THE EFFECT OF REWARD-BASED AND URGENCY-DRIVEN NEUROMARKETING STIMULI ON IMPULSIVE PURCHASE INTENTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM ONLINE CONSUMERS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

This paper tests the first hypothesis (H1) of a wider study on neuromarketing-informed digital design for startups: reward-based and urgency-driven digital stimuli are positively linked with impulsive purchase intentions among online consumers. A cross-sectional survey of 303 online consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina combined Likert-scale items on impulse buying, urgency and scarcity with binary visual comparison tasks. Most respondents preferred the gamified interface (59.4%) and the higher-urgency sales page (64.4%); urgency-based decision-making correlated most strongly with impulse buying tendency (Spearman rho = .417, p < .001). However, the scarcity-impulse item scored lowest in the survey (M = 2.46, SD = 1.30); 29.0% of respondents reacted to the message “Only 3 left in stock” with explicit distrust, and 41.9% reported no effect from countdown timers. Age significantly moderated scarcity responses (Kruskal-Wallis H = 16.91, p = .005, epsilon-squared = .056), with younger respondents reporting higher scarcity-driven impulses than older respondents. These findings offer only partial support for H1: reward and urgency stimuli increase attention, preference and perceived pressure, but their translation into impulsive purchase intentions is uneven and limited by consumer skepticism, particularly among older, more experienced digital consumers. Implications for ethical, effective use of reward- and urgency-based design by startups are discussed.

Key words: Gamification; Impulse Buying; Neuromarketing; Scarcity; Urgency.