The influence of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour: a bibliometric review analysis and text mining

Abu Bashar (School of Management, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, India)
Brighton Nyagadza (Department of Marketing, Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (MUAST), Marondera, Zimbabwe)
Neo Ligaraba (Department of Marketing, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri (Business Management, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa)

Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research

ISSN: 1985-9899

Article publication date: 29 May 2023

Issue publication date: 23 October 2024

4967

Abstract

Purpose

This paper is a bibliometric analysis of articles published on the influence of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach

Biblioshiny and VOSviewer applications are employed for the bibliometric analysis and visualisation, respectively.

Findings

The most influential documents, authors, affiliations, countries and journals are presented. Citation, Co-citation and keyword co-occurrence analysis is conducted and presented in the form of a clustered network diagram.

Practical implications

This paper found three main themes of the research in consumer behaviour amid Covid-19 a) Food purchasing decisions and food wastage, b) Adoption of technology and c) Intrinsic and extrinsic influence on consumer behaviour.

Social implications

The Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world’s economy and left behind its adverse effect on almost every walk of life. Consumer behaviour is no exception, studies have reported paradigm shifts in the way consumers are reacting to marketing stimuli, making purchase and consumption decisions. For the marketers to sustain profitability, they need to understand the changing behaviour and tailor their offerings accordingly.

Originality/value

The article offers the emerging theme and sub-themes in the consumer behaviour research that leads to future expansion of this research domain.

Keywords

Citation

Bashar, A., Nyagadza, B., Ligaraba, N. and Maziriri, E.T. (2024), "The influence of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour: a bibliometric review analysis and text mining", Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 585-601. https://doi.org/10.1108/AGJSR-12-2022-0281

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Abu Bashar, Brighton Nyagadza, Neo Ligaraba and Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri

License

Published in Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode


1. Introduction

The world has witnessed one of the most disastrous viruses – Covid-19 – and it has devastated the global economy in almost every aspect. The virus not only affected businesses but also forced the closure of a few of the businesses because of social distancing norms and lockdowns (Rabbani et al., 2021). Moreover, it has created several psychological issues because of reduced incomes, job losses and uncertainty about future. Consumer behaviour has also been affected and has gone through a comprehensive change, irrespective of product category (Falke & Hruschka, 2022). For the firms to sustain and operate successfully, it is important to understand these changes and behaviour, and re-strategise themselves to fit to the new normal.

The recent economic distress and behavioural changes led to various studies pertaining to economics, business and consumer behaviour (Baber, 2020). Recent articles have focused on consumer behaviour research in the wake of the pandemic to understand its unique effects on consumer buying and consuming habits. These articles needed to be gathered, structured and studied to gain insights into the trends in consumer behaviour research.

There are studies that have been conducted on consumer behaviour during Covid-19; most of such studies are either based on methodological aspects or have been studied in 2021 (Clement Addo, Fang, Asare, & Kulbo, 2021; Dou et al., 2021; Nyagadza, 2022; Larios-Gómez, Fischer, Peñalosa, & Ortega-Vivanco, 2021; Luo, 2021; Toubes, Vila, & Fraiz Brea, 2021). Because of the importance of consumer behaviour research, there are continuous publications of the literature focusing on the important facets. Therefore, a comprehensive study is required to collect, analyse and visualise the most recent studies that can be a guide for the researchers and decision-makers to strategise accordingly. This study is an attempt to present a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the literature on the influence of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour available on the Scopus database as of 10 March 2022.

This article intends to answer the following research questions:

RQ1.

What is the current state of the research on Covid-19 and consumer behaviour? Which are the best countries, authors, journals, affiliations and documents?

RQ2.

What is the social intellectual structure of the research on Covid-19 and consumer behaviour?

The rest of the article is structured as follows. The second section is based on the data and methodology, followed by the results and analysis. In the fourth section, the major trends and themes are presented. The fifth and sixth sections are devoted to the conclusion and limitations, respectively.

