Marketing

Social psychology

Economics

Computer science

Business model

Business

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Keynesian economics

Recession

Psychology

Consumer behaviour

Consumer-to-business

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Artificial intelligence

Medicine

Novelty

Perspective (graphical)

Disease

Pathology

Consumer spending

Frontiers in Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound psychological and behavioral impact on people around the world. Consumer purchase behaviors have thus changed greatly, and consumer services companies need to adjust their business models to adapt to this change. From the perspective of consumer psychology, this paper explores the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes over the course of the pandemic on the business model design of consumer services companies using a representative survey of 1,742 individuals. Our results show that changes in consumer purchase behavior have a significant impact on the design of consumer services firms' business models. Specifically, changes in consumers' purchase object, motive, and timeframe are more likely to spark a novelty-centered business model design, whereas changes in purchase method tend to inspire an efficiency-centered one. Our findings provide a theoretical reference for consumer services companies in designing business models when faced with unexpected crises.

The Impact of Consumer Purchase Behavior Changes on the Business Model Design of Consumer Services Companies Over the Course of COVID-19