CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 436COVID-19 Pandemic ImpactsConsumer Behavior and Market DynamicsConsumer Market Behavior and Pricing

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 42 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Consumer Behaviour during Crises: Preliminary Research on How Coronavirus Has Manifested Consumer Panic Buying, Herd Mentality, Changing Discretionary Spending and the Role of the Media in Influencing Behaviour

Open access
Loxton, Mary, Truskett, Robert, Scarf, Brigitte, Sindone, Laura, Baldry, George, Zhao, Yinong·2020·Journal of Risk and Financial Management
DOI 10.3390/jrfm13080166
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread globally from its outbreak in China in early 2020, negatively affecting economies and industries on a global scale. In line with historic crises and shock events including the 2002-04 SARS outbreak, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and 2017 Hurricane Irma, COVID-19 has significantly impacted global economic conditions, causing significant economic downturns, company and industry failures, and increased unemployment. To understand how conditions created by the pandemic to date compare to the aforementioned shock events, we conducted a thorough literature review focusing on the presentation of panic buying and herd mentality behaviours, changes to discretionary consumer spending as defined by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and the impact of global media on these behaviours. The methodology utilised to analyse panic buying, herd mentality and altered patterns of consumer discretionary spending (according to Maslow’s theory) involved an analysis of consumer spending data, largely focused on Australian and American markets. Here, we analysed the volume and timing of consumer spending patterns; the volumes of spending on specific, highly-demanded consumer goods during the investigative period; and the distribution of spending on luxury and non-durable goods to identify the occurrence of these consumer behaviours. Moreover, to identify the presence of the media in influencing consumer behaviour we focused on web traffic to media sites, alongside keyword and phrase data mining. We conclude that, to date, consumer behaviour during the COVID-19 crisis appears to align with behaviours exhibited during historic shock events. We hope to contribute to the body of research on the early months of this pandemic before longer-term studies are available.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3390/jrfm13080166

Cites

40 of 41 references verified0 citation errors · 1 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Easley, David, and Kleinberg, Jon (2010). Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World, Cambridge International Press. · DOI · Paper page
  2. Keane, 2020, Consumer panic in the COVID-19 pandemic. ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research & University of New South Wales, CEPAR Working Paper, 12, 1
  3. McCombs, Maxwell (2018). Influencing public opinion. Setting the Agenda: Mass media and Public Opinion, Wiley.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

See all 436

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Loxton, M., Truskett, R., Scarf, B., Sindone, L., Baldry, G., & Zhao, Y.
Affiliations
  • The University of Sydney (AU)
  • Fudan University (CN)
Corresponding author
Zhao, Yinong
ORCID
Baldry, George
Venue
Journal of Risk and Financial Management
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2020-07-30
Volume
13
Issue
8
Pages
166
ISSN
  • 1911-8066 (ISSN-L)
  • 1911-8074
DOI
10.3390/jrfm13080166
OpenAlex
W3045639497
Cited by
415
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 21 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 81 · 2022: 110 · 2021: 99 · 2020: 15
FWCI
64.79
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of risk and financial management (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • The Sydney eScholarship Repository (The University of Sydney) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Consumer Behavior and Market Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, consumer behavior, panic buying, herding behavior, discretionary spending, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, media influence on consumers, consumer spending patterns, luxury goods, non-durable goods, shock events, SARS, Christchurch earthquakes, Hurricane Irma

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review