Consumer research during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review

Purpose This study aims to extend the study of COVID-19 effects by identifying different consumer behaviors beyond panic buying during the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review was based on Herjanto et al.’s (2020a) thematic analysis and Paul et al.’s (2021) 5W1H framework, and the authors analyzed 52 related papers. Findings The result findings indicated that during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers fell into five different consumer behavior categories: health-related behaviors, consumption behaviors, ethical behaviors, behavioral intentions, and other related behaviors, and social connectedness behaviors. Findings show that consumer behaviors were increasingly complex and dynamic during the pandemic. Originality/value This systematic review will provide significant contributions to academia by offering general and technical insights and to practitioners by presenting guidelines on dealing with such different behaviors.