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Urging people to avoid stockpiling was a common declaration made by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, yet empty supermarket shelves and supply shortages of basic products were observed worldwide. This study aims to (a) identify the factors that activate consumer personal norms towards socially responsible behaviours, specifically resisting stockpiling, and (b) examine how fear moderates the link between personal norms and consumer engagement in stockpiling during public crises.

The study recruited a sample of US consumers who were responsible for household grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 593 individuals participated in the study, and the collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that awareness of the negative consequences of stockpiling and a sense of personal responsibility for those consequences activate personal norms towards responsible shopping during public crises. However, perceived fear has the opposite effect, encouraging stockpiling. In addition, fear weakens the negative relationship between personal norms and stockpiling.

This study extends the norm activation model and indicates that personal norms may not always promote responsible behaviours when fear is high. It is unique in that it sheds light on non-mainstream responsible consumption behaviours (e.g. resisting stockpiling), and the interaction between consumption and social responsibility.

This paper aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the private label food products, specifically assessing the stability and changes in factors influencing purchasing decisions, and comparing pre-pandemic and post-pandemic datasets.

The study employs the Extra Tree Classifier method, a robust quantitative approach, to analyse data collected from questionnaires distributed among two distinct consumer samples. This methodological choice is explicitly adopted to provide a clear classification of factors influencing consumer preferences for private label products, surpassing conventional qualitative methods.

Despite the profound disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research underscores the persistent hierarchy of factors shaping consumer choices in the private label food market, showing an overall stability in consumer behaviour. At the same time, the analysis of individual variables highlights the positive increase in those related to product quality, health, taste, and communication.

The use of online surveys for data collection may introduce a self-selection bias, and the non-probabilistic sampling method could limit the generalizability of the results.

Practical implications suggest that managers in the private label industry should prioritize enhancing quality control, ensuring effective communication, and dynamically adapting strategies to meet evolving consumer preferences, with a particular emphasis on quality and health attributes.

This study contributes to the existing body of literature by providing insights into the profound transformations induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behaviour, specifically in relation to their preferences for private label food products.

In this study, the expectancy disconfirmation model (EDM) was applied to explain the formation of public health emergency preparedness cooperative behavior (EPCB) as well as considering the roles of official media exposure and positive emotions.

The analysis was based on a sample of 374 respondents collected during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A t-test was used to examine the differences in variables by sex, age and educational background. Hypothesis testing was conducted using structural equation modeling. Amos 24.0 and R 4.0.3 were used to analyze the data.

The results indicated that (1) official media exposure has a positive impact on expectations for and perceived performance of public services, as well as positive emotions; (2) the EDM can be used to explain public satisfaction with government public health services; and (3) public satisfaction and positive emotions have positive effects on EPCB; (4) EDM and positive emotions mediate the relationship between official media exposure and EPCB.

This study provides practical implications for increasing the EPCB from the perspective of risk communication.

Global brands have become increasingly vulnerable to external disruptions that have negative spillover effects on consumers, business and brands. This research area has recently garnered interest post-pandemic yet remains fragmented. The purpose of this paper is to recognize the most impactful exogenous brand crisis (EBC) and its affective and behavioural impact on consumers.

In Study 1, we applied repertory grid technique (RGT), photo elicitation method and ANOVA comparisons, to identify the most significant EBC, in terms of repercussions on consumer purchases. In Study 2, we performed collage construction and content analysis to ascertain the impact of the identified significant crisis (from Study 1) on consumer behaviour in terms of affective and behavioural changes.

Study 1 results reveal Spread-of-diseases and Natural disaster to be the most impactful EBC based on consumer’s purchase decisions. Study 2 findings uncover three distinct themes, namely, deviant demand, emotional upheaval and community bonding that throws light on the affective and behavioural changes in consumer behaviour during the two significant EBC events.

The collated results of the two studies draw insights towards understanding the largely unexplored conceptualisation of EBC from a multi-level (micro-meso-macro) perspective. The integrated framework drawn, highlight the roles and influences of different players in exogenous brand crisis management and suggests future research agendas based on theoretical underpinnings.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which identifies the most important EBC and explicates its profound impact on consumer purchase behaviour, providing critical insights to brand managers and practitioners to take an inclusive approach towards exogenous crises.

