Abstract
In 2020, during the peak period of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, the scarcity of medical protective products significantly influenced consumers’ impulsive purchasing and affected the public order. It is important to identify the effect of scarcity on consumers’ impulsive purchasing during this difficult time. However, scant research has been conducted on the impact of scarcity of medical protective products on Chinese consumers’ impulsive purchasing. This paper investigates the impact of the scarcity of medical protective products on consumers’ impulsive purchasing during the pandemic in China based on the theories of scarcity, S-O-R and bandwagon effect. Simultaneously, this study identifies the different mediating mechanisms (fear of missing out and perception) and the moderation (bandwagon) in the relationship between scarcity and impulsive purchasing. Finally, 509 validity data were collected by using an online questionnaire, and SmartPLS was used for data analysis. The findings present that the fear of missing out, perception and bandwagon dominate the scarcity effect on impulsive purchasing. The findings provide more information on consumers’ impulsive purchasing in the context of scarcity of medical protective products. Marketers and the Chinese government can adopt measures to reduce their effect, which may help maintain the public order during the epidemic.
Highlights
Published: 30 August 2021The global economy, market and public health have all taken a big hit with the spread of COVID-19 [1,2,3]
The measurement model is used to assess the relationships between the indicator variables and their corresponding construct
It determines what indicators to use for constructing measurement and the directional relationship between construct and indicators [85,91]
Summary
Published: 30 August 2021The global economy, market and public health have all taken a big hit with the spread of COVID-19 [1,2,3]. 700% increase, while the number of dead increased from 213 to 1666—an increase even faster than the infection itself [4] This situation pushed the country and its nationals into a state of high anxiety [5,6,7], especially when no specific therapeutic medicine nor any clinically approved vaccines were available for preventing COVID-19 at such an early stage of outbreak in China [8]. Another reason to exacerbate the situation in China was the scarcity of medical protective products due to huge demand [9,10]. This scarcity propelled people to rush to purchase them, Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
