About this Research Topic
The outbreak of coronavirus first reportedly started in the Chinese city of Wuhan and was brought to the attention of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Country Office in China in the last week of December 2019. In March 2020, the WHO emergency committee acknowledged the outbreak of coronavirus, a contiguous disease that transmits from human to human. Following the outbreak in December 2019, governments around the world immediately put in place preventive measures to rein in its fatal consequences. These astute measures, which included complete lockdown, public quarantines, travel bans, restrictions on freedom of movement, and business closures, have had deep effects on multiple industries. These include offline businesses, supply chains, travel and tourism, hospitality, and restaurants. Consequently, the lockdown of offline shops, the restrictions on person-to-person contact, and public gatherings have significantly influenced consumers’ purchase freedom. In response, individuals now engage in a psychological state of reactance and react against any effort which controls and restricts their attitudes or behaviors regarding their freedom of choice.
This Research Topic aims to explore the impact and repercussions of COVID-19 on the choices of individuals and global businesses. It aims to identify, understand, and address the issues related to how COVID-19 restricts freedom worldwide from the perspectives of consumers, organizations, industries, and governments. In this vein, various individuals’ psychological, social, and reactive factors need to be taken into consideration in the wake of government clampdowns. Moreover, how organizations in different industries should adapt their strategies (i.e. short-term and long-term) need solidification. This is due to their practical significance to manage and avoid future risks with natural disasters. They must retrospectively revisit the relationships between business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and the respective governments’ roles in this regard.
In line with these goals, we invite submissions exploring, but not limited to, the themes below:
• COVID-19 and revolution of business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) setting
• How consumer psychological reactance affects online and offline shopping in post-COVID-19
• Psychological distance and restoration of consumers/employees’ freedom
• The fear of COVID-19 on vulnerable consumers/ employees for businesses
• Customers' perceptions of risk, health, and safety
• B2C and B2B cross-industry and cross-country comparison of COVID-19
• How the post-COVID-19 freedom efforts affect digital and social media platforms
• The emergence of information technology in service encounter for both (i.e. service and manufacturing) firms
• Supply Chain psychological reactance model in COVID-19
• Information technology adoption mechanism and the various challenges in the COVID -19
• The role of artificial intelligence and machine learning on the consumer behavior in the COVID-19
• How the artificial intelligence and robots restore individual's freedom after COVID-19
• Post COVID-19 government measures, policies, assistance, interventions in manufacturing and service industries
• Post COVID-19 crisis management strategies of service/manufacturing firms and hospitality and tourism destinations
We welcome Original Research (i.e. Empirical and Conceptual); Systematic Reviews; Reviews; Hypothesis and Theory articles; Perspectives, and any methodologies.
Keywords: Psychological reactance; psychological distance; consumer behavior; employees’ workplace behavior; B2C; B2B
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
