Consumer personality, online social interaction, and deep online consumption behavior

Abstract It aims to explore the positive relationship between consumer personality and deep online consumption behavior, and discover the mediating and moderating roles of online social interaction. By integrating Big Five personality and social interaction theories, we established a theoretical framework for presenting the relationship. We then developed a structural equation model and used regression analysis method to analyze the data collected from 313 Chinese consumer questionnaires. The results show that though the direct effect of consumer personality on deep online consumption behavior is insignificant on the whole, the extroversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness of consumers significantly and positively affect online purchase decision and post-purchase consumer engagement. While the neuroticism negatively affects online purchase decision and insignificantly affects post-purchase consumer engagement. Moreover, online social interaction significantly and positively mediates the relationships between the first four personalities and deep online consumption behavior. It also significantly moderates the effect of five personalities on online purchase decision, and strengthens the effect of conscientiousness on post-purchase consumer engagement. The study enriches our understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of the influence of consumer personalities on online consumption behavior.