2. Data and methodology

A systematic approach is employed for the collection, screening and inclusion of data for this research. The data was sourced from the Scopus database. A combination of appropriate keywords for Covid-19 such as coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic, sars-Cov-2 and consumer purchasing, consumer shopping and consumer buying for consumer behaviour were searched in the TIT-ABS-KEY field of Scopus search engine. The following strings were employed. ((Covid-19) OR (Corona virus) OR (Pandemic) OR (epidemic) OR (SARS-CoV-2)) AND ((Consumer behaviour) OR (Online behaviour) OR (Consumption behaviour) OR (Consumer preferences) OR (Consumer attitude) OR (buying behaviour) OR (Consumer Shopping)).

The first search string returned 1134 articles that were exported in .CSV format. Several inclusion criteria were designed to ascertain that the articles must be on the effects of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour. It was crucial to distinguish between health studies and other aspects of human studies during Covid-19. The title and abstract of each paper were thoroughly investigated by the researchers to find suitable studies as per the scope of the research. Only articles written in the English language were included. Conference papers, short notes, editorial notes, etc. are excluded; only research and review articles were considered for the inclusion. The inclusion criteria excluded 499 articles and 635 quality articles were considered for further analysis.

For descriptive analysis, the Biblioshiny web application of R is used – it is one of the most used methods for analysing and presenting results in tabular and graphical forms (Bashar, Singh, & Pathak, 2021; Singh and Bashar, 2021). VOSviewer software application is employed for creating a network visualisation map. The visualisation of social and intellectual structures is comprehensively mapped and themes can be identified using VOSviewer applications (Ariza-Garzón, Camacho-Miñano, Segovia-Vargas, & Arroyo, 2021; Tandon, Kaur, Mäntymäki, & Dhir, 2021).

3. Results and discussion

The following section presents the descriptive and bibliometric analysis of research in consumer behaviour during Covid-19.

3.1 Description of the data

The data characteristics used in this analysis are presented in Table 1. The data set consists of 635 documents published during 2020–2022 of which 15 are review papers and 620 research articles focusing on consumer behaviour during Covid-19. These articles are published by 310 sources and attracted an average citation of 8.4 per document. 2112 authors have published their papers, of which 48 articles are single-authored and 2064 are multi-authored documents.

3.2 Publication trend

The Main data characteristics describes in Table 1.

3.3 Influential country

The countries with their total number of publications, total citations and average citations are presented in Table 2. The United States of America (USA) published 84 articles, followed by China (58) where the pandemic was first reported. The next countries, in terms of publication, are Korea which is followed by Italy. The United States scholars studied the food waste habit, food waste sustainability, household decision-making, alcohol consumption, etc., while Chinese researchers are focused on the issues of food security, country of origin affect, consumer risk perception and overall consumption behaviour.

3.4 Most influential authors

Table 3 shows the most prolific authors in the research domain of Covid-19 and consumer behaviour. The table details the various indices along with their total number of citations over the period. Sheth, J. is the most cited author, having 318 total citations in his

single article titled as “Impact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior: Will the old habits return or die?” (Sheth, 2020). This article is one of the earlier studies on the effect of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour and adequately presented with probable habit changes that can be regained and habits that will change forever. The next author in the list is Dhir, A, who is also having a single paper, but this document attracted 192 citations. This paper is based on the unusual consumer purchasing behaviour during Covid-19 (Laato, Islam, Farooq, & Dhir, 2020; Ligaraba, Nyagadza, Dorfling, & Zulu, 2022). The other authors have also contributed to the understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour.

3.5 Most important documents

The most influential documents with their total number of citations and annual citations are presented in Table 4. In line with our findings in the previous section, Sheth, J. is the most prolific author, as seen from his document which was published in the Journal of Business Research in 2020 and cited 318 times – the most in the current data set. The next document which has contributed the most is authored by Laato, S. and published by the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Behaviour and cited 192 times. The next article in the list is published by the Journal of Business Research and written by Kirk, C.P, which has been cited 177 times. The other articles in the list have also contributed towards the development and understanding of the research in consumer behaviour in the wake of Covid-19.

