Sustainability tactics in consumer finance: Exploring moderation of behavior, desire and service

This study examines how consumer buying behavior (CBB) shapes desire to buy (DB) and whether service impact on purchase (SIP) conditionally moderates these relationships, with implications for sustainable consumer finance. Using survey data from consumers across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, the study applies a rigorous sequential analytical approach, including reliability assessment, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and interaction-based moderation modeling. The findings show that unconventional price preferences, promotional sensitivity, and value-oriented buying significantly influence both impulsive and borrowing-driven purchase desires, while financial consciousness alone does not exert a direct effect. SIP emerges as a selective moderator: it strengthens the relationship between financial consciousness and impulsive buying and attenuates impulsive tendencies among value-oriented consumers. Most other moderation effects are context-specific rather than universal, indicating that service conditions amplify or constrain consumer desires only under particular behavioral configurations. Overall, the study demonstrates that sustainable consumer finance outcomes arise from the joint alignment of behavioral traits and service environments rather than from isolated consumer characteristics, offering theoretically grounded insights for sustainability-oriented financial strategies.