MODERATED MEDIATION BETWEEN CONSUMER MINDFULNESS AND IMPULSE BUYING: ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM, GENDER, AND MARITAL STATUS

Mindfulness improves awareness of negative feelings without judgment or reaction, which reduces the desire to impulse buy or avoid these feelings. The current study highlights the positive effects of mindfulness on selfesteem as a potential means of mitigating impulsive behavior. Therefore, this study examines the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between mindfulness and impulse buying. This study additionally examines the role of gender and marital status as moderators to investigate the moderated mediation effect. The data for this study was collected from 293 customers in North India using Judgmental sampling technique. The survey data was analyzed using Process macro in SPSS and AMOS. It was found that impulse buying had a significant negative relationship with mindfulness and self-esteem, while mindfulness and self-esteem had a significant positive relationship. In addition, the results showed that self-esteem mediated the relationship between mindfulness and impulse buying in both married and unmarried male and female consumers. While gender had no moderating mediating effect, the moderating mediating effect of marital status was significant. These results represent an important contribution to the existing literature. The implications of the study were discussed in detail.