The influencing chain of panic buying: Lessons learned from the pande...

Background: Especially at the outbreak of the ongoing pandemic, panic buying could be observed in many European countries, leading to empty shelves and stock-outs of medical products in pharmacies (e.g., protective masks, disinfectants) and supply chain disruptions for several product categories. Stock-out situations prevent individuals as well as vulnerable groups from accessing daily necessities and medical supplies (Wesseler, 2020). Different theoretical approaches have been used to explain panic buying behaviour like contagion theory (LeBon, 1960, cited by Prentice et al. 2020), crowd psychology theory (Drury et al., 2013), resource scarcity (Yoon et al. 2018) as well as compensatory control theory (Barnes et al. 2021) or even game theory (Taylor, 2021). So far, however, little attention has been paid to investigate which individuals engage more in panic buying than others. Thus, the present study develops a psychographic influencing chain of panic buying.

Method: The authors investigate the influence of four psychographic variables (neuroticism, conscientiousness, COVID-19 involvement, COVID-19 anxiety) and risk perception (mediator) on panic buying and report on an empirical study with 309 respondents by applying an online survey among the student base of a mid-sized Austrian university. A prerequisite for participation was the responsibility for purchasing daily necessities in their own household at the beginning of the first lockdown (March 2020).   

Findings: The results derived from SEM emphasise the importance of conscientiousness, COVID-19 involvement and anxiety as valuable antecedents, the latter two being mediated by risk perception, on the extent of panic buying.

Discussion: The findings have implications for theory and practice of communication during pandemics. Knowledge about which segments of the population are more prone to panic buying can be used to develop more tailored mediated communication and help vulnerable groups to access daily necessities and medical supplies, especially during the outbreak and lock down phases of a pandemic.