3.6 Most important sources

The ranking of the influential journals in the research of consumer behaviour and Covid-19 is presented in Table 5. Sustainability ranked number one with 58 articles. This journal has published articles on the role and interplay of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour, especially from purchasing decision and selection of product categories points of view (Alam, Schlecht, & Reichenbach, 2022; Grashuis, Skevas, & Segovia, 2020; Lin, Marjerison, Choi, & Chae, 2022; Martínez-Fernández et al., 2021; Ligaraba, Chuchu, & Nyagadza, 2023). The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health has published 34 articles and ranked second in the table, this journal has also focused on the importance of the role of Covid-19 on the overall consumer behaviour, especially the hygiene factor that leads to the psychological and behavioural intentions about the supply chain mechanism, etc. (Akram, Fülöp, Tiron-Tudor, Topor, & Căpușneanu, 2021; Dong et al., 2022; Harba, Tigu, & Davidescu, 2021). While the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services published 17 high-quality papers that addressed the consumption patterns during Covid-19, fear of shopping, adoption of online mode of shopping, food waste behaviour, etc. (Guthrie, Fosso-Wamba, & Arnaud, 2021; Park, Lee, Lee, Lee, & Chung, 2022; Wang, Cheah, Lim, Leong, & Choo, 2022). The other sources have also focused and published on the important aspects of consumer behaviour that has been affected due to the pandemic, mainly the psychological factors and motives (hedonic vs. utilitarian). Most journals in this list are focusing on food, health and hygiene. Food habits and hygiene were of utmost importance during pandemic and authors focused to gauge the consumer behaviour from these prospects. These behaviours were most suitable to be published in journals which are not considered as core marketing journals. This is because core marketing phenomenon was not published in the traditional marketing journals at that time because of the publication delays.

3.7 Most important affiliations

The top affiliations with the number of articles published are presented in Table 6. The University of Queensland, Australia, is the top affiliation and contributed 21 articles about consumer behaviour and Covid-19 research. The scholars of this university have undertaken studies to gain deep insight into the reaction of the consumers during adverse marketing situations like the lockdown, social distancing, fear, etc. (Li and Shu, 2021; Romeo-Arroyo, Mora, & Vázquez-Araújo, 2020; Segovia, Grashuis, & Skevas, 2021). Second in the list is the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, which has published 18 articles, followed by Jilin University, China, with 17 publications. These institutions have diverted their effort and focused entirely on studying and understanding the effects of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour. The results of these studies help the decision-maker to tap the nerve of the scene and redesign their strategies to reach their target consumers and sustain profitably (Cho, Oh, & Chiu, 2021; Hansen, 2022; Nakamura, Shirai, & Sakuma, 2021; Pratiwi, Maftuhah, Wessiani, Partiwi, & Gunarta, 2021).

3.8 Citations analysis

Citation analysis is a tool to identify the best document, author or a source by counting the number of times the document is cited by another document; it helps in recognising the impact of the documents in a specific theme or trend (Delle Foglie and Panetta, 2020). The VOSviewer application is used for citation analysis, it is one of the most comprehensive methods to visualise the pattern of the research in a given area of research (Mustak, Salminen, Plé, & Wirtz, 2021).

The criterion for a document to be included in citation analysis was that a document must have at least five citations. Out of 635 articles in the data set, only 130 documents matched the criteria. The network thus formed has three clusters and presents a specific theme of research in consumer behaviour and Covid-19 by assembling similar documents in each cluster.

The network thus obtained is represented in Figure 1, first cluster is represented in red colour and is made up of 71 documents that are based on the food purchase habits during Covid-19. Some of the important aspects in this cluster is about consumer behaviour towards grocery purchases (Segovia et al., 2021; Vizuete-Luciano, Boria-Reverter, Solé-Moro, & Gil-Lafuente, 2022), eating behaviour (Ben Hassen, El Bilali, Allahyari, Berjan, & Fotina, 2021; Romeo-Arroyo et al., 2020), food purchasing (Altarrah, Alshami, Alhamad, Albesher, & Devarajan, 2021; Segovia et al., 2021), and online food ordering and adoption (Dsouza & Sharma, 2021; Habib, Hamadneh, Al wadi, & Masadeh, 2021; Tasnim, Alam, Saha, & Rabbi, 2022).

