The God locus of financial control, impulsive use of buy-now-pay-later service, and subjective financial well-being among accounting students: the role of social comparison tendencies

Abstract

This study investigated how the God locus of financial control influences impulsive purchase behavior with buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services and affects financial well-being. The mediating and moderating roles of impulsive BNPL usage and social comparison tendencies, respectively, were explored in the relationships between the God locus of financial control and impulsive BNPL usage behavior and financial well-being. A time-lagged cross-sectional survey was conducted with data collected using a self-report questionnaire. The participants were 473 accounting undergraduate students from Indonesia selected using purposive sampling. The moderating and mediating procedure (MODMED) was conducted with PROCESS Macro version 4 to evaluate the hypotheses. This study found that the God locus of financial control is negatively associated with impulsive BNPL usage but positively associated with financial well-being. Furthermore, the findings suggest that impulsive BNPL use is negatively related to financial well-being and mediates the association between the God locus of financial control and well-being. As expected, social comparison tendencies are a boundary condition in the relationships between the God locus of financial control and both impulsive BNPL usage and financial well-being.