Looking Back and Looking Forward: (Re)Interpreting Consumer Insights in a Time of Transition

Abstract

nMarch 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. In an attempt to capture real-time insights on consumer behavior during the unprecedented months that followed, the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (JACR) issued a Call for Papers in April 2020 for a Flash COVID-19 Research Issue. We received a record-breaking 138 submissions, and from those 20 empirical papers were accepted for publication. These 20 articles appear in print in two separate issues of JACR—six papers in the COVID-19 Supplemental Issue in January 2021 (vol. 6, no. 1), and 14 papers in a dedicated COVID-19 Flash Issue in January 22 (vol. 7, no. 1). The research covers a wide range of topics—from how government handles the pandemic, to people’s willingness to comply with different preventive measures to protect the self, to consumers’ perceptions of different product offerings and their consumption behaviors during the pandemic, to preference on how scarce life-saving resources should be allocated, and far beyond. In the Supplemental Issue, we reflected on these insights in an editorial titled “A View from Inside: Insights on Consumer Behavior during a Global Pandemic” (Goldsmith and Lee 2021). This title was a metaphorical nod to the fact that these insights were gathered inside what we believed would be the worst of the pandemic, and a literal nod to the fact that many were, at the time, sheltering in place inside their homes. We had hoped that this follow-up editorial might be titled “A View from Beyond,” reflecting back on these findings with greater psychological distance from the pandemic. However, COVID-19 is still a consideration in our daily lives. As of this writing, 20 months after the WHO’s declaration, 249 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, with more than five million deaths (https://www .worldometers.info/coronavirus/). Most experts believe an