How psychological factors boost compulsive buying behavior in digital era

Purpose To find the root of the problem for compulsive buying behavior of students in the digital era by exploring psychological factors such as materialism, self-esteem, self-control, narcissism, money attitude and mood as boosters of the effect of income on compulsive buying behavior. Design/methodology/approach The unit of analysis in this research was a group of students having experience using e-commerce. The data collection method in this study was a closed questionnaire with a scale of 1–5 agree–disagree intervals distributed to 250 students who have shopping experience through e-commerce. WARP-PLS statistics was used. Findings The study shows that self-esteem and mood do not moderate the effect of income on compulsive buying behavior. Meanwhile, materialism, narcissism, self-control and money attitude can significantly moderate the effect of income on compulsive buying behavior. Research limitations/implications That the data used is only limited to students in Central Java Province; so for future research, it is necessary to expand data to different provinces or different countries. This research has implications that the synthesis between mainstream conventional economic thought and behavioral economics can be tested well in this model. Originality/value This study is proof of the synthesis between conventional and behavioral economic thought, which is a solution to the contradiction of the neoclassical paradigm of thought and behavioral economic thought in understanding consumer behavior, especially in compulsive buying behavior. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0652