Understanding Consumer Panic Buying Behaviors during the Strict Lockdown on Omicron Variant: A Risk Perception View

Panic buying has been globally observed, leading to substantial stock-outs and supply chain disruptions, thus inducing additional panic buying. Regarding panic buying behavior as an intuitive over-protective measure during the strict lockdown and seal-off management in China, this study presented a synthetic conceptual model by integrating the protective action decision model (PADM). We examined inductively the relationships among media exposure, cognitive-affective risk perception, stakeholder perception, protective perception, and panic buying behavior using a survey of 517 participants who experienced panic buying during the Omicron epidemic in China. Results suggest that traditional media exposure could attenuate people’s affective risk perception, whereas social media exposure increases the degree of cognitive and affective aspects of risk perception. Furthermore, we detect that cognitive and affective risk perceptions positively affect people’s panic-buying behaviors. The effects of stakeholder and protective perceptions on panic buying were also examined.