Open Access

ARTICLE

Provoking Buying Behaviors Amid Crises: Unfolding the Underlying Mechanisms of Psychological Impairments

Muhammad Waleed Ayub Ghouri¹, Guofeng Wang², Muhammad Ali Hussain³, Zhisheng Li^1,*, Tachia Chin¹

1 School of Management, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, China
2 School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China
3 Business School, NingboTech University, Ningbo, 315100, China

* Corresponding Author: Zhisheng Li. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Coping with Life Stress During/After the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Mental Health)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2024, 26(4), 279-292. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2024.044759

Received 08 August 2023; Accepted 21 December 2023; Issue published 04 May 2024

Abstract

Crises in the past have caused devastating, long-lasting impacts on the global economy. The after-effects always bring some dynamic and rigorous challenges for businesses and governments. Such challenges have always been a point of discussion for scholars. The recent COVID-19 pandemic emaciated the global economy, leaving everyone mired in uncertainty, fear, and psychological impairments. One of the headwind features utilized by consumers during pandemic was panic buying (PB), which must be explored in various contexts for policymakers and practitioners. To address this gap, this study deployed a moderated mediation mechanism, integrating the health belief model (HBM) and competitive arousal theory (CAT) to excavate the notions underlying PB with the intrusion of evolved real-time psychological disorders: intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and cyberchondria (CYC). The study was conducted as a natural experiment in a South Asian developing economy using online surveys. It found that health beliefs—perceived severity (PSV) and perceived susceptibility (PSC)—positively impact perceived arousal (PA), which causes PB, and that PA has a sturdy mediator role. Moreover, in the relationship between health beliefs and arousal, the different psychological disorders were found to have significant moderating roles The study findings can help mitigate risk uncertainties and panic situations and thus contribute to consumers’ wellbeing.

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Keywords

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