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Identifying emergence process of group panic buying behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic

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  • Chen, Tinggui
  • Jin, Yumei
  • Yang, Jianjun
  • Cong, Guodong

Abstract

The sudden COVID-19 caused frequent incidents of large-scale material panic buying, resulting in imbalance in supply and demand of goods and threatening social stability. It is of great significance to analyze the formation of group panic buying and help alleviate such action. This paper takes the panic buying phenomenon as the research target, quantifies the internal and external factors affecting individual buying behavior, restores the selection process of individual buying behavior, and constructs the emergence model of group panic buying behavior by using the idea of cluster dynamics. Through simulations, we find that: (1) The epidemic information intensity has a significant impact on the emergence of group rush buying behavior. (2) Government intervention plays a significant role in reducing the scale of group rush buying. Besides, the effects of intervention reach the best before people who do not participate in rush buying disappear. In addition, we also discuss the impact, limitations and future research directions.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Tinggui & Jin, Yumei & Yang, Jianjun & Cong, Guodong, 2022. "Identifying emergence process of group panic buying behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:67:y:2022:i:c:s0969698922000637
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.102970
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    Cited by:

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    4. Dash, Ganesh & Alharthi, Majed & Albarrak, Mansour & Aggarwal, Shalini, 2024. "Saudi millennials’ panic buying behavior during pandemic and post-pandemic: Role of social media addiction and religious values and commitment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
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    7. Tinggui Chen & Yumei Jin & Bing Wang & Jianjun Yang, 2024. "The government intervention effects on panic buying behavior based on online comment data mining: a case study of COVID-19 in Hubei Province, China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Lin, Yuanfang & Pazgal, Amit, 2024. "Effects of information quantity and diversity on consumers under complex uncertainty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
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    13. Shan, Haiyan & Pi, Wenjie, 2023. "Mitigating panic buying behavior in the epidemic: An evolutionary game perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    14. Xunqing Wang & Nan Zhang & Hang Zhou & Xinpeng Huang & Rundong Luo, 2023. "Multi-Agent Evolutionary Game Analysis of Group Panic Buying in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-24, July.
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    17. Ashutosh Sarkar & Debadyuti Das & Arindam Debroy, 2024. "Panic Buying, Product Substitution and Channel-Shifting Behaviour During Pandemic," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(1), pages 25-43, January.
    18. Ruzhi Xu & Chenglong Yan & Chenlong Wang & Huawei Zhao, 2023. "The Game Analysis among Governments, the Public and Green Smart Supply Chain Enterprises in Necessity Purchase and Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-30, April.

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