Abstract
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.
9. Limitations and future directions
The study has provided a useful research framework that highlights how social media can play an active role in developing consumer panic buying during Covid-19 pandemic. The given research theory is supported by primary data as well as existing literature, but the validity and reliability of the theory is not tested which invites future researchers to test it using statistical techniques. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews and qualitative data analysis methods are not fully unbiased (Aslam et al., 2018a); therefore, future studies can use probability sampling, multiple data collection methods, and statistical techniques to produce more valid and generalizable results. The social constructionism requires research involvement for understanding, connecting, and interpreting his/her own and respondents experiences. Therefore, it may include some biasness from author side (Aslam et al., 2018b) therefore the results of this study cannot generalize to large population due to small sample size. So future researchers can validate the consumer panic buying theory by using quantitative data collection and analysis methods.