This study aims to understand the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on small retailers, and their response to it, using the crisis management model. The research documents the impact and responses and attempts to identify the factors contributing to and hindering retailers’ attempts to achieve resilience.

Semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data from small retailers. The interview transcripts were analysed using MAXQDA 2020 Analytics Pro data analysis software. The heterogeneity in responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic is explained using self-determination theory and diffusion of innovation theory.

One of the most significant impacts of the crisis was the disruption in the regular supply chain network on which the studied retailers relied for their traditional buying. The retailers increased customer services such as free home delivery and enhanced the use of technology in their shops. However, and worryingly, although the retailers faced two waves of the pandemic, the urge to plan and prepare was missing. The overall crisis can, therefore, be seen as an opportunity for small retailers to improve their responses when facing similar situations.

Small retailers are part of the social fabric in many emerging economies and function as a source of employment. They have been facing challenges from organised retail and e-commerce. The Covid-19 crisis pushed them to respond, and the authors hope that they will take some cues from this disruption and become more efficient and competitive in the future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to map the impact of the crisis on small retailers and their response to it, drawing implications for retailers and companies and analysing the efforts made by small retailers to achieve resilience.

This study aims to examine small-firm shifts in behavior during major supply chain disruptions that change supply chains permanently. The study focuses on small to mid-sized enterprise (SME) responses to suppliers’ opportunistic behaviors within a larger disruptive environment. The study addresses two broad research questions: how do small businesses adapt to supply chain disruptions, and under what conditions are such adoptions warranted?

This study used mixed methods, a qualitative netnography and a quantitative analysis of survey data. It tested a model based on responses from members of an online business-to-business community. The model development was driven by the findings from netnography and two theoretical lenses.

The responses suggested a strong relationship between the two theoretical approaches. The conditions described by the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm led to many real options. Supply chain disruptions and deceptive suppliers triggered rapid adaptation through traditional marketing tactics and strategies. Changes in the supply chain, and place, led to responses in price, promotion and product. Respondents hoarded, developed relationships with new, nonopportunistic suppliers and changed prices, products and product mixes. They developed cooperative relationships – coopetition – to deal with shared problems.

This study interprets supply chain disruptions through the lens of marketing in SMEs; it combines qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand supply chain disruptions in a marketing context; it applies the real options theory and the RBV of the firm to marketing in the context of supply chain disruptions, and it reflects real-time small-firm behavior in a crisis.

During a pandemic, risk and uncertainty are the most important factors affecting consumer behavior. Near Eastern marketplaces are undergoing dramatic change during the COVID-19 global pandemic. As a result, this paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on food shopping habits in four countries of the Near East sub-region, namely, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Oman and Qatar.

The research is based on an online survey conducted on 1,456 subjects using a snowball sampling technique. The questionnaire consisted of 24 different questions (multiple-choice, one option) regarding the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on food habits such as food shopping, preparation, eating and food waste.

The findings show that consumers’ shopping habits and food sourcing in the region changed due to the risk and uncertainty connected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Firstly, respondents decreased their shopping frequency and, as a result, increased the amount of food purchased each trip. Secondly, because of food safety concerns, respondents boosted their purchases of local products. Thirdly, the data revealed an increase in online food shopping, mainly in high-income countries, namely, Qatar and Oman. Fourthly, the findings revealed significant disparities in food stockpiling behavior across the countries investigated.

The major limitation of this study is the survey bias. The survey respondents were randomly hired. The questionnaire was completed by volunteers who were not rewarded. Only those motivated by a personal interest in the topic took part in the study. The sample had a high number of educated individuals, which does not represent the overall populations of the studied countries. In this case, generalizing the findings is inaccurate. A segment of the population with lower accessibility, such as individuals who are not web-literate, as well as the elderly, poor households and informal workers, especially in the Near East and North African (NENA) region, is often underrepresented in online surveys.

