Do social media platforms develop consumer panic buying during the fear of Covid-19 pandemic

There is inadequate understanding of how social media can shape fear and consumer responses in the manner of consumer panic buying while Covid-19 is spreading across the world. Through taking a social constructionism position this research focused on what people think and feel at an individual and collective level on the role of social media to create panic behaviour. Data have been collected from thirty-four consumers who have minimum one active social media account. These participants are contacted through telephonic interview due to maintaining the social distancing. Findings reveal that uncertainties and insecurities proof, buying as persuasion, product unavailability proof, authorities' communication, global logic, and expert opinion are some of the causes on social media platforms that developed the situation of consumer panic buying during Covid-19 crises. Furthermore, the unprecedented level of real-time information on Covid-19 at users' fingertips can give them the tools they need to make smart decisions, but also make them more anxious about what is to come; experts say that may lead to panic buying or stockpiling of products. The study has tried to develop understanding about how social media generates social proof and offers a window into people's collective response to the coronavirus outbreak and shapes panic buying reaction. The study has provided a consumer panic buying theory based on the results of this study and on existing theories, such as global capitalism/information society risk society, social influence, and social proof. These theories help to understand how global logic is built due to the use of social media and how different social proofs are generated which developed the behaviour of consumer panic buying due to Covid-19 pandemic.     

How buyers frame problems: Revisited

This article investigates the following propositions: a useful approach for building an organizational‐buying–behavior taxonomy might begin with classifying how buyers frame purchasing problems followed by how such frames affect subsequent perceptions and actions in the decision process. Unlike previous taxonomies of buying situations, direct questioning of organizational buyers is used to learn: (1) whether or not they identify different categories of buying problems; (2) if they do, what dimensions they use when framing buying problems; and (3) how do such frames influence their choices of value‐added service alternatives offered by suppliers. To test the propositions empirically, supplier choices are modeled with the use of buying‐decision exercises. A key result of this study is that the buyers’ framing of problems affects their preferences for vendor designs of value‐added customer services. Most likely, the framing of buying problems by organizational buyers is layered and more complex than related taxonomies found in the marketing literature. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Understanding consumers’ multichannel choices across the different stages of the buying process

This article provides a more integrative approach toward channel choice than previous research by considering all stages of the buying process (search, purchase, and after-sales), and by taking channel attributes, experience, and spillover effects into account when examining consumers?? channel choice intentions. The authors show that such an integrative perspective is important as channel attributes, experience, and spillover matter for consumers?? channel choices in all stages of the buying process. Notably, the study stresses the importance of channel experience and spillover effects for explaining consumers?? channel choice intentions in the different stages of the buying process. Channel experience effects occur when using the channel increases the likelihood that the consumer will use the very same channel on the next occasion. Spillover effects result when the likelihood of using a channel in one stage of the buying process affects the likelihood of choosing that channel in another stage. The results show that both effects influence consumers?? channel choice intentions over and above channel attributes. Importantly, the model results strongly pledge for studying attribute, experience, and spillover effects simultaneously.     

基于TAM的消费者网络团购态度影响的实证研究

伴随着团购网站Groupon在美国的巨大成功,从2010年3月开始,国内掀起了空前的团购热潮,在不到一年的时间里,已由"百团大战"上升到"千团大战"。团购网站如何在这场声势浩大的角逐之中吸引消费者,取得长足发展成为了当前最应该关注的问题。而消费者对网络团购的态度直接决定了其是否会进行网络团购以及选择哪家团购网站。因此有必要对网络团购态度的影响因素进行研究,识别出影响消费者网络团购态度的主要因素。本研究以参加过网络团购或未参加过但对网络团购有了解的人群为调研对象,结合SPSS13.0和AMOS17.0对数据进行了分析和模型检验,以此探讨影响消费者网络团购态度的因素。实证结果表明:感知网络团购有用、感知网络团购易用及感知网络团购风险是影响消费者网络团购态度的关键因素;除娱乐导向外,其他购物导向均会显著影响感知有用或感知风险变量;而人口统计特征对网络团购态度无显著影响。     

