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This study aims to understand the extent to which a time of emergency, (e.g. the COVID-19 pandemic), impacts consumer behaviour in terms of risk and expectations. The methodology involves the systematic content analysis of 15,000 tweets collected from three countries (UK, Italy and Spain) in April 2020. The results suggest that the top-of-mind expectation by consumers deals with escaping from home and enjoying freedom, either by having a good meal (UK), drinking alcoholic beverages (Spain), or travelling (Italy). They also suggest that the high levels of risk individuals were exposed to during the pandemic will not influence behavior in the long-term post-lockdown. Instead, they suggest consumers are willing to restore their consumption levels especially of activities that contribute to the sense of escapism. Finally, results provide evidence of the cultural differences emerging from consumers from different countries during the pandemic. Implications for international marketers and retailers are provided., (© 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc.)

In early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the term "infodemic" to describe the velocity at which data can be exchanged among people, in a free virtual space where firms have limited control over the information diffusion. In particular, the diffusion of information on social media has analogies with the transmission (contagion) of social phenomena and infectious diseases. The aim of this research is to model the viral effects of a luxury marketing campaign when adopting negative stereotypes to increase the market share in a growing market. The campaign generated 506,127 likes of celebrity endorsers/influencers and 17,984 comments spread worldwide in a relatively short period, producing a "burst". Findings revealed the unexpected social burst occurred with negative consumers' evaluation, which has been amplified becoming dramatically damaging for the brand (brand hate)., (Crown Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19 pandemic (that started in early 2020) is causing several disruptions in the short- and mid-term, to which businesses have to adapt. Some retailers have reacted to the emergency immediately, displaying a plethora of different intervention types. The authors aim to synthesize the challenges that retailers are facing during the COVID-19 emergency. We do this from the perspective of both consumers and managers, with the goal of providing guidelines on and examples of how retailers can handle this unprecedented situation., (Crown Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)