Consumer perceived value and impulsive buying in social commerce: the moderating role of fear of missing out

Abstract This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying consumers’ impulse buying behavior in social commerce (S-commerce) by adopting the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework. Specifically, it examines how platform interactivity (INT) and social cue intensity (SCI), as environmental stimuli, influence the urge to buy impulsively (UBI) through the mediating roles of perceived utilitarian value (PUV) and perceived hedonic value (PHV). Furthermore, it explores the moderating role of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) in the perceived value-behavior link. Data were collected from 398 social commerce users in China and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that both INT and SCI significantly enhance PUV and PHV, which in turn have a positive effect on UBI. FoMO is found to strengthen the effect of perceived value (especially PHV) on UBI. These findings enrich the application of the SOR model in digital consumption contexts and offer new insights into the dual value pathways and emotional moderators that drive impulsive behavior in social commerce environments.