Published online Dec 28, 2020. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v8.i6.447
Peer-review started: November 23, 2020
First decision: December 8, 2020
Revised: December 8, 2020
Accepted: December 23, 2020
Article in press: December 23, 2020
Published online: December 28, 2020
Although panic buying (PB) is a ubiquitous behavior, it became prominent during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. However, studies are inadequate to explore the different aspects of it, even though it covers several perspectives of life and academic domains.
To assess the research that have been conducted on PB.
A search was conducted to identify the articles in PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the search term “panic buying” on November 15, 2020. A total of 104 articles was extracted from the initial search. After removing duplicates and initial and full-text screening, 42 articles were included in the study. We only considered peer-reviewed published articles that can be downloaded in a full portable document format. Articles published in other languages and preprints were excluded.
Among the 42 articles, 27 were original contributions, 6 were correspondences, 3 were commentaries, 3 were review articles, and there was one each for editorial, opinion, and discussion type of articles. Several domains have been researched such as psychology, responsible factors, supply chain, management, disaster preparedness, e-commerce, consumer behavior, marketing, prevention strategies, media, social network, economics, personality, and engineering. Authors from several disciplines, such as psychiatry, management, economics, business, sales and marketing, consumer behavior, public health, communication, information management, sociology, engineering, business administration, psychology, nursing, health economics, food policy, epidemiology, and community health, have been studied it. Definition, causative model, econometric model, controlling strategy, and measuring instrument have been reported. A total of 18 papers had cross-country collaboration, and ten were funded projects. Most of the authors were affiliated with the institutions of Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Singapore, and the United States.
PB is a relatively newer concept to get the attention of the research community. Further robust studies with replication of the findings are warranted to explore, predict, and control during crises.
Core Tip: Panic buying is an under-researched emerging research problem. Although it covers several aspects of human life, there is a dearth of studies. This review was aimed to assess the extent of research that has been done on panic buying. A total of 42 papers were included after a systematic search. Several domains have been researched such as psychology, responsible factors, supply chain, management, disaster preparedness, e-commerce, consumer behavior, marketing, prevention strategies, media, social network, economics, personality, and engineering. Definition, causative model, econometric model, controlling strategy, and measuring instrument have been reported.