THE INFLUENCE OF FOMO ON IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR: CONSTRUCTING SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION HABITS FOR VIETNAMESE MIDDLE-AGED CONSUMERS

Abstract

Digital retail environments increasingly combine scarcity cues, livestream interaction, algorithmic recommendations, and visible peer behavior, creating conditions in which fear of missing out (FOMO) can accelerate unplanned purchasing. Research has concentrated primarily on younger consumers, leaving the implications for middle-aged consumers in emerging markets insufficiently specified. This study examines the mechanisms through which FOMO can intensify impulse buying and identifies intervention points for sustainable consumption among Vietnamese middle-aged consumers. To avoid unsupported primary-data claims in the earlier version, the revised study adopts a structured integrative review and theory-building synthesis. Nineteen substantive peer-reviewed studies published from 2022 to 2025 were retained after relevance and verifiability screening; all sources have DOI or stable journal records. Evidence was coded for digital stimuli, FOMO-related psychological responses, impulsive or compulsive outcomes, life-stage factors, Vietnam-specific context, and sustainability implications, and then interpreted through stimulus-organism-response logic, social comparison, and self-regulation. The synthesis indicates that scarcity, social visibility, anticipated regret, and low-friction checkout compress deliberation. For middle-aged consumers, susceptibility is likely to be expressed through value-preserving rationalization: an unplanned purchase is reframed as thrift, household usefulness, or avoidance of a lost opportunity. Repeated exposure may normalize excess acquisition and conflict with financial and environmental sustainability. Sustainable consumption therefore depends on consumer-level pause routines, transparent platform design, and proportionate oversight of manipulative urgency. The study contributes a context-sensitive agenda for empirical research on Vietnamese consumers aged approximately 40-59.