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Purpose: During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, ubiquitous social media has become a primary channel for information dissemination, social interactions and recreational activities. However, it remains unclear how social media usage influences nonpharmaceutical preventive behavior of individuals in response to the pandemic. This paper aims to explore the impacts of social media on COVID-19 preventive behaviors based on the theoretical lens of empowerment. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, survey data has been collected from 739 social media users in China to conduct structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Findings: The results indicate that social media empowers individuals in terms of knowledge seeking, knowledge sharing, socializing and entertainment to promote preventive behaviors at the individual level by increasing each person's perception of collective efficacy and social cohesion. Meanwhile, social cohesion negatively impacts the relationship between collective efficacy and individual preventive behavior. Originality/value: This study provides insights regarding the role of social media in crisis response and examines the role of collective beliefs in the influencing mechanism of social media. The results presented herein can be used to guide government agencies seeking to control the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore key collaboration technology affordances from virtual collaboration and remote work during the time of COVID-19. The purpose of this exploration is to improve the understanding of technology-supported collaboration in order to achieve individual and organizational success with the adoption, use and implementation of virtual collaboration in a pandemic and post-pandemic world. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative data is collected from 55 graduate students during a time of work transition due to COVID-19. This paper distills key collaboration technology affordances identified from participant feedback. Findings: This paper identifies topics of virtual collaboration success as well as challenges related to organizational transitions during COVID-19. The findings from this work relate to four collaboration technology affordances including: (1) flexibility and productivity, (2) social connectedness and organizational culture, (3) technology support and (4) management and leadership. Additionally, this research provides insight into the complexities of virtual collaboration in these areas while also making recommendations for the post-pandemic future. Originality/value: This research makes a contribution through the analysis of a unique set of data elaborating on participant experiences during a global pandemic as well as through the exploration of future implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The use of over-the-top (OTT) platforms grew substantially after the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With the pandemic receding, there is a concern that users may not continue with their subscriptions. To counter this, OTT service providers must strategize proactively to retain and acquire new users once the pandemic abates. Positing that understanding the consumption values that users ascribe to OTT platform usage can provide useful customer retention insights, the purpose of this paper is to use the theory of consumption value (TCV) to study the values that users derived from their use of OTT following the onset of the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The mixed-method approach is used to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Analysis of qualitative responses collected through interviews of 12 current OTT platform users helped identify two categories of OTT platform-specific values: attribute-level and benefit-based. Next, the study examined the association of values thus identified with one another, as well as with continued intentions to use OTT platforms, by analyzing data collected from 371 existing users. Findings: The findings indicated that functional value quality and social value, representing the attribute-level values, were positively associated with two benefit-based values – functional value price and emotional value (EMV). Next, EMV was not only associated with intentions but also partially mediated the association of attribute-level values with intentions. Premium subscription purchased and increased viewing time were confirmed to have moderating effects on the association between attribute-level and benefit-based values. Originality/value: The study is amongst the foremost research initiatives to examine consumption values derived from OTT platform usage after the onset of the pandemic. Its novelty also comes from its identifying OTT platform-specific consumption values for the first time and adding a new dimension to the TCV by examining the interplay of these values in the OTT platform context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the African context, the threat of the disruption of traditional business value-creation processes, currently facilitated by the growing information technology (IT) ecosystem, came with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on interfirm relationships within the context of the digital ecosystem in Africa. