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Though online impulsive buying emerged mostly in Western cultures, it has been widely expanded as a key pattern among online customers in emerging markets. Interestingly, while few studies suggest that engaging in unplanned purchase actions (i.e. impulsive buying) is not always associated with negative emotions among customers (i.e. postpurchase cognitive dissonance), others suggest that impulsive buying is directly associated with cognitive dissonance. This paper aims to investigate and understand the key antecedents of online impulsive buying among Moroccan Gen Z consumers, and how it contributes to postpurchase dissonance. The authors also try to gain deeper insights by investigating the disparities between males and females using mutigroup analysis.

Based on data collected from 333 Moroccan Gen Zers, the hypothesized model was empirically tested using a partial least squares estimation.

First, the results confirm that impulsive buying is positively associated with postpurchase dissonance. Second, while hedonic shopping motivation, fear of missing out and materialism were found to significantly impact online impulsive buying, price value and online reviews had no significant effect on online impulsive purchases. The importance–performance matrix also suggests that the fear of missing out is the most important factor leading to online impulsive buying, followed by hedonic shopping motivation and materialism. Finally, the results confirm that female shoppers are more likely to engage in impulsive buying behavior, and this was mainly due to higher fear of missing out, hedonic shopping motivation and materialism.

First, the study findings can help online merchants to construct well-designed online shopping platforms and effective e-marketing tactics to stimulate purchase intentions among Gen Z shoppers. Online merchants should also attempt to reduce the negative feelings associated with unplanned buying behavior by introducing additional incentives, effective consumer interactivity and flexible return policies. This would help online suppliers in retaining customers and transforming impulse purchases into more recurrent ones. Second, online retailers should take into consideration the differences between male and female consumers by appealing to the role of gender in purchase situations when marketing their products and services. Finally, the findings offer interesting implications to society by allowing online shoppers to make well-informed purchase decisions without being influenced by personal and products’ traits.

While prior research assessed the investigated constructs in separate models, the study suggests an integrated framework that incorporates different determinants of online impulsive shopping as well as its impact on postpurchase cognitive dissonance. Additionally, the authors explored the moderating effect of gender to gain deeper insights with regard to the disparities between males and females while engaging in online impulsive buying. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the antecedents of online impulsive buying among Gen Z consumers in Arab countries and Africa.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the upward trend of organic food (OF) consumption is no longer restrained to western markets but has also extended to emerging markets in different parts of the world. Still, extent post-pandemic literature has devoted little attention to the factors shaping consumers' intent to purchase organic food in developing markets. The current research empirically investigates the antecedents of consumers' attitude and intent to purchase organic food in an emerging market context (i.e. Morocco). This research also explores the differences between OF consumers' manifest attitudes prior to and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

To achieve the study's objectives, data were collected from 1,060 Moroccan respondents using online self-administered questionnaires in two different eras: prior to the COVID-19 pandemic with a total of 441 valid responses and following the pandemic with 619 valid responses. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to validate the data, and a partial least squares (PLS) estimation was used to test the hypotheses.

First, attitude towards OF has a significant impact on consumers' purchase intention; at the same time, it is influenced by subjective norms, organic labeling, perceived behavioral control, health consciousness, and environmental concern. This study's findings also suggest subjective norms, organic labeling, perceived behavioral control, health consciousness, environmental concern, age, and income as the key determinants of consumers' intention to purchase OF. Second, the IPMA analysis suggests that while health consciousness, organic labeling and perceived behavioral control are the most important constructs influencing attitude towards OF, consumers' purchase intention is mostly influenced by health consciousness, attitude towards OF and age. Finally, the PLS-Multigroup Analysis conveyed few discrepancies in the results when comparing the two eras (i.e. subjective norms and age had more significant impacts on consumers' purchase intent following the COVID-19 pandemic).

This study provides organic food retailers and practitioners with a deeper understanding of the key aspects shaping consumers' intent to purchase organic products in emerging markets. The comparative analysis will also provide important insights on how to shape consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions in a new-normal marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study's findings contribute to the growing literature on consumers' behavior in the organic food industry, particularly in developing countries where research is still narrow. This study's study is the first of its kind to compare consumers' intention to purchase organic food before and following the COVID-19 pandemic.