Mapping research on impulse buying and live streaming: a bibliometric analysis (2020–2025)

This research aims to review impulse buying and its relationship to live streaming through a bibliometric analysis. This research carefully reviews and critiques the literature on impulse buying and live streaming, using bibliometric techniques to identify leading research topics, seminal publications, and emerging trends in the field. The study employs bibliographic coupling analysis and keyword co-occurrence to identify the intellectual structure of the domain. The results indicate a shift in the research topic from traditional impulse-buying theories to setting-specific variables applicable to live-streaming contexts, such as streamer attributes, in-real-time interaction, scarcity manipulations, and social influence processes. 98 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database and were analyzed using bibliographic coupling and co-word analysis. Furthermore, the key conclusion of this research is that impulse buying behaviour in live streaming is conditioned by specific issues, which are characteristics of streamers, real-time interaction, and scarcity strategies, which are the opposite of conventional impulse buying. It demonstrates that many companies should tailor their marketing approaches to utilise the unique characteristics of live streaming, based on their specific preferences.