Resilient shopping behaviours by change, not by chance: are disruptive events’ effects permanent?

Abstract

The paper investigates the impact of disruptive events on distribution channels. In particular, it explores the mechanism underlying changes in consumer shopping behaviours during stressful events and their persistence in the aftermath. An empirical study on 2019 Italian consumers allowed us to shed light on the drivers and the dynamics of the changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic from an Alphabet Theory perspective. The paper has the merit of providing one of the first operationalisations of this theoretical framework and proving its capability to, on the one hand, add granularity to the values-beliefs-norms Theory during a disruptive event through habits and context and, on the other hand, to provide retailers with a better understanding of the persisting effects in the aftermath. Results show that context exerts a significant influence on attitudes and habits and that the related behavioural changes are destined to be persistent when associated with new habits that imply the development of new competencies and attitudes whose object carries emotional value.