A sudden urge to buy online: How consumers' personality antecedents shape their impulsive online buying intent

Impulsive online buying has become increasingly prominent among young adult consumers, particularly in digital environments characterized by immediacy, convenience, and low-friction decision-making. This study examines the associations between Dark Triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), self-efficacy, impulsivity, and impulsive online buying intent among university students in Lebanon. Grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework and supported by Personality Theory, Social Cognitive Theory, and the Reference Point Model, the study conceptualizes personality traits and self-efficacy as internal psychological stimuli, impulsivity as the organismic state, and impulsive buying intent as the behavioral response. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected from 369 university students through convenience sampling using a structured self-administered questionnaire with validated Likert-scale measures, and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The findings indicate that all three Dark Triad traits and self-efficacy are positively associated with impulsivity, while impulsivity is strongly associated with impulsive online buying intent and mediates these relationships. The study extends the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework by incorporating internal psychological characteristics as stimuli and offers novel evidence of a context-dependent positive association between self-efficacy and impulsivity in digital consumption settings.