The second cluster is made up of 30 documents primarily based on consumer adaptation to the new normal and is represented by a green colour. A few of the influential studies in this cluster are based on the importance of hygiene products, as compared to most expensive commodities (Palomino Pita, Carolina, & Oblitas Cruz, 2020; Sheth, 2020), in-store adaptation with adherence to all Covid-19 safety norms, such as social distancing, wearing masks, personal protective kits, etc. (Altarrah et al., 2021; Mogaji, 2022; Park et al., 2022), new behavioural paradigms (Brandtner, Darbanian, Falatouri, & Udokwu, 2021; Hesham, Riadh, & Sihem, 2021; Nilashi et al., 2021), and whether the old habit will sustain or whether there will be an acceptance of the new behaviour (Sehgal et al., 2021; Vătămănescu, Dabija, Gazzola, Cegarro-Navarro, & Buzzi, 2021; Zhang & Chiu, 2021).

The smallest cluster, represented by blue colour, is made up of 29 documents which are based on the unusual purchasing behaviour (Cervellati, Stella, Filotto, & Maino, 2022; Laato et al., 2020), panic buying (Omar, Nazri, Ali, & Alam, 2021; Taylor, 2021), reducing perceived risk (Fihartini, Helmi, Hassan, & Oesman, 2021; Shin & Kang, 2020), and the importance of understanding the consumer behaviour post Covid-19 era (Cooke et al., 2021; Kim, Yang, Min, & White, 2022).

3.9 Keywords co-occurrence analysis

Keywords analysis is a method to analyse and count the paired data and similarity of the documents, authors and sources in a specific data set to find out the scientific structure of the knowledge. The co-occurrence of keywords is created using the VOSviewer application. The network is presented in Figure 2 and is made up of 75 keywords and three clusters, which have occurred at least ten times in the data set.

The largest cluster of the network (red) is based on 33 keywords, the most prominent keywords in this cluster are Covid-19, coronavirus, epidemic, consumption behaviour, uncertainty, China, etc.; these words specify the research trends on consumer behaviour which stems from the fear of uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic (Derkacz, 2021; Kim et al., 2022; Polas, Tabash, Afshar Jahanshahi, & Ahamed, 2022). This cluster also indicated the evolution of research in the domain of online commerce, food delivery, food waste, etc. (Palomino Pita et al., 2020; Park et al., 2022; Soon, Vanany, Abdul Wahab, Hamdan, & Jamaludin, 2021).

The second largest cluster, represented by the green colour, is made up of 27 keywords. The most prominent keywords in this cluster are human, adult, epidemiology, health, demography, food intake, feeding behaviour, etc. (Adkins-Jablonsky et al., 2021; Alaimo, Fiore, & Galati, 2020; Chua, Yuen, Wang, & Wong, 2021). This cluster shows the important aspect of the research in human behaviour which pertains to the behavioural and psychological understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour (Baicu, Gârdan, Gârdan, & Epuran, 2020; Din et al., 2022; Vanderpool, Huang, Mollica, Gutierrez, & Maynard, 2021).

The smallest cluster (blue) consists of 15 keywords and health behaviour, government regulations, mental health, anxiety, virus pneumonia, etc. are prominent keywords. This cluster signifies the importance of the research to understand the various psychological phenomena because of Covid-19 and its accompanying regulations and effects (Dou et al., 2021; Hall, Fieger, Prayag, & Dyason, 2021; Rabbi, Oláh, Popp, Máté, & Kovács, 2021; Teare & Taks, 2021). These important studies helped in understanding and formulating marketing strategies to cope with the new normal.

4. Discussion and future scope of research

Consumer behaviour amid Covid-19 and post-pandemic behaviour of the consumers are analysed and mapped in this paper. The understanding of the psychological and behavioural aspects of consumers as a result of the impact of Covid-19 is crucial for the marketing organisations to formulate marketing campaigns that can create confidence in customer spending and consumption (Quintal, Sung, & Lee, 2022).

The e-commerce firms need to adopt the changes in consumer buying behaviour and incorporate in their websites items that can attract, engage and instigate consumers to purchase from them. There has been a great increase in the use of technology in almost every aspect of business. It has also given a tremendous push to digital adoption in e-purchasing, e-ordering, e-learning, etc. It has, however, also created a digital divide among the consumers. Therefore, the marketing firms need to design their strategies that can cater with all segments of the target markets. This extensive review and scientific mapping led to the evolution of the following themes that enable the understanding of underlying consumer behaviour in the wake of Covid-19. This study has made a solid foundation for the understanding of consumer behaviour and Covid-19. The following are the major trends that signify the consumer behaviour research amid Covid-19 and probable directions for future research.