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs an explanatory–exploratory qualitative approach from an interpretivist stance to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on interfirm relationships. The authors conducted seven in-depth interviews with top management executives in a Nigerian technology company, together with the company's archival data that provided the pre, during and post pandemic (2018–2021) business-to-business (B2B) relationship structures, to determine how these relationships have been affected. Findings: The results suggest that the pandemic had a minimal effect on partnership relationships in the B2B ecosystems of the case company but affected only non-partnership relationships. Research limitations/implications: The authors' qualitative study is interpretive and the sample size is limited. Hence, there is a need for caution in generalizing the findings. The framework can be further validated across a wider population. Practical implications: Partnerships can help organizations weather business crises. Consequently, organizations should maintain a healthy number of partnership relations to deal with periods in which challenges emerge in the business landscape. In other words, with tight contracts and a strategic focus on goals and objectives, partnership relations can help organizations weather business crises. Originality/value: This study builds upon the burgeoning body of literature on digital ecosystems within the African context, which is a relevant contextual contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The need for accelerating innovation is exacerbated as organizations struggle to either adapt or perish in this unforgiving condition due to the COVID-19 disruption. To address this issue, many organizations have embraced employee-driven participatory innovation to survive and thrive albeit the uncertainties. This study aims to investigate the role of enterprise social media (ESM) in supporting and facilitating these efforts. Design/methodology/approach: This study first identified the underlying mechanisms that allow ESM use to foster and maintain participatory innovation and then reexamined how these mechanisms played out during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The data was collected through a questionnaire in two phases, before and during work-from-home mandates, and the results were analyzed and compared to capture similarities and differences. Findings: The results revealed that innovation culture and management support mediated the effects of ESM use on three measures of innovation productivity in both conditions. Interestingly, the effect of ESM use was more prominent in driving innovation in the work-from-home condition. This effect was not limited to the direct effect of ESM use on innovation productivity but on innovation culture and management support as well. Originality/value: The results suggest that ESM offer a potentially useful path to support and enable employees to participate in the innovation processes, especially when they work remotely or in a distributed team. More generally, this paper should be of interest to researchers and practitioners interested in understanding, implementing and evaluating enterprise social software applications and encouraging employee-driven participatory innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose for writing this article is derived from the misery and chaos prevalent in the world due to the coronavirus pandemic – since late 2019 and still continuing as of December 2020. Design/methodology/approach: A blockchain-based solution to verify the country visit trail and disease and treatment history of the passengers who arrive at the immigration counters located at various national borders and entry points is proposed. A fuzzy inference based suspect identifier system is also presented in this article that could be utilized to make further decisions based on the degree of suspicion observed on a particular passenger. Findings: This paper attempted to put forth a blockchain-based system which consumes the healthcare and visit trail summary of a passenger (appearing for an interview before an immigration officer) and forwards it to a fuzzy inference system to reach to a conclusion that the passenger should be advised to self-quarantine, detained, or should be allowed to enter. Such a system would help to make correct decisions at the immigration counters to check pandemic diseases, like COVID-19, right at the entry points. Research limitations/implications: The implications of this work are manifold. First, the proposed framework works independent of the type of pandemic and is a readymade tool to check the spread of disease through infected human carriers. Second, the proposed framework will keep the mortality rates under check, which would give ample time for the authorities to save the lives of the people with co-morbidities and age vulnerabilities (Vichitvanichphong et al., 2018). Third, it is a general phenomenon to restrict the flights from the country where the first few cases of infection are discovered; however, the infected person, at the same time, might travel through alternative routes. The blockchain-enabled proposed framework ensures the detection of such cases at no other cost. Finally, the solution may appear costly in the first place, but it has the potential to hold back the revenue of the countries that would otherwise be spent on reactive measures. Originality/value: As of now no other study or research article provides the solution to the biggest problem persists in the world in this way. The contribution is original and worth applying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research was conducted to understand how vulnerable communities used social media (SM) tools to face the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected by the lack of information and the absence of effective public policies, residents from slums in the city of Rio de Janeiro displayed new and unexpected uses to SM tools to tackle the health and socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology consisted of a qualitative, exploratory study, combining a series of in-depth interviews with the analysis of various posts, containing videos and texts, extracted from SM during the first six months of the pandemic. The data were collected in the context of 10 different communities in Rio de Janeiro city. Findings: In the context of the pandemic, people combined different uses of SM not only to inform themselves and communicate with others but also to articulate and execute fundraising and food donation strategies within vulnerable communities. Accordingly, this SM use is characterized by