The findings provide insight into how consumers’ food shopping habits have changed due to the pandemic. This and other research will help governments and other organizations better prepare for future disasters and pandemics. The study’s results will also be useful in formulating evidence-based policies for the four countries studied and the NENA area as a whole throughout the post-pandemic recovery phase. The findings, for example, emphasized the necessity of encouraging online shopping by upgrading information and communication technology infrastructure and internet speed, particularly in middle-income and developing countries like Lebanon. Furthermore, in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, the findings provide insights to international organizations (both humanitarian and development ones) to pay more attention to issues of food and nutrition security to avoid the financial and political crises combined with the COVID-19 health crisis, become a humanitarian crisis for locals as well as the hundreds of thousands of refugees (primarily Syrians in Lebanon). Finally, the pandemic’s long-term impact on food activities and food security must be mitigated by including agricultural and food systems in recovery efforts. Several issues are posing a threat to food systems. Addressing them successfully involves developing cross-disciplinary research that innovates at their intersections to provide different solutions that address the social, economic, technological and policy components of these issues.

The paper’s findings indicate that the pandemic’s consequences will most certainly differ from country to country, based not just on the epidemiologic condition but also, inter alia, on the level of pre-COVID socioeconomic development.

During emergencies and times of widespread social fear, such as wars and epidemics, society witnesses many instances of consumer misbehaviour (e.g. panic buying). Therefore, this study aims to understand what drives consumers to enact socially irresponsible while shopping during emergencies.

This study employs a quantitative approach with 400 responses from consumers who shopped during the pandemic.

Results show a positive relationship between consumers' awareness of the negative social consequences of shopping misbehaviour and their ascription of responsibility, which is positively moderated by death-by-emergency-related anxiety. Ascription of responsibility, in turn, has a positive impact on socially responsible behaviour.

This research is the first to examine new applications of norm activation theory in retailing. Furthermore, this research is the first to extend the theory by examining psychological factors that may regulate socially irresponsible behaviour. The research demonstrates the significant role of anxiety and attachment in facilitating the impact of awareness of negative consequences and aspirations of responsibility in the retailing during emergencies.

COVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour and retailers' responses has been studied in detail through multiple lenses. Now that the effect of COVID-19 is abating, there is a need to consolidate the learnings during the lifecycle of COVID-19 and set the agenda for research post-COVID-19.

Scopus database was searched to cull out academic papers published between March 2020 and June 6, 2022, using keywords; shopping behaviour, retailing, consumer behaviour, and retail channel choice along with COVID-19 (171 journals, 357 articles). Bibliometric analysis followed by selective content analysis was conducted.

COVID-19 was a black swan event that impacted consumers' psychology, leading to reversible and irreversible changes in retail consumer behaviour worldwide. Research on changes in consumer behaviour and consumption patterns has been mapped to the different stages of the COVID-19 lifecycle. Relevant research questions and potential theoretical lenses have been proposed for further studies.

This paper collates, classifies and organizes the extant research in retail from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies three retail consumption themes: short-term, long-term reversible and long-term irreversible changes. Research agenda related to the retailer and consumer behaviour is identified; for each of the three categories, facilitating the extraction of pertinent research questions for post-COVID-19 studies.

This conceptual paper aims to provide a further understanding of the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), news framing and information overload on panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on earlier research and news releases about the COVID-19 outbreak, this paper advances testable propositions based on the protection motivation theory and information processing theory.

This paper infers that the major shift in consumer decision-making towards panic buying is a result of high EPU. International reports have contributed to deepening this uncertainty, and the consequences of this EPU are expected to affect the economic recovery through 2022. Furthermore, the adoption of particular frames of the pandemic has played a key role in the dissemination of misinformation and fake news during the public health crisis and affected purchasing decisions. The study also infers that the perceived threat among consumers is driven by information overload as a source of mistrust towards economic and health information sources.

This paper addresses two theoretical gaps associated with consumer buying behaviour. First, it highlights the impact of EPU, as a macroeconomic indicator, on consumer buying behaviour. Second, this paper is an attempt to integrate theories from different disciplines to foster an adequate understanding of buying behavior during the COVID-19 outbreak period.