  1. Food purchasing decisions and food wastage: The finding of the research offers detailed understanding of the selection of food, ordering of food and consuming this with an intention not to waste. The consumers have also shown sustainable behaviour during purchasing and consumption of food. Additionally, local products have also seen a surge in their demand. The hygiene factors have been researched significantly and shed light on the handling of food with the utmost care to avoid infections. Moreover, the reaction of the consumer on the price dynamics of food has also shown that consumers were ready to pay more if they were assured of the hygiene of the products and their delivery (Ghali-Zinoubi, 2021). Since the pandemic will eventually end and the studies on the purchasing and handling of hygienic products and personal products will also diminish, future studies can compare the consumer behaviour before and after the pandemic with a special focus on food purchasing and wastage. A cross-cultural study between developed and non-developed nations will also be interesting to gain insight into the consumer behaviour. It will be useful to analyse the factors that urge consumers to look for sustainable products and sustainable consumption.

  2. Adoption of technology: The consumers have adopted online methods to order their necessary items like food, hygiene and personal protective equipment. The results show that there is a sea change in the adoption of the technology and the e-commerce industry has seen a significant growth in their revenue and profitability. Moreover, studies have shown that the consumers are accepting the omnichannel retailing and the retailers need to access their target market via online channels. Studies also have shown the instrumental role of technology in changing consumer avoidance purchasing behaviour (Bytyçi, Shala, Ziberi, & Myftaraj, 2021; Dong et al., 2022; Stern, Georgsson, & Carlsson, 2021).

    The role of technology can be further analysed to understand the aspects where it has affected the consumer behaviour at most. The role of disruptive technologies like AI, ML and robotics may also be investigated to understand the adoption and positive change that will bring for marketing firms. The mobile applications’ and web portals’ role in pleasure buying and eudaimonic pleasure buying will offer great insight to the e-retailers in formulating their marketing strategies that can help them to increase their revenue and profitability.

  3. Intrinsic and extrinsic influence on consumer behaviour: The results of the studies have shown that the pandemic has affected both intrinsic and extrinsic factors of consumer buying behaviour. The results show that almost every aspect of consumer behaviour has been affected by the adverse impact of Covid-19. Both the hedonic and utilitarian motives are affected by the coronavirus. The consumers have shown more impulsive shopping in a few of the cases to reduce their anxiety and loneliness while some studies have shown that consumers were shopping more for essential commodities and act rationally that signifies utilitarian motives for purchasing behaviour (Kim et al., 2022; Mirzaei, Sadin, & Pedram, 2021; Smaldone, D’Arco, Marino, & Pellicano, 2021).

    Future studies can be conducted to find the moderating and mediating role of Covid-19 on the relationship between shopping motives and shopping behaviour. Additionally, a study about risk perception and its mitigation should be conducted to understand the underlying phenomenon and to reach out to the consumers to create confidence and trust in their products and services. Additionally, the impulse purchase behaviour across product categories before and after Covid-19 can provide great understanding about the way consumers are expected to behave. Finally, the pandemic has shown a dynamic behaviour that is entirely non-linear and a complex combination of old behaviour and adopted behaviour; it demands regular studies on the various aspects of consumer behaviour to gain insights that will help in deciding on timely and accurate marketing strategies.

5. Conclusion and limitations

A bibliometric analysis of 635 articles based on the consumer behaviour during Covid-19 is carried out in this paper. The current state of the research and probable future directions are discussed. The best authors, documents, journals, countries and affiliations are presented with their contribution to this domain of research. Visual representation is done using network maps for the keyword occurrences and citation analysis which helps in discovering the trends in this area of research.

