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In view of 2020 outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19, the paper examines the relationship between government measures for combating the pandemic and their side effects. Panic buying is identified as one such side effect. Among various models and measures undertaken by government to manage the pandemic, timed-intervention policy is commonly practiced by most countries. This paper examines the timing effect between government measures and panic buying. Three studies were undertaken to understand the timing effect and identify a connection between timed measures and consumer behaviours. Semantic analysis, secondary data search, and big data analytics were deployed to address the research aim. Although claiming a causal relationship is cautioned, the findings reveal a connection between timing of government measures and panic buying. These findings are discussed with the support of real-life evidence. Implications for researchers and practitioners conclude this paper.

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Panic buying emerged as a significant phenomenon during the COVID-19 pandemic.This study draws on the scarcity principle, crowd psychology and contagion theory to investigate the antecedents and consequences of panic buying. The antecedents included in this study are government measures, media and peer influence and the fear of missing out. The consequences are founded on a sense of security and guilt.Retailer intervention is included as a moderator to the proposed main effects. Data were collected from 341 consumers who engaged in panic buying and were residents of the United States and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the proposed model. The results show that the proposed antecedents (except fear of missing out) were significantly related to panic buying, which in turn had a significant influence on panic buyers' psychological outcomes. The moderating effects of retailer intervention varied across different product categories. Discussion and implications of these findings are provided for policy makers, customers and practitioners.