When impulse buying supports loyalty intentions: Food authenticity, night tourscape, and the S-O-R psychology of Thai night market visitors

Information from the abstract

Thai night markets combine food culture, nocturnal atmosphere, and wholesale commerce, yet how these stimuli shape loyalty intentions remains underexplored. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, this study examines how food authenticity, night tourscape, wholesale accessibility, and price fairness shape hedonic and utilitarian value, with perceived crowding tested as a moderator of hedonic value's link to revisit intention. Survey data from 393 domestic Thai night market visitors were analysed using PLS-SEM. Food authenticity was the strongest driver of hedonic value; price fairness contributed more than wholesale accessibility to utilitarian value. Hedonic value reached revisit intention and word-of-mouth only through impulse buying, while utilitarian value showed stronger direct and indirect effects; crowding was non-significant. These findings extend S-O-R theory by repositioning impulse buying as a mid-chain mechanism, showing that hedonic value reaches loyalty outcomes only through impulse buying while utilitarian value reaches them both directly and through impulse buying, and demonstrating that crowding's null effect may reflect a boundary condition worth testing directly in future research. Practically, the results point to vendor and market-design interventions supporting rapid value recognition and purchase encounters structured for memory consolidation.

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Related topics: Night-time city culture · Consumer Retail Behavior Studies · Culinary Culture and Tourism