Abstract

Purpose: The current study investigates the variables influencing FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) and how FoMO affects flow experience and impulse purchases among Vietnamese Generation Z on TikTok, a short-form video social-commerce platform. Research design, data, and methodology: After developing operation definitions and measurement scales of each construct based on prior study, the research evaluated the direct and indirect effects among research variables by performing Structural Equation Modeling analysis on the program IBM SPSS AMOS 20 using data of 298 respondents obtained from an online survey by convenience sampling method. Results: Findings show that the three factors - covert narcissism, social comparison and scarcity - positively affect FoMO. Flow experience significantly influences impulse purchase, whereas FoMO does not directly predict impulse purchase. However, FoMO does positively affect impulse purchase under the mediating effect of flow experience. Conclusions: By highlighting factors affecting FoMO and clarifying the relationship between FoMO, flow experience, and impulse purchase, this research provides helpful insights into the theoretical underpinnings of FoMO and offers marketers practical suggestions to carry out successful marketing campaigns on video social-commerce platforms.