The Influence of Emotional Arousal and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on Virtual Gifting Intention: The Mediating Role of Impulsive Buying and the Moderating Role of Islamic Self-Control among TikTok Live Users

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effects of Emotional Arousal and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on Virtual Gifting Intention among TikTok Live users, with Impulsive Buying as a mediating variable and Islamic Self-Control as a moderating variable based on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) theory. This study employed a quantitative approach using primary data collected from 100 Muslim Generation Z TikTok Live users through a purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach through SmartPLS 4 software. The findings indicate that Emotional Arousal has a positive and significant effect on Impulsive Buying, whereas Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) has no significant effect on Impulsive Buying. Furthermore, Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Impulsive Buying have positive and significant effects on Virtual Gifting Intention, while Emotional Arousal has no direct effect on Virtual Gifting Intention. Impulsive Buying mediates the relationship between Emotional Arousal and Virtual Gifting Intention, but does not mediate the relationship between Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Virtual Gifting Intention. Meanwhile, Islamic Self-Control does not moderate the relationship between Impulsive Buying and Virtual Gifting Intention. The R-square value indicates that the proposed model has moderate explanatory power in explaining Virtual Gifting Intention among TikTok Live users.