improvisation, learning by doing and building resilience, which are all constructs related to the concept of bricolage. Users had no specific SM knowledge, and adjusted these technological tools to emergent new activities in practice, which is characteristic of sociomaterial process. In addition to emphasizing the importance of context for the emergence of the phenomenon, this work also highlights reliability, validity and authority as characteristics related to the citizen-led participation approach that was observed. Research limitations/implications: Future research can develop approaches based on pandemic sociomaterial bricolage (PSB) aspects, which could guide governments and practitioners on building innovative solutions for the use of SM by the population, especially in emergency situations. Originality/value: This study proposes a framework, termed PSB, to represent SM usage promoted by the pandemic context, which emerged from the triangulation of empirical data and an analysis based on the concepts of bricolage and sociomateriality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study explored whether the critical incident management systems (CIMS) model can predict the EMS performance in the COVID-19 context. Past research has established the significance of early detection and response (ER) in the context of Ebola virus disease (EVD), prompting a question of whether the model can also be helpful in the COVID-19 context. Consequently, the authors assessed whether ER influences the impact of communication capacity (CC), reliable information channel (RC) and environment (EN) on COVID-19 EMS performance. Assessing these relationships will advance emerging infectious disease (EID) preparedness. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed standardized measurement instruments of the CIMS model (CC, ER, RC and EN) to predict the performance of COVID-19 EMS using structural equation modeling (SEM) in a study of 313 participants from frontline responders. Findings: The results show that the relationship of ER and EN with COVID-19 EMS performance is positive, while that of EN on CC is negative. The relationship between EN and COVID-19 EMS performance was insignificant. Contrary to the hypothesis, CC was negatively significant to COVID-19 EMS performance due to poor communication capacities. Research limitations/implications: The authors acknowledge some limitations due to challenges faced in this study. First, Data collection was a significant limitation as these questionnaires were built and distributed in June 2020, but the response time was prolonged due to the recurring nature of the pandemic. The authors had wanted to implore the inputs of all stakeholders, and efforts were made to reach out to various Ministry of Health, the local CDC and related agencies in the region via repeated emails explaining the purpose of the study to no avail. The study finally used the frontline workers as the respondents. The authors used international students from various countries as the representatives to reach out to their countries' frontline workers. Second, since the study was only partially supported using the CIMS model, future studies may combine the CIMS model with other models or theories. Subsequent research reassesses this outcome in other contexts or regions. Consequently, further research can explore how CC can be improved with COVID-19 and another future EID in the region. This may improve the COVID-19 EMS performance, thereby expanding the lesson learned from the pandemic and sustaining public health EID response. Additionally, other authors may combine the CIMS model with other emergency management models or theories to establish a fully supported theoretical model in the context of COVID-19. Practical implications: The findings have practical implications for incident managers, local CDCs, governments, international organizations and scholars. The outcome of the study might inform these stakeholders on future direction and contribution to EID preparedness. This study unfolds the impact of lessons learned in the region demonstrated by moderating early detection and responses with other constructs to achieve COVID-19 EMS performance. The findings reveal that countries that experienced the 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak, were not necessarily more prepared for an epidemic or pandemic, judging by the negative moderating impact of early detection and response. However, these experiences provide a foundation for the fight against COVID-19. There is a need for localized plans tailored to each country's situation, resources, culture and lifestyle. The localized plan will be to mitigate and prevent an unsustainable EID management system, post-epidemic fund withdrawals and governance. This plan might be more adaptable and sustainable for the local health system when international interventions are withdrawn after an epidemic. Public health EID plans must be adapted to each country's unique situation to ensure sustainability and constantly improve EID management of epidemics and pandemics in emergency response. The high to moderate importation risk in African countries shows Africa's largest window of vulnerability to be West Africa (Gilbert et al., 2020). Therefore, they should be in the spotlight for heightened assistance towards the preparedness and response for a future pandemic like COVID-19. The West African region has a low capacity to manage the health emergency to match the population capacities. The COVID-19 outbreak in West Africa undoubtedly inflicted many disruptions in most countries' economic, social and environmental circumstances. The region's unique challenges observed in this study with CC and reliable information channels as being negatively significant highlight the poor maintenance culture and weak institutions due to brain drain and inadequate training and monitoring. This outcome practically informs West African stakeholders and governments on aspects to indulge when trying to improve emergency preparedness as the outcomes from other regions might not be applicable. Originality/value: This study explored the relevance of the CIMS model in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing different patterns of influence on COVID-19 EMS performance. In contrast to the extant literature on EVD, the authors found the moderating effects of ER in the COVID-19 context. Thus, the authors contribute to the COVID-19 EMS performance domain by developing a context-driven EMS model. