RESEARCH ARTICLE Modeling precursors of impulsive tourist shopping behavior: Evidence from long‐haul Chinese outbound tourists Fang Meng 1 | Pei Zhang 2 | Hengyun Li 3 | Kevin Kam Fung So 1 1 School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA 2 Department of Retailing and Tourism Management, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA 3 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR, China Correspondence Hengyun Li, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR, China. Email: neilhengyun.li@polyu.edu.hk Abstract Studies have examined tourism shopping in various aspects, but scarce research has specifically focused on impulsive shopping behavior of tourists, which is of particular relevance in the tourism settings. This study addresses this paucity by examining factors influencing impulsive tourist shopping urge and purchase from the aspects of tourist internal attribute, social influence, and product attribute. By examining Chinese long‐haul tourists traveled outside Asia, the empirical results suggest that (a) impulsive trait and hedonic and materialistic tendency of tourists lead to impulsive urge and engagement in actual impulsive buying; (b) shopping companion/social influences from family and relatives, peers (friends/colleagues), and shop assistants also affect the impulsive shopping urge; (c) product brand variety shows significant effect on impulsive urge, whereas the influence of product price is insignificant; and (d) traveling with a shopping list or not moderates the relationship between impulsive urge and actual impulsive purchase. The study advances the theoretical understanding of tourist impulsive shopping behavior and provides marketing/managerial insights into Chinese overseas tourism market. KEYWORDS impulsive shopping, internal attribute, product attribute, shopping list, social influence 1 | INTRODUCTION Shopping is an important and popular activity in tourism and repre- sents a vital component of the tourist experience. In 2015, shopping was ranked as the number one leisure/recreational activity for over- seas tourists (86.8%) to the United States, with the average expendi- ture of $375 per visitor, only lower than the lodging cost ($465) and even more than the food spending ($311; National Travel and Tourism Office, 2016). Many researchers argue that shopping is not only a primary motive for travel but also a common and essential tourist activity (Lehto, Chen, & Silkes, 2014; Yüksel, 2007). As such, shopping has long been considered as an indispensable part of being a tourist and serves as an important attraction for the destination (Sirakaya‐ Turk, Ekinci, & Martin, 2015; Zhang, Zhang, Yang, & Zhou, 2018). Sim- ilarly, UNWTO launched its first Global Report on Shopping Tourism in 2014, which provides insight into key success factors for destinations aiming to develop the segment of shopping tourism, highlighting the significance of such activity (UNWTO, 2014). In terms of the specific market in tourism shopping, the Chinese market has experienced tremendous growth and purchase power in recent years. According to the UNWTO, Chinese outbound tourist arrivals reached 129 million with a total spending of US$257.7 billion in 2017, ranking the first place in international tourism expenditure since 2012 (UNWTO, 2018). China was the largest international tourism market to the United States in terms of the spending and the fifth largest in terms of arrivals in 2017 (National Travel and Tourism Office, 2017). Shopping was ranked as the number one tourist activity for Chinese tourists to the United States in 2015, with 89% of them shopped during their trips. Similarly, the European Travel Commission revealed that a quarter of Chinese travelers reported shopping as their primary expenditure, which accounted for approxi- mately 30% of the total trip spending (ETC, 2012). Therefore, it is of great importance to examine this fast‐growing and vital market on tourist shopping behavior. Shopping behavior has been widely discussed in the consumer literature as planned or impulsive purchase (Cobb & Hoyer, 1986; Received: 1 May 2018 Revised: 12 October 2018 Accepted: 17 October 2018 DOI: 10.1002/jtr.2266 Int J Tourism Res. 2019;1–15. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jtr 1