Science Research Management ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (6): 149-156.

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Information disclosure and irrational buying behavior: An analysis based on COVID-19 epidemic

Sun Zhenjie   

  1. School of Management, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Xi′an 710122, Shaanxi, Chin
  • Received:2020-03-05 Revised:2020-04-16 Online:2020-06-20 Published:2020-06-20

Abstract: Since the outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the number of cases of infected patients has risen rapidly, and the scope of infection has spread to all parts of the world. COVID-19 outbreak caused panic also bring about many negative impacts, and one of the greatest influence on people′s life is people irrational behavior caused by panic buying "panic psychology - snap up supplies - shortages - sharply rising prices - panic psychology" vicious circle, this epidemic under our country′s economic development and social order form a serious negative impact.Therefore, in this context, this paper tries to solve the following questions: (1) the impact of government emergency information disclosure on public information satisfaction during the epidemic? (2) the impact of government emergency information disclosure on people′s irrational buying behavior during the epidemic? (3) during the epidemic, can the government emergency information disclosure affect the irrational buying behavior through the public information satisfaction? (4) during the epidemic, can the public′s satisfaction with information adjust the impact of the government′s emergency information disclosure on the public′s irrational buying behavior? From the perspective of solving the above problems, this article is supported by the data of online polls during the epidemic period, using empirical research methods to verify the theoretical assumptions, hoping to provide a theoretical basis for government emergency information disclosure in sudden public health incidents. This article clarifies the influence path of the quality of government emergency information disclosure during the epidemic on the irrational buying behavior of the public, theoretically explores the suppressive effect of satisfaction with government information disclosure, and introduces interactive and intermediary inspection methods to test separately.Based on the empirical study of public opinion survey data during the epidemic period, the following conclusions were obtained: First, the perception of information disclosure content has a significant positive impact on information satisfaction. Previous studies have found that people′s overall perceived quality has a significant impact on people′s satisfaction and government credibility. Based on this, this article proposes a further inference that the public′s perception of the government′s emergency information disclosure at the time of the outbreak positively affects the public′s satisfaction with the information disclosure. The empirical results verify this inference. Explain that the public is more concerned about the occurrence and development of the epidemic, the emergency measures taken by the government, social life information, and the assistance actions taken by various sectors of society at home and abroad. During the epidemic situation, the government is increasing the transparency, timeliness and accessibility of the above information disclosure, and the public′s satisfaction with the information disclosure will be significantly improved. Second, the quality of information disclosure has a negative impact on the panic buying behavior. The results of previous studies show that the act of publicizing government information is positively affecting people′s trust in the government. Explain that the good performance of the government′s public information will increase the trust in the government. And this sense of trust will reduce the people′s panic about the epidemic and reduce the people′s irrational snapping behavior. The empirical test results of this paper show that when the government emergency information disclosure is confirmed by the public, it can effectively restrain the irrational buying intention of the public. Last,information satisfaction has a moderating role between the quality of information disclosure and panic buying behavior. After verifying that the quality of information disclosure has a negative impact on the buying behavior, it can be inferred that the interaction between information satisfaction and the quality of information disclosure can negatively affect the irrational buying behavior. That is, public panic will be suppressed by the satisfaction of information disclosure, and affect the relationship between the quality of information disclosure and buying behavior. The empirical analysis of this paper shows that under the circumstance of increasing public satisfaction with information disclosure, the inhibition effect will be deepened. In other words, the negative impact of public information quality on irrational buying behavior is greater under the adjustment of public information disclosure satisfaction. Combining the above analysis results, the information management enlightenment given in this article is: During the outbreak stage, the government should release the outbreak development in a timely manner for the purpose of strengthening people′s awareness of disease prevention, stabilizing people′s panic, maintaining social order and stability, and rallying the people′s will to fight against the disease Information such as the situation, various government emergency measures, information related to people′s livelihood and domestic and international support operations can effectively suppress panic panic buying behaviors. The contribution of this article is as follows: First, it clarified the impact path between the government emergency information disclosure content, government information disclosure satisfaction and the panic panic buying behavior of the people. Most of the predecessors studied the impact of government information disclosure satisfaction on panic panic buying behavior, or the impact of government information disclosure behavior on government trust. There are very few theoretical model frameworks between the content of government emergency information disclosure, the satisfaction of government information disclosure and the panic buying behavior of the public at the stage of public crisis.The second is to get new findings through empirical research. In this outbreak, what information should be disclosed by the government and how to make the disclosed information more understood, accepted and supported by the public are also the keys to scientific and effective disclosure of emergency information. However, most of the previous researches adopt qualitative research method, so there has been a lack of empirical research results obtained by quantitative research method as to which information content is truly in line with the urgent needs of the public. In view of this, this paper uses quantitative methods to find that in the development stage of the epidemic, people pay more attention to the situation of the epidemic, various emergency measures, information related to people′s livelihood and domestic and foreign support actions, while the vast majority of people are not sensitive to information on financial rights.

Key words: emergency information disclosure, satisfaction with information disclosure, irrational snapping behavior, intermediary effect, moderating effect