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to focus on understanding the tensions experienced by government officials in introducing electronic government (e-government) policies to support entrepreneurs in a developing Latin American country. Design/methodology/approach: This study relies on an in-depth qualitative approach based on collaborative and analytic auto-ethnography. The authors concentrate on tensions experienced by a government official and how they were addressed when introducing e-government policies to support entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings: The findings reveal that paradoxical tensions occur as changes are demanded, multiple concerns are expressed and decisions about resources have to be made. The findings reveal sources of tensions from government, business and external sources. Addressing such tensions revolves around a diverse form of paradoxes dealing with contradictions in terms of speed vs thoroughness and short- vs long-term implications. Research limitations/implications: The authors' study provides several contributions. It advances understanding on the source and management of tensions experienced by government officials introducing e-government policies to support entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also delineates multiple paradoxes experienced by government officials as new policies and systems were introduced. Finally, it offers a conceptual model explaining how government officials deal with multiple tensions emerging from the introduction of e-government policies in a developing country. Originality/value: The prior literature has suggested that e-government initiatives would be guided by a prescriptive and tension-free process, driven by the interest to enhance governmental efficiency. This study reveals that developing e-government initiatives for entrepreneurs and existing businesses during the Covid-19 crisis was not immune to contradictions between government officials and the public. A conceptual model, based on multiple sources of tensions (government-related, business-related and external sources) and their management, is proposed. Implications and opportunities for further research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Smart-work has been attracting more attention since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the world in 2020. Smart-working practices do not always run smoothly despite the necessary infrastructure being in place. Taking the quality-value-loyalty chain and information system continuance model as the basis, this study aims to identify how "smart-work support service" leads to employees' continuance intention toward smart-work. In this study, the smart-work support service refers to the infrastructure making smart-work possible and services needed to support smart-work. Design/methodology/approach: Using data collected from a survey of 406 employees working in Korea, this study verifies the components of smart-work support service quality and dimensions of perceived value through partial least squares analysis and then tests the proposed conceptual model using structural equation modeling. Findings: The results verified that the quality of smart-work support service consists of eight attributes while dividing the perceived value of smart-work into three dimensions and further revealed that the service quality influences the intention to continue smart-working by way of perceived value and satisfaction. Originality/value: This study sought to explore the relationship among service quality, perceived value and satisfaction by clearly conceptualizing and measuring them in the context of smart-work, thereby ultimately understanding the impact they have on the intention to continue smart-work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: With the spread of COVID-19, governments have initiated lockdown procedures and forced organizations to switch to remote working. Employees working remotely in isolated and confined situations are experiencing great stress and uncertainty. This study aims to investigate how remote workers perform during lockdowns. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on social information processing theory, this study developed and tested hypotheses linking professional isolation, cynicism and task performance. This study was comprised of 497 remote workers in the financial industry in China. Findings: The findings revealed that professional isolation is positively related to cynicism, and cynicism is negatively related to task performance. Cynicism mediates the relationship between professional isolation and task performance. The results indicated that psychological hardiness moderated the mediation effect of professional isolation on task performance through cynicism. Practical implications: This research offers implications for managers and practitioners on reducing employees' feeling of isolation through effective communication, collaboration and support via online platforms and preventing and reducing cynicism by introducing clear organizational policy and practice to balance job demands and job resources. Meanwhile, managers can develop commitment, control and challenge components of employees' psychological hardiness to enhance job performance. Originality/value: This study extends the remote working literature in a crisis situation and fills the gap in the cynicism literature by understanding the role played by cynicism for remote workers. The current study also adds to the literature by highlighting the importance of psychological hardiness for