Panic buying research: A bibliometric review.

Abstract

Background: Panic buying has been reported during a period of crisis when people buy an extra amount of essential commodities and hoard them anticipating their future utility. As a newer entity, a bibliometric analysis would reveal the research gaps for further studies. We aimed to do a bibliometric analysis of researches published on panic buying over the past two decades.

Methods: A literature search was conducted in the SCOPUS database using the keyword "panic buying". All published research in the English language between 1^st January 2001 to 1^st August 2021 was included in the analysis of this study.

Results: We identified a total of 142 articles on panic buying published over the past two decades. There is an exponential increase in the publication on this topic during the COVID-19 pandemic (n=127). Majority of the articles were published from the United States (n=23), followed by the United Kingdom (n=20), and China (n=20). The Frontiers in Public Health and Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services published the highest number of articles (eight each). Arafat SMY published the highest number of publications as a single author (n=10) and Enam Medical College and Hospital, Bangladesh has the highest number of papers as an institution (n=10). Among all the publishers, Elsevier has published the maximum number of papers (n=38).

Conclusion: There is an exponential growth of panic buying research during 2020-21. The global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has been attributed to the recent rise in panic buying research.