Celebrating success: Prof Savvas Papagiannidis and Dr Eleftherios Alamanos

Congratulations to Prof Savvas Papagiannidis and Dr Eleftherios Alamanos who have recently had their paper entitled “The pandemic consumer response: A stockpiling perspective and shopping channel preferences” accepted for publication by the British Journal of Management.

Abstract

Covid-19 has changed consumer behaviour, probably forever. Initial consumer stockpiling led to stockouts, threat and uncertainty for consumers. To overcome shortages, consumers expanded their use of channels and many consumers started buying online for the first time. In this paper we aim to address important research gaps related to consumer behaviour during the pandemic and especially stockpiling. Our paper starts by presenting the findings of our pre-study, which used social media to elicit or confirm potential constructs for our quantitative models. These constructs complemented the Protection Motivations Theory (PMT) to explain stockpiling behaviour, forming the basis for Study 1, the stockpiling preparation stage, and Study 2, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic disruptor on customer service logistics and lockdown shopping channel preferences. For studies 1 and 2 we gathered data via a UK online panel structured questionnaire survey (n=603). Results confirm that consumer-driven changes to supply chains emanate largely from consumer uncertainty. Lockdown restrictions lead to consumers feeling socially excluded, but enhance consumers’ positive attitudes towards shopping online and increase consumers’ altruism. In response, consumers stockpiled by visiting physical stores and/or ordering online. Lockdown restrictions led to feelings of social exclusion but, importantly, stockpiling helps to minimise consumer anxiety and fear and even increases wellbeing.

Keywords: consumer behaviour; supply chain; stockpiling; wellbeing; social exclusion