remote workers during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the global migration crisis COVID 19 had devastating consequences. Workers were confined to their locations due to travel restrictions and working from home became "working away from home" for millions of migrant workers. Mobile financial services emerged as key to livelihood of the mobile remittance recipients. It is essential for service providers to gain insights of users' motives to use mobile remittance services. Design/methodology/approach: This study proposed the model by extending unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model and integrating by perceived cost (PC) and perceived security (PS). Based on the survey data (n = 344) the proposed model was tested using analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis. Findings: The findings reveal that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, PC and PS affect the users' behavioral intention (BI) to use mobile remittance applications. Social influence nonsignificantly affects the BI and there is no significant influence of facilitating conditions on user behavior. Originality/value: The volume of migrant workers preCOVID 19 reached 3.5% of the global population, the shear number of unprotected workers plunged into devastation by the COVID-19 impact is huge to cause an economic meltdown. Under the pandemic crisis conditions, the findings provide several practical implications on how service providers could improve their products and services to increase mobile remittance applications usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICTs) use and work performance during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, it aims to understand what the role of task–technology fit is, and what effect this has on feelings of loneliness of individuals and their subsequent work performance. As a large proportion of workers are required to work from home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, understanding what aspects contribute to higher performance and reduced negative psychological outcomes is of increased practical and research interest. Design/methodology/approach: To explore these questions, a quantitative approach that employed a sample population of 357 individuals who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic was used. Using a convenience, purposive and snowball sampling approach the authors collected data through a custom-built online questionnaire, and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings: The results highlight the effect that high task–technology fit has in both directly and indirectly influencing work performance of individuals. The authors find that by designing ICTs based on task–technology fit principles, individuals are less likely to experience feelings of loneliness while working from home and are more prone to perform better in their work-related tasks. Originality/value: This study offers a new perspective on the role fit of tasks with technology have on influencing psychological states, and indirectly influencing work-related outcomes. The authors, therefore, expand the understanding about why task–technology fit is sought after by explaining part of the psychological mechanisms through which it has an effect on work performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The authors track the well-being of individuals across five European countries during the course of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and relate their well-being to working from home. The authors also consider the role of pandemic-policy stringency in affecting well-being in Europe. Design/methodology/approach: The authors have four waves of novel harmonised longitudinal data in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Sweden, covering the period May–November 2020. Well-being is measured in five dimensions: life satisfaction, a worthwhile life, loneliness, depression and anxiety. A retrospective diary indicates whether the individual was working in each month since February 2020 and if so whether at home or not at home. Policy stringency is matched in per country at the daily level. The authors consider both cross-section and panel regressions and the mediating and moderating effects of control variables, including household variables and income. Findings: Well-being among workers is lower for those who work from home, and those who are not working have the lowest well-being of all. The panel results are more mitigated, with switching into working at home yielding a small drop in anxiety. The panel and cross-section difference could reflect adaptation or the selection of certain types of individuals into working at home. Policy stringency is always negatively correlated with well-being. The authors find no mediation effects. The well-being penalty from working at home is larger for the older, the better-educated, those with young children and those with more crowded housing. Originality/value: The harmonised cross-country panel data on individuals' experiences during COVID-19 are novel. The authors relate working from home and policy stringency to multiple well-being measures. The authors emphasise the effect of working from home on not only the level of well-being but also its distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe a comparative study of the perceptions of users and non-users of an early contact tracing application helping to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented incidence of this disease warrants investigating theoretically the use of mobile contact tracing applications as a promising approach to curtail its transmission. Design/methodology/approach: A consumption value-based model of the adoption and use of a contact tracing mobile application was built and tested through a cross-sectional survey conducted with 2 samples (of 309 already users and 306 non-users) in the Province of Alberta, Canada. Findings: Utilitarian and social values together with health information seeking and perceived critical mass