Research Of Formation Mechanism Of Consumer's Panic Buying Behavior In Emergency Context

As a Chinese saying "Nothing is so certain as the unexpected", it's never stopped that unexpected events come suddenly. Rumors are associated with Emergency, and they can make people rush to do panic buying, such as:Radix Isatidis panic buying during the period of SARS. This article is the study of Consumer's Panic Buying Behavior in Emergency Context, focusing on the psychology of consumer decision process.This study selects the event named "salt panic buying" to study, which happened recently. Through the depth interview of customers, we extract variables to establish research model. Using questionnaire survey, we verify the research model and hypothesis.The main conclusions from this study are:MC(Media Credibility) has the negative moderating effect, and CS(Commodity Scarcity) has the positive effect. PE(Panic Emotion) has the central role of the consumer decision-making process, affecting consumers' purchase intention directly, which is different from TRA (Theory of Reasoned Action). At the same time, variables of RT(Rumor Trust), RGI(Reference Group Intention) and RP(Risk Perception) can also affect PE(Panic Emotion), and the influence from RGI is the most remarkable one. Surprisingly, PBR(Past Behavior Regest) doesn't have a obvious effect on PE.The innovation of this study is that we introduce PE into the research model, through which, the essential difference between rational and irrational consumption is found.At the end of this paper, we suggest the government should provide the most rapid supply system to reduce the commodity scarcity when panic buying emerges, but not to blame the ignorance of common people. At the same time, in order to improve ME, long-term construction is needed.