shopping trip; this template rewrites the four items that mention 'this shopping trip' for the e-commerce context and keeps the original items for comparison.
• FoMO uses a 1-5 'how true' scale (not at all true ... extremely true of me), not an agreement Likert scale; keep the exact labels in the questionnaire.
• BI8 and HSV11 are reverse-keyed items; reverse the scores before computing Cronbach's alpha.
• If you want to measure impulse buying behavior in a specific livestream, add a separately sourced behavior scale rather than relying only on the tendency scale.

Work out the minimum sample size for this model; once the data are in, clean the responses and run the survey data analysis for your results chapter.

Studies that used this model

• Nguyen and Ha (2021). Predictors of fast-fashion-oriented impulse buying: The case of Vietnamese millennials. Management Science Letters, 11, 2021–2032. Sample: 322 valid responses, aged 18-35 in Binh Duong; hedonic value and emotion → impulse buying, citing Rook and Fisher (1995) and Babin et al. (1994). Reliability: α 0.759-0.882 (Table 3).
• Truong (2025). Fear of missing out (FOMO) and impulsive buying on TikTok shop: A study using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model. SEARCH Journal of Media and Communication Research, 17(2), 87–104. Sample: 336 people, mixed methods, at one university. Reliability: α 0.89 (abstract).
• Cho, Ching and Luong (2014). Impulse buying behavior of Vietnamese consumers in supermarket setting. International Journal of Research Studies in Management, 3(2), 33–50. Sample: 241 supermarket shoppers; citing Rook and Fisher (1995). Reliability: α 0.664-0.889 (Tables 3 and 5).

Collecting responses

If your own network cannot reach the target respondents, you can pay for verified responses through Genius Data (referral link, we may earn a commission), paying only for approved responses.