Three main themes are found in the research of consumer behaviour and Covid-19 – Food purchasing decisions and food wastage, Adoption of technology, and Intrinsic and extrinsic influence on consumer behaviour. The probable areas of future research expansion are charted and presented. As far as limitation is concerned, this research is based on the Scopus database which is one of the most extensive databases for the social sciences and allied subjects, but there might be a few good articles that may not be included because they are not indexed. Moreover, only research and review articles are considered, there might be good research presented in conferences, short notes, etc. that have been left behind and biased the data. However, it was important to limit the data to systemise this review.

Figures

Citation analysis of documents

Figure 1

Citation analysis of documents

Co-occurrence analysis of keywords

Figure 2

Co-occurrence analysis of keywords

Main data characteristics

DescriptionResults
Time span2020:2022
Sources (Journals, books, etc.)310
Documents635
Average years from publication0.951
Average citations per document8.4
Average citations per year per doc3.608
References36,285
Articles620
Review15
Authors2,112
Author appearances2,369
Authors of single-authored documents48
Authors of multi-authored documents2,064

Source(s): Prepared by authors

Country production

CountryNumber of papersTotal citationsAverage article citationsResearch focus
USA847579.01Food waste habit, food waste sustainability, household decision-making, alcohol consumption
China584607.93Food security, country of origin affects, consumer risk perception and overall consumption behaviour
Korea332347.09Panic buying, consumer attitude, unusual purchasing behaviour
Italy2632212.38Consumption behaviour, consumer attitude
India25883.52Online consumer behaviour, Covid-19 panic buying
United Kingdom2034917.45Family decision-making, consumer intention to purchase, consumer wellness
Poland18794.39Consumer attitude, purchase intention, panic buying
Germany171357.94Hygiene-related issues, consumer online adoption
Australia151419.40Online food ordering, consumer purchase intention
Spain1419513.93Consumer behaviour and obvious changes in purchase attitude
Turkey12423.50Consumption behaviour, consumer attitude
Romania10959.50Food behaviour, overall consumption behaviour
Qatar713919.86Consumer attitude, food wastage behaviour, food consumption
Denmark58917.80Online behaviour, shopping attitude, panic buying
Norway419649.00Consumer expenditure, behavioural psychology

Source(s): Prepared by authors

Top ten most influential authors

Elementh_indexg_indexm_indexTCNPPY_start
Sheth J110.3331812020
Dhir A110.3319212020
Farooq A110.3319212020
Islam Akmn110.3319212020
Laato S110.3319212020
Kirk CP110.3317712020
Rifkin ls110.3317712020
Allington D110.5017412021
Dhavan N110.5017412021
Duffy B110.5017412021

Source(s): Prepared by authors

Top ten most influential documents

AuthorYearJournalTitle of the articleTotal citationsTC per year
Sheth J2020Journal of Business ResearchImpact of Covid-19 on consumer behavior: Will the old habits return or die?318106
Laato S2020Journal of Retailing and Consumer BehaviourUnusual purchasing behavior during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: The stimulus-organism-response approach19264
Kirk CP2020Journal of Business ResearchI’ll trade you diamonds for toilet paper: Consumer reacting, coping and adapting behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic17759
Allington D2020Psychological MedicineHealth-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency17487
Jribi S2020Environmental Development and SocietyCOVID-19 virus outbreak lockdown: What impacts on household food wastage?15852.667
Shin H2020International Journal of Hospitality ManagementReducing perceived health risk to attract hotel customers in the COVID-19 pandemic era: Focused on technology innovation for social distancing and cleanliness11538.333
Laguna L2020Food Quality and PreferenceThe impact of COVID-19 lockdown on food priorities. Results from a preliminary study using social media and an online survey with Spanish consumers9933
Islam T2021Journal of Retailing and Consumer ServicesPanic buying in the COVID-19 pandemic: A multi-country examination9648
Hall MC2021Journal of Service ManagementBeyond panic buying: consumption displacement and COVID-199447
Ben Hassen T2020SustainabilityImpact of COVID-19 on food behavior and consumption9030

Source(s): Prepared by authors

Top ten most important sources

SourceRankFreqCum Freq
Sustainability (Switzerland)15858
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health23492
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services317109
Plos One416125
British Food Journal514139
Foods612151
Nutrients710161
Appetite89170
Frontiers In Psychology99179
Socio-Economic Planning Sciences109188

Source(s): Prepared by authors

Top ten affiliations

AffiliationsArticles
The University of Queensland21
Nanyang Technological University18
Jilin University17
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies16
Chung-Ang University14
Purdue University14
University of North Texas13
Aarhus University12
The University of Tennessee12
G. D’annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara11

Source(s): Prepared by authors

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Further reading

Sharma, R., Dhir, A., Talwar, S., & Kaur, P. (2021). Over-ordering and food waste: The use of food delivery apps during a pandemic. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 96. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102977.

