Exploring the Relationship between Social Media and Customers' Contingency Buying Behaviour during COVID-19: A Thematic Qualitative Approach

The current global crisis of coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has atrophied the world economy and healthcare system, exploding copious terror, panic, and ambiguity among the human population of the world As strict curfew and lockdowns being enforced in many countries, contingency buying has occurred as a consistent feature of COVID-19 outbreak Consequently, it is important to examine the contingency buying behaviors of customers during COVID-19 to understand contingency buying and to provide administrative perceptions for the consumers, marketers, and policymakers In this study, we aimed to expose underlying elements causing contingency buying in Saudi context, where all grocery essential items are available by interviewing the panic shoppers, literature, and using thematic analysis Our interview and literature findings identified four major themes i e i) sociological and psychological factors, which compelled people to engage in contingency buying, ii) social media and electronic word of mouth created a panic situation, iii) people were not entirely satisfied with their behaviors of contingency buying;however, they justified these as being necessary at the time and iv) people admitted that government reduced the panic situation via reassuring messages In addition, our results also reveal that underestimates regarding COVID-19 pandemic, irrelevant public behavior, social media, friends, and family suggestions identified as underlying factors causing the scarcity and contingency buying situations Theoretical and managerial implications have been considered significantly