Indulge or Reduce? A Cross-Country Investigation of Consumption Patterns Following Pandemic Lockdowns
基于自我决定理论和个体-文化价值观框架，研究疫情封锁后消费者是减少消费还是放纵消费，发现心理需求满足度、个人价值观和国家文化取向共同影响消费方向。
Pandemic lockdowns in early 2020 disrupted daily life worldwide and created an opportunity for self-reflection and consumption paradigm shifts. However, consumption patterns might take different directions, and opposing views exist about whether consumers (1) prolong reduced consumption after lockdown or (2) compensate for lockdown consumption restrictions through self-indulgence. Drawing from self-determination theory and individual–cultural values frameworks, this article develops a conceptual model of postlockdown consumption patterns related to three factors: consumers’ fulfillment of basic psychological needs during lockdowns, individual consumer values, and country-level cultural orientations. Consumer surveys conducted after the first lockdowns in three culturally different European countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania) show that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction of psychological needs during lockdown impact consumption patterns, at least in the short term. The direction of consumption patterns is driven by hedonism and universalism values at an individual level and differences in postmaterialism and indulgence at a country level. The results provide implications for international marketers and policy makers in postpandemic marketplaces.