Consumer Stockpiling Across Cultures During the COVID-19 Pandemic
研究利用谷歌全球移动数据，发现各国文化价值观（如不确定性规避、长期导向、放纵、个人主义）能解释COVID-19疫情期间消费者囤货行为的跨国差异，为政策制定者和企业管理者提供预测和管控囤货的见解。
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a pandemic. In the following days, media reports showed that consumers increasingly stockpiled groceries and household supplies. Interestingly, behavioral data show that this stockpiling exhibited considerable heterogeneity across countries. Building on cultural dimension theory, the authors theorize that this heterogeneity can be explained by countries’ cultural values: consumer stockpiling after the World Health Organization's announcement was more pronounced in countries whose residents show high uncertainty avoidance, low long-term orientation, low indulgence, and high individualism. The authors confirm these propositions using global mobility data from Google matched with country-level data on cultural values, pandemic reaction policies, and other key variables. This research note thereby integrates the previously disconnected literature on cultural dimension theory and consumer stockpiling in general, as well as provides new and significant knowledge about cross-cultural consumer behavior in crises. Furthermore, the authors provide actionable insights for international policy makers and business managers who aim to predict or control consumer stockpiling in future global crises to enhance consumer well-being.