Abstract
After the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020, almost all European countries entered a lockdown. This context caused sudden changes at multiple levels, affecting the way people were working, buying, studying and even the way they were interacting. Moreover, during lockdown people showed a special attention to local and sustainable brands giving momentum to the interest on sustainability, that has been increasing in the last years. Therefore, this study aims to determine the intention of buying sustainable and local brands due to the COVID-19 lockdown. An online survey was conducted for two groups of young adults from Spain and Romania, between April and June 2020. The questionnaire respects the methodological recommendations of Azjen (1985) and related literature on how to construct a survey based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and it aims to gather information about the three main constructs that determine the individual’s behavioral intention: attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The results suggest that both Spanish and Romanian samples intended to buy more local and sustainable brands, despite the slightly different attitudes. Moreover, the data show that both subjective norms and perceived behavioral control influence attitudes toward sustainable and local brands, and hence, indirectly the intention to buy sustainable products. The outcomes are adding to the literature on sustainability, and understanding the effects of COVID-19 on consumer behavior. Additionally, the results can help better understand the importance of sustainability in Spain and Romania, and therefore, offering support to practitioners in building policies and programs that encourage a sustainable lifestyle.
Highlights
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic [1]
The severe repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a painful economic recession across the world: in the United States, according to the “advance” estimates, in the second quarter of 2020, GDP decreased by 32.9% [3] and in the European Union (EU) by 11.9%, with respect to the previous quarter
This section reports the results of the descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability and validity of measurements
Summary
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a pandemic [1]. By 15 August 2020, COVID-19 had spread across 213+ countries and territories, with more than 20 million confirmed cases and 751,154 deaths [2], making it the most devastating disease in over a century. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread across the globe, massive disruption changed the world as we knew it. The severe repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a painful economic recession across the world: in the United States, according to the “advance” estimates, in the second quarter of 2020, GDP decreased by 32.9% [3] and in the European Union (EU) by 11.9%, with respect to the previous quarter. Restrictions and lockdowns across the world have affected global supply chains, and seriously damaging the global economy [4].
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