Authors:
Ramya Senthil, Thangaraja Arumugam

Addresses:
Business School, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract:

The expansion of e-commerce has reshaped purchasing into a highly interactive and emotionally engaging digital activity. This study examines how individual emotional traits and patterns of internet engagement jointly influence online purchasing behavior. Adopting a constructive and behavioral perspective, the research conceptualizes emotional sensitivity and immersive digital use as key factors shaping consumer involvement, responsiveness, and self-regulation in online marketplaces. A quantitative research design was employed, with data collected from 660 online consumers through a structured survey. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the proposed relationships. At the same time, Network Comparison Analysis and Importance–Performance Map Analysis provided complementary insights into the relative influence and strategic relevance of the constructs. The findings indicate that internet engagement plays a central role in shaping online purchasing responses, acting as a primary pathway through which emotional traits influence buying behavior. Emotional traits exhibit both direct and indirect associations with purchasing tendencies, underscoring their role in shaping consumer awareness, engagement intensity, and decision-making processes in digital contexts. Additional analyses reveal that internet engagement occupies a prominent position within the behavioral network, while emotional traits function as upstream drivers influencing consumption patterns. This study contributes to the digital consumption literature by offering a balanced, development-oriented explanation of online purchasing behavior. 

Keywords: Emotional Traits; Internet Engagement; Equation Modeling; Digital Consumption; Online Purchasing Behavior; Consumer Self-Regulation; Behavioral Network; Digital Contexts; Social Media Addiction; Environmental Psychology.

Received on: 01/03/2025, Revised on: 04/06/2025, Accepted on: 19/08/2025, Published on: 12/03/2026

DOI: 10.69888/FTSSSL.2026.000585

FMDB Transactions on Sustainable Social Sciences Letters , 2026 Vol. 4 No. 1, Pages: 28–41

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