Antecedents affecting Online Shopping Addiction Behaviour during the Era of Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

Saw, Yong Xiang (2023) Antecedents affecting Online Shopping Addiction Behaviour during the Era of Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

With the Covid-19 pandemic being a global disaster, countries over the globe have imposed lockdown and social distancing rules to curb the spread of the virus, including Malaysia in which the government has implemented Movement Control Order (MCO). Thus, these restrictions have limited the movement of individuals as they are not allowed to leave their house. This has actually cause negative emotions such as panic and anxiety to arise among the public as they are confined inside a small space for a long period of time. Furthermore, with increasing uncertainty, they will also feel stress and depressed due to the fear of losing their job. Thus, this has actually provided a better environment for Internet addicts as they turned to online shopping as a coping mechanism to escape the negative feelings. As a consequence, this has accelerated the descent of some consumers into a group of shopping addicts. According to past studies, it can be found that there is a lacking empirical research that investigate the relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with online shopping addiction behaviour. Hence, this research will address the gap by adopting the Cognitive-Behavioural Theory and Social Cognitive Theory to justify the interconnection between all the variables under investigation. This research examines the direct and indirect relationship between perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, negative emotions, self-control and online shopping addiction behaviour. Additionally, this research also investigates the moderator role of materialism towards the relationship between self-control and online shopping addiction behaviour. To initiate this research, a quantitative research design with cross-sectional IV study was adopted and data was collected using online self-administered questionnaire survey via Google form. A total of 387 respondents (primary data) from Malaysians who performed online shopping during MCO were gathered. These data were then analysed by using both Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26 and SmartPLS version 4.0. According to the statistical outcomes, all the direct relationship between perfectionism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, negative emotions and online shopping addiction behaviour are significantly supported except for self-control. For indirect relationships, all the mediation relationships are significantly supported except for the relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder/negative emotions and online shopping addiction behaviour through self-control. Moreover, the result also proved there is no moderating effect of materialism towards online shopping addiction behaviour. Based on the results generated in this research, this research contributes theoretical and managerial implications by proving the obsessive-compulsive disorder is impactful towards online shopping addiction behaviour. Lastly, some limitations of this research are addressed and recommendations were suggested for future studies to further exploring the understanding of online shopping addiction behaviour.