This study investigates the psychological mechanisms driving impulsive buying behaviour in blind box consumption among Thai consumers, using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework as its theoretical foundation. Survey data were collected from 500 blind box consumers in Thailand and analysed using PLS-SEM. Six of eight hypotheses were supported. Time scarcity emerged as the strongest FOMO trigger, while PHE was nearly twice as powerful as FOMO in driving anticipatory arousal. Anticipatory arousal exhibited a strong positive relationship with impulsive buying, whereas the interaction between self-control and anticipatory arousal was nonsignificant, indicating that the moderating role of self-control may be context dependent in hedonic and gamified consumption. The findings refine the application of the SOR framework by distinguishing quantity and time scarcity at the stimulus layer and specifying a sequential organism process through which FOMO and perceived hedonic excitement are associated with anticipatory arousal and impulsive buying.
Tedjakusuma et al. (Tue,) studied this question.