The effects of sales promotion strategy,product appeal and consumer traits on reminder impulse buying behaviour

This article investigates factors of marketing communications and consumer characteristics that induce reminder impulse buying behaviour. Study 1 applies the antecedent, process and consequence approach to investigate the essential differences between reminder impulse buying and pure impulse buying. The results of Study 1 reveal that reminder impulse buying significantly differs from pure impulse buying on motivation, buying goal and decision evaluation. Study 2 further examines how sales promotion strategy might affect reminder impulse buying, with product appeal and consumer traits as moderating factors. Both sales promotion strategy and its interaction effects with product appeal are found to have significant influences on reminder impulse buying. Specifically, an instant‐reward promotion promotes stronger reminder impulse buying than a delayed‐reward promotion. Furthermore, both a utilitarian product appeal with a price discount promotion and a hedonic product appeal with a premium promotion can encourage greater reminder impulse buying.     

Boundary conditions of the impact of a hypervigilant coping style on the subjective decision‐making experience

Two experiments explored how characteristics of the task environment and the consumer's propensity to a use a hypervigilant coping style interacted to influence ratings of perceived information amount, choice difficulty, decision‐process–related satisfaction,choice deferral, and the desire for decision assistance. Results indicate a series of main effects of time pressure on the dependent measures across two different choice scenarios. In addition, the findings suggest that a propensity to use a hypervigilant coping style seems to have little influence on the subjective decision‐making experience. Theoretically, this research establishes boundary conditions under which decision‐process–related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are not likely to be influenced by coping style, and extends prior work on the determinants of choice deferral and the desire for decision assistance. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Participation Model:

The study of buying centers has often focused on the functional areas that participate. One question raised by such an approach is how individuals choose to participate. The paper explores individual perceptual factors that may affect participation choice, and reports the results of a study of potential purchase participants. Finding indicates that perceptions of self-efficacy and extrinsic reward expectancy discriminated between participant and non-participants. The relationship of the factor and relative influence within the buying centered was also explored, with risk of the decision process. Self-efficacy perceptions and product involvement were also significant predictors of the amount of influence wielded in the buying centered in various decision stages.     

International Buying Center Analysis – The Status Quo of Research

In industrial markets purchasing decisions are made by buying centers. Sellers thus have to analyze buying centers in order to generate effective strategies and measures. If we consider progressive economic globalization in this context, it becomes clear that a success promising analysis of buying centers cannot take place from a purely national perspective. On the contrary, the current ongoing globalization process emphasizes the importance of international investigation perspectives and the need to obtain international findings regarding market powers, processes and decision-making elements. There are numerous differences between buying centers in different countries. However, the international buying center analysis is only at an early stage of development. Most studies only analyze one aspect of the complex multipersonal decision process and mostly only for few countries. Thus we identify a lack of comprehensiveness in international buying center research and reveal some interesting starting points for further research.     

Influence structure in organizational buying behavior

Empirical support is needed for the wealth of existing conceptual models describing organizational buying processes. This study focuses on measuring and understanding the relative influence of different buying center components in the context of convention site selection by a sample of North American associations. Mail questionnaires were sent to members of each major buying center component of 506 associations located in the United States and Canada. Responses were received from 386 permanent association executives, 650 elected officers of associations, and 1870 association members. The study found that important differences existed in the influence of different buying center components, with elected officers generally having the most influence and members the least. This general finding was qualified, however, by two factors. First, dominance in the decision process was found not to be a generalized phenomenon. Rather, it varied with specific subdecisions. Second, the nature of influence structure was found to vary significantly across associations having different objectives, structures, and sizes.     

Spontaneous selection: The influence of product and retailing factors on consumer impulse purchases

Our research examines the effect of product characteristics and retailing factors on the likelihood a consumer makes an impulse purchase. We present a framework for understanding the impulse buying process and use it to explain our findings. Our nested logit model uses data from an adult panel of grocery shoppers over three major household grocery shopping trips. The results indicate that product characteristics have a fifty percent greater influence on impulse buying than do retailing factors. Of the three product characteristics investigated, the hedonic nature of the product has the greatest influence on impulse buying. Of the three retail factors, a store environment with a high–low pricing strategy influences impulse buying the most. Our findings suggest that retailers who want to encourage impulse buying behavior utilize promotional activities and merchandising tactics that attract consumers' attention to emotionally appealing products.     

