Jyoti Tandon, Rajan Yadav and Saurabh Agrawal
Purpose- The present study examined the effect of the time gap between the costs incurred and benefits received on post-purchase dissonance when customers have impulsively bought online. The purpose of the study is to reduce post-purchase dissonance and product returns in online impulse buying. Design/methodology/approach- A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural Equation Modeling and Paired T-tests were used to analyze the data. The approach to theory testing involves a longitudinal design, and it aims to scrutinize the effect of time on online impulse buying. Findings- The results indicate that in online impulse buying, when costs precede benefits (study 1) the felt dissonance decreases with time. Conversely, when benefits precede costs (study 2) the felt dissonance increases with time. The manager should aim at minimizing the dissonance associated with the product since there is an inverse relationship between dissonance associated with the product and the consumer's willingness to repurchase the product. Research implications/Limitations–The manager in study 1-should aim at increasing the time between the costs incurred and benefits derived because, over time, the dissonance, kept on decreasing. The manager in study 2, should aim at reducing the time lapse between consumption and payment. The scope of this study remains limited to the Indian student population with a sample size of 100 individuals in study one and 99 participants in study two. Originality/value - This research is the first to focus on minimizing post-purchase dissonance in online impulse buying through managing delivery time.