Assessing stimulus–organism responses in impulse buying among young consumers on online platforms using a hybrid BWM-ISM approach

With the advent of online buying habits, this study employs three stages (identify, rank, and decode relationships) approach to investigate the enablers of online impulse buying behavior (OIBB) among young consumers. First, literature review in the backdrop of stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework was used to identify and experts’ opinions were used to validate 21 enablers of OIBB. Next, hybrid multi-criteria decision-making approaches, namely the best–worst method (BWM) was used to assign weights and rank; and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to decide mutual relationship among the top ranked enablers. Results indicate that ‘promotion’, ‘product variety’, and ‘product quality’ are the top ranked enablers of OIBB among young consumers. The study develops a hierarchical model to simplify complex relationships among key enablers, clarifying impulse buying through the first-time use of the BWM-ISM approach in OIBB research. This enables marketers and e-commerce sellers to better prioritize critical enablers of OIBB.