Are parents gender neutral when financing their children's consumption?

Children are consumers from early on, but they are dependent on financial support from their parents for many years. Based on a survey among 1173 Norwegian children aged 8–24 years, we examine how children's consumption is financed and how their main financial sources change during childhood, distinguishing between pocket money and odd jobs on the one hand and gainful employment and study loans on the other. Our analysis demonstrates how parental monetary support decreases as years go by and is replaced by gainful employment and study loans. We ask whether parents are gender neutral in supporting their children's consumption or not. This is done by comparing the distribution of pocket money among girls and boys, as well as the amount of money given to the respective genders for special consumer goods. Girls and boys have divergent preferences and often exhibit different spending patterns. The analysis of the six selected fields of consumption showed significant gender differences in four of them. By comparing what children choose to pay for with their own money with what they influence their parents to pay for, we find that parents' financial support tend to have a moderating effect on their children's own gender‐biased preferences.     

The influence of sharing versus self-use on the preference for different types of promotional offers

Sharing, which refers to giving something you have to someone else, is one of the most ubiquitous forms of human behavior in the world. Everyone experiences it in various situations, including buying food. Nonetheless, although buying something to share with others is quite common in our daily lives, most consumer research on buying focuses on the condition of “self-use” rather than “sharing.” The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of promotional offers on consumers' purchase decisions when buying food for self-use/sharing with others. The authors conducted four experiments to answer the main research questions. The results indicated that consumers prefer “price discounts” over “bonus packs” when the shopping task relates to self-use due to their concern about “loss reduction.” In contrast, they prefer bonus packs over price discounts when the shopping task relates to sharing with others because of their focus on “extra gains.” In addition, consumers’ perceived responsibility is a moderator. When perceived responsibility is low and the purchase is for self-use (sharing with others), price discounts (bonus pack) are favored over bonus packs (price discounts). However, when perceived responsibility is high, consumer preference to promotional offers are not significant different either in self-use or sharing with others condition. It seems that role of responsibility is influential when the shopping task relates to self-use. This study not only contributes to a deeper understanding of consumer psychology but will also be beneficial to practitioners in designing effective promotional strategies that consider motives for food shopping.     

An Analysis of External Finance Availability on SMEs’ Decision Making: A Case Study of the Emerging Market of Poland

This article explores an understanding of the entrepreneurial behavior of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Poland, one of the emerging markets of the European Union, during the recent period of economic slowdown. It considers the role of accessibility to external financial resources in shaping decisions undertaken by such enterprises. The hypothesis is that, in a period of economic slowdown, SMEs that have difficulty in accessing external sources of financing adopt different strategies than those that have free access to those resources. The findings indicate that access to the external sources of financing is a statistically significant factor determining decisions of SMEs in relation to employment reduction, price reductions on goods/services, suspension of previously planned investments, and an increase in the level of salaries. Consequently, the study is important as it considers factors that impact the success and survival of SMEs in the emerging market; it is also unique, as it investigates these aspects in the recent period of the global economic downturn. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A total eclipse of the heart: compensation strategies in entrepreneurial nonprofits

We examine how shifting resource dependencies influence compensation strategy during commercial transitions within entrepreneurial nonprofits. Analyzing a longitudinal sample of 4732 organizations, we show how compensation strategies shift non-linearly as nonprofits transition from contributed resource dependence to market-based resource dependence. Dynamic quadratic models unveil a dual threshold of commercialization concerning this transition. Nonprofits at moderate stages of commercialization contend with competing dependencies from both contributed and market-based sources, resulting in a decrease in compensation spending and an increase in part-time employment. At higher stages, contributed resource dependence is eclipsed by market-based dependence, reflected in increasing compensation spending and full-time employment.     

