Literature Review on Impulse Buying

In today's consumerist environment, it is not rare to be swayed easily by sales tactics as you walk the streets. Salesmen with their allure of attractive credit card plans and bargain deals for the latest bleeding-edge technology at the Expo's IT fair are some examples you might encounter from your everyday lives. I am therefore, tasked into researching a way to allow customers to make decisions that would not be affected by these sales tactics. A possible solution would be to familiarize the customer in the ways of such tactics and to educate them on how to counter. Thus, I have researched upon articles that specifically dealt with the idea of resisting influence tactics. The four articles that I reviewed were: "The Poison Parasite Defense: A strategy for sapping a stronger Opponent's Persuasive Strength" by Robert B. Cialdini and others, "Resisting Persuasion by the Skin of One's teeth: The Hidden Success of Resisting Persuasive Messages" by Zakary L. Tormula and others, "Resisting Persuasion: Building defenses against competitors'' persuasive attacks in the context of war-gaming methodology" by Donna Kelly and finally, "Perceived Effectiveness of Influence tactics in the United States and China" by Ping Ping Fu and Gary Yukl. The discussion of each article will be ordered chronologically, in the manner of which I have found them. Firstly, each article will be evaluated for its Credibility, Accuracy, Reliability, Date and Sources. Then, I would discuss on how it would help solve the problem scenario and whether it warrants further research. Finally I would discuss the limitations of the article.

The first article, titled "The Poison Parasite Defense: A strategy for Sapping a Stronger Opponent's Persuasive Strength" was authored by Robert B. Cialdini and seven others. Assessing the credibility of the author, Cialdini is Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and has written the best-selling book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It has sold over 2 million copies and was featured on the New York Times business Best Seller List. The other seven authors are also working in the domain of Psychology in various universities in the United States. The research methods used in this article are sound and therefore fairly accurate. However, the article is in its 1st edition so the content might be subjected to future change. This text is accessed to be bias free. The research was conducted in a fair and concise manner and findings were presented in an objectively. The article was sourced from the Dartmouth database, which is a reputable and trustworthy college in the United States. The date of the article is not listed on the journal itself; therefore it is unknown how recent the information is. However, the articles cited dates back to 2002, so it has to be relatively recent. Finally, the author has cited