Reviews, urgency, and the urge to buy: Electronic word-of-mouth, fear of missing out, and impulsive buying behaviour on TikTok among Generation Z

Abstract

TikTok blends peer-generated reviews and trend-driven urgency into a single scrolling feed, and both features are widely believed to push young users toward unplanned purchases. This study tests whether electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), in the form of user reviews encountered on TikTok, and fear of missing out (FOMO) predict impulsive buying behaviour among Generation Z consumers. Survey data were collected from 200 Malaysian TikTok users using a structured questionnaire adapted from established scales and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). All three constructs showed satisfactory reliability and convergent validity (Cronbach's alpha .877-.892, composite reliability .916-.927, average variance extracted .698-.808), and discriminant validity was confirmed via the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT, all values below .80). FOMO was a strong, significant predictor (beta = .690, t = 15.25, p < .001, f2 = .928, a large effect), while eWOM showed a small, borderline effect at the conventional .05 threshold (beta = .090, t = 1.84, p = .067, f2 = .016, below the conventional threshold for even a small effect). These findings suggest that on TikTok, the informational role of user reviews is, at most, a secondary contributor next to the emotional urgency generated by FOMO in triggering an impulsive purchase, even though eWOM correlates positively with impulsive buying at the bivariate level. The study extends the electronic word-of-mouth and stimulus-organism-response literature to the TikTok shopping context and offers marketers, platform designers, and consumer researchers evidence on which psychological lever most reliably converts engagement into unplanned spending.