Corresponding author

Brighton Nyagadza is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: brightonnyagadza@gmail.com

About the authors

Dr Abu Bashar (Ph.D.) is currently working as a software consultant in a leading IT firm in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He is also associated with the MTC (Micro Training Centre) as an instructor for Digital marketing and allied subjects. His area of research is in online consumer behaviour – especially impulse buying behaviour, sustainable marketing practices and consumer behaviour. He has published several articles in international journals of repute such as International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, Review of Financial Economics, International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, International Journal of Business Information Systems, International Journal of Electronic Business, International Hospitality Review, Journal of Open Innovation Technology Market and Complexity, Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, Journal of Risk and Financial Management, Risks, etc. He has presented several papers in international conferences organised by leading universities and institutions such as UoB (University of Bahrain), JMI (Jamia Millia Islamia), IEEE, etc. School of management, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, India.

Dr Brighton Nyagadza (CIM, Ph.D.) is a full-time lecturer and A/Chairperson of the Department of Marketing (digital marketing) at Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (MUAST), Zimbabwe, a research associate of the Institute for the Future of Knowledge (IFK), University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa, a full member of the Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ), an associate of The Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM), United Kingdom and a power member of the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), Dublin, Ireland. He has published several book chapters in Routledge books, published by Taylor & Francis, New York (USA), Emerald Insight, United Kingdom (UK), Lexington books published by Rowan & Littlefield, Maryland (USA) and in reputable international journals such as Journal of Digital Media & Policy (Intellect), Sustainable Technology & Entrepreneurship (Elsevier), Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management (Emerald), European Journal of Management Studies (Emerald), Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies (Emerald), Journal of Environmental Media (Intellect), European Journal of Innovation Management (Emerald), Africa Review (Brill), Tourism Critiques: Practice & Theory (Emerald), SN Social Sciences (Springer), Journal of Asian & African Studies (SAGE), PSU Research Review (Emerald), Youth & Society (SAGE), Quality Assurance in Education (Emerald) and The Marketing Review (Westburn), among others. Brighton sits on various corporate and academic boards including the Mashonaland East Province Zimbabwe National Development Strategy (NDS) Committee (2021–2025) – ICT & Human Capital Development cohort.

Dr Neo Ligaraba (Ph.D.) is a senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing, School of Business and Economic Sciences, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of the Witwatersrand, focusing on Brand Experiences and Young Consumers. Her areas of research are Digital Marketing and Brand Management. She has published papers in reputable journals including Journal for New Generation Sciences, The Service Industries Journal, Solid State Technology, Real Estate Management and Valuation and The Retail and Marketing Review.

Dr Eugine Tafadzwa Maziriri (Ph.D.) is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Business Management at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a Y-rated scientist of the National Research Foundation (NRF). He is an entrepreneurship, small business management and entrepreneurial marketing researcher who has produced several papers in these fields in prestigious journals such as Gender in Management: An International Journal (Emerald Insight, UK), Journal of Public Affairs (Wiley, USA), Data in Brief (Elsevier), Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies (SAGE, London, UK), Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research (Emerald Insight, UK), PSU Research Review: An International Interdisciplinary Journal (Emerald Insight, UK), Cogent Business and Management and Cogent Psychology (Taylor & Francis, England & Wales, UK), among others. He has also presented papers at local and international conferences. Furthermore, he has supervised over 25 honour students, 10 master students and two Ph.D. students. He earned his Ph.D. in Business Sciences from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Also, he sits on the editorial board of the Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (SAJESBM). Moreover, he currently has 1113 citations to his research works, and reflects a Google Scholar h-index of 19 and an i-10 index of 27.

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