drive the use of the application while perceived privacy risk is an obstacle to usage for both users and non-users. Research limitations/implications: Study participants self-assessed their risk category of potential exposure to the COVID-19 virus, and this was a subjective measure including an emotional component. Practical implications: No major differences in the approaches targeting users and non-users of a mobile contact tracing application to encourage its adoption and use are necessary. Social implications: Additional efforts are required to convey to people information on the benefits and current rate of use of such an application and to mitigate privacy risk concerns. Originality/value: Overall, the study offers theoretical and practical contributions that may help improve the adoption and usage of contact tracing applications addressing the COVID-19 pandemic or other possible public health crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Virtual reality (VR) technology is a potential tool for tourism marketers to maintain the attractiveness of their destinations and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effectiveness of VR technology in motivating potential tourists' visit intention under lockdown conditions remains unknown. An integrated model based on the experience economy framework and mood management theory was, therefore, used to explain how tourists' VR experiences affect their mood management processes and subsequent behaviors. This research also examined how perceived travel risk influenced the relationship between mood management processes and future decisions. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a cross-sectional design based on a sample collected from a Chinese survey company, Sojump. The author surveyed 285 respondents who had experienced VR tourism activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research model was tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling. Findings: The results demonstrated that the four dimensions of VR experiences differently affected mood management processes, while perceived travel risk differently moderated the influence of mood management processes on visit intention and VR stickiness. This provides insights for tourism marketers to adapt to the current tourism environment and develop recovery strategies. Originality/value: In response to gaps in the literature, this research examined the effectiveness of VR technology in driving tourists' visit intention during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing insights for tourism marketers to successfully implement VR tourism and plan timely recovery strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of the virtualization requirements of the learning process on students' satisfaction and their intention to continue using online learning. Design/methodology/approach: A research model was developed using the process virtualization theory (PVT); it was validated empirically using data obtained from an online questionnaire-based survey of 489 undergraduate students. Findings: The main results support the role of representation for sensory requirements, sensory requirements, reach, representation for relationship requirements and relationship requirements on shaping students' satisfaction, which all also have a significant influence on students' intention to continue using online learning. Relevance factors are responsible for 61.6% of the variance in students' satisfaction and 83.6% of the variance in their intention to continue using online learning. However, neither the synchronism requirements nor the identification and control requirements had a significant effect on students' satisfaction or on their intention to continue using online learning. Originality/value: The present research focused on PVT in an online learning context; consequently, a new set of factors that influenced students' satisfaction with and intentions to continue using online learning was empirically tested for the first time. This research contributes to the literature on information systems because it advances the generalizability and applicability of the PVT in a new context and new cultural setting. Moreover, the research apprises researchers and practitioners of new factors, which should be understood and fulfilled to make virtual learning equivalent to the face-to-face learning experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to understand how socially shared misinformation and rumors can enhance the motivation to protect personal interests and enhance social practices of panic buying. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a number of qualitative data collection methods for the purpose of triangulation, as it can offer thick interpretation and can help to develop a context specific research framework. Findings: The shared misinformation and rumors on social media developed into psychological, physical and social threats; therefore, people started panic buying to avoid these negative consequences. People believed that there were differences between the information shared by politicians and government officials and reality, such as "everything is under control," whereas social media showed people standing in long queues and struggling to buy the necessities of life. The shared misinformation and rumors on social media became viral and received social validation, which created panic buying in many countries. Research limitations/implications: It is the responsibility of government, politicians, leaders, media and the public to control misinformation and rumors, as many people were unable to buy groceries due either to socio-economic status or their decisions of late buying, which increased depression among people. Originality/value: The study merged the theory of rumor (TORT) transmission and protection motivation theory (PMT) to understand how misinformation and rumors shared through social media increased global uncertainty and the desire to panic buy across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]