Abstract:

The aim of this study is to help understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behavior by examining the relationships between fear of COVID-19, generalized anxiety level and compulsive buying tendency. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted with 276 people who were selected by a non-random convenience sampling method. The obtained data were analyzed using the PLS structural equation modeling method. As a result of the analyses, it was found that fear of COVID-19 has a direct and positive effects on the level of generalized anxiety and compulsive buying tendency; that generalized anxiety level has a direct and positive effect on compulsive buying tendency and that the level of generalized anxiety has a partial mediation role in the effect of fear of COVID-19 on compulsive buying. Although it is thought that the findings obtained have both academic and practical contributions, there are also some limitations of the study. These limitations are collecting data from participants determined by a convenience sampling method, the selection of individuals from a general population not from only those with compulsive buying tendencies, asking participants to evaluate their situation retrospectively, and only examining the effect of two variables, namely the fear of COVID-19 and the level of generalized anxiety, on the compulsive buying tendency. The current study is thought to have a unique value in terms of dealing with compulsive buying tendency, which is a subject studied in both psychology and consumer behavior fields, since it studies compulsive buying tendency in relation to psychological factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and shows the mediating role of generalized anxiety level in that relationship.

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