Information Search in Industrial Purchase Decisions

A substantial body of scholarly work focuses on the conditions under which industrial buyers are likely to search for information relevant to the buying decision- and on the sources of information they use most often. Yet there had been relatively little attention to the relationship between the sources of information used by industrial purchasers and the topics, which are the focus of their search effort. In this research organizational buyers provided data, which is used to reveal the underlying relationship between the sources consulted and the topics considered. The results of the exploratory research provide new empirical evidence concerning the “direction of search” and stimulate further thinking about various aspects of information search in industrial buying decisions.     

The pharmacist as a drug information supplier in hospitals: A view from services marketing

The aim of this study is to gain insight into how the information supply services of the pharmacist and his or her potential competitors are seen by physicians. In the context of the upcoming professionalization trend of the pharmacist we are interested in determining how the hospital pharmacist can position himself as a drug information supplier and what factors are critical for his or her success. A research framework is presented which explains the selection process and use of personal drug information sources by hospital physicians. Data was collected from a sample of 329 Dutch internists. Overall, subspecialized physicians and supporting medical specialists were perceived as the most important sources of information for internists. The hospital pharmacist was perceived as lacking in expertise in the areas of therapy choice and implementation of the therapy and as being competent in the diagnosis-related cases. Regression analyses showed that technical and process dimensions significantly relate to the overall perceived quality with an information supplier. Pharmacists and others who were perceived as less important sources of information can use the results of this study to strengthen their position.     

The Relationship Between Consumers’ Tendencies to Buy Compulsively and Their Motivations to Shop and Buy on the Internet

This paper presents the results of a survey of customers of an Internet clothing retailer examining how consumers’ preferences to shop and buy on the Internet rather than at bricks-and-mortar stores differ depending on their compulsive buying tendencies. Using shopping motivations such as seeking product and information variety, the ability to buy unobserved, avoiding social interactions, and experiencing positive feelings during shopping and buying, we find a positive linear relationship between a tendency to buy compulsively and Internet shopping and buying motivations. The research demonstrates that the items used to measure these motivations can also be used to identify buyers who have a tendency to buy compulsively. The paper also offers important retailing, managerial and public policy implications of the findings.     

Why households buy bottled water: a survey of household perceptions in the Philippines

This study investigates the determinants of household buying decisions to purchase bottled water or purified water from refilling stations among households in Metro Cebu, Philippines. A survey of 360 households was conducted to obtain data on household sources of drinking water, household bottled water buying behaviour and perceptions of water quality. A binary probit model was used to examine the effects of socio‐economic and perception‐based variables on the likelihood that a household regularly bought bottled or purified water. Results show that households that perceived their primary source of water, whether from the tap or from other sources, to be unsafe were more likely to buy bottled or purified water. Education of household heads, the presence of children ages 0–5 years, household size and price were also found to have significant effects. Income, however, was not found to have influenced the decision to buy. Having piped access to the local water district and knowledge of government assurances about water safety were also not found to have a significant impact.     

The Buying of Private Brands and Manufacturer Brands in Grocery Retailing: A Comparative Study of Buying Processes in the UK,Sweden and Italy

Private brands in grocery retailing have evolved from a way to compete on price by selling low quality products at a low price, into a brand category in their own right, with a wide range of positioning options open to retailers. The buying and selling of private brands means that retailers' add new activities and processes to those that are traditionally associated with retailing. This paper compares the buying processes for manufacturer brands and private brands across three European countries in an attempt to analyse how the extension of the buying process inherent in private brand ranges, and the organisational contexts within which these processes operate impact upon complexity in the retail buying process     

Credit Card Use and Compulsive Buying Behavior

ABSTRACT

Compulsive buying behavior is a negative form of behavior that leads to overspending. In the current study, the author examines the applicability of a compulsive buying behavior scale developed by Valence et al. (1988) with Indian consumers. Compulsive buyers are likely to relate money to power, success, and status. Compulsive buyers perceive their purchases as a way of overcoming negative self-esteem and anxiety. The influence of consumers’ attitude toward credit cards, demographic factors, and credit card use on compulsive buying was studied. The findings suggest the compulsive behavior scale should be modified in the Indian context. Age, income, education, and marital status influence compulsive buying. Consumers’ attitude toward credit cards did not affect compulsive buying.