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Consumer behavior changes differently in emergencies. Understanding consumer food stockpiling behavior during COVID-19 pandemic can provide critical information for governments and policymakers to adjust inventory and response strategies. This paper analyzed consumer food stockpiling behavior, including the change of food reserve scale and willingness to pay for fresh food reserves in COVID-19. Our paper shows that the scale of food reserve extends from 3.37 to 7.37 days after the outbreak of COVID-19; if available, consumers on average are willing to pay 18.14 yuan (60.47%) premium for fresh products reserves. The result shows that food stockpiling behavior is fueled by a set of multiple motivations and subjective risk perception. Female, high education level and high-income consumers were more likely to reserve larger scale food reserves, but consumers’ willingness to pay for fresh food reserves is determined by income. This study was conducted when new infection cases continued to rise in the world. The story of food stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic in China is similar with the rest of world. Consumer stockpiling behavior in China can also be expanded to other countries to predict the change of food demand and understand more about consumer preferences in emergencies.

Tea is the most widely consumed and traded commodity worldwide, even serving as a livelihood for farmers in various countries. However, the tea industry needs to innovate in facing increasingly urgent environmental challenges, particularly related to the use of papersacks in addressing the potential stockpiling of inventory. This research provides a foundation for minimizing negative impacts on the environment, with a focus on reducing the excessive use of papersacks due to stockpiling. In line with environmental awareness, the study shows that more accurate forecasting can help companies plan production more efficiently, avoiding overproduction, and reducing the ecological impact of papersack usage. Thus, the research’s goal is to promote sustainability in tea production by reducing the excessive use of papersacks through improved planning.

Seasonally dry tropical forests are distributed across Latin America and the Caribbean and are highly threatened, with less than 10% of their original extent remaining in many countries. Using 835 inventories covering 4660 species of woody plants, we show marked floristic turnover among inventories and regions, whichmay be higher than in other neotropical biomes, such as savanna. Such high floristic turnover indicates that numerous conservation areas across many countries will be needed to protect the full diversity of tropical dry forests. Our results provide a scientific framework within which national decision-makers can contextualize the floristic significance of their dry forest at a regional and continental scale.

Oceanic dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is the second largest reservoir of organic carbon in the biosphere. About 72% of the global DOC inventory is stored in deep oceanic layers for years to centuries, supporting the current view that it consists of materials resistant to microbial degradation. An alternative hypothesis is that deep-water DOC consists of many different, intrinsically labile compounds at concentrations too low to compensate for the metabolic costs associated to their utilization. Here, we present experimental evidence showing that low concentrations rather than recalcitrance preclude consumption of a substantial fraction of DOC, leading to slow microbial growth in the deep ocean. These findings demonstrate an alternative mechanism for the long-term storage of labile DOC in the deep ocean, which has been hitherto largely ignored.

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a pandemic. In the following days, media reports showed that consumers increasingly stockpiled groceries and household supplies. Interestingly, behavioral data show that this stockpiling exhibited considerable heterogeneity across countries. Building on cultural dimension theory, the authors theorize that this heterogeneity can be explained by countries’ cultural values: consumer stockpiling after the World Health Organization’s announcement was more pronounced in countries whose residents show high uncertainty avoidance, low long-term orientation, low indulgence, and high individualism. The authors confirm these propositions using global mobility data from Google matched with country-level data on cultural values, pandemic reaction policies, and other key variables. This research note thereby integrates the previously disconnected literature on cultural dimension theory and consumer stockpiling in general, as well as provides new and significant knowledge about cross-cultural consumer behavior in crises. Furthermore, the authors provide actionable insights for international policy makers and business managers who aim to predict or control consumer stockpiling in future global crises to enhance consumer well-being.

Following the fast spread of Covid-19 across Europe and North America in March 2020, many people started stockpiling commodities like toilet paper. Despite the high relevance for public authorities to adequately address stockpiling behavior, empirical studies on the psychological underpinnings of toilet paper stockpiling are still scarce. In this study, we investigated the relation between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19, and stockpiling of toilet paper in an online survey (N = 996) across 22 countries. Results suggest that people who felt more threatened by Covid-19 stockpiled more toilet paper. Further, a predisposition towards Emotionality predicted the perceived threat of Covid-19 and affected stockpiling behavior indirectly. Finally, Conscientiousness was related to toilet paper stockpiling, such that individuals higher in Conscientiousness tended to stockpile more toilet paper. These results emphasize the importance of clear communication by public authorities acknowledging anxiety and, at the same time, transmitting a sense of control.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to classify the research to-date on supply chain finance (SCF) according to the main themes and methods, and to propose directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach – The review is based on 119 papers mainly published from 2000 to 2014 in international peer-reviewed journals and in the proceedings of international conferences. Findings – The articles that provide a definition of SCF reflect two major perspectives: the “finance oriented” perspective – focused on short-term solutions provided by financial institutions, addressing accounts payable and receivable – and the “supply chain oriented” perspective – which might not involve a financial institution, and is focused on working capital optimisation in terms of accounts payable, receivable, inventories, and sometimes even on fixed asset financing. Research limitations/implications – While efforts were made to be all-inclusive, significant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, the authors believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on SCF published during the specified time frame, and feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments. Originality/value – The paper presents a comprehensive summary of previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research. On the basis of the identified gaps in the literature, four key issues have been highlighted which should be addressed in future research.

Purpose The use of social media and information exchange increased during Covid-19 pandemic because people are isolated and working from home. The use of social media enhances information exchange in a global society, therefore customers are uncertain and not in a better position to take decisions before the situation goes worst everywhere in the world. The current study helps to understand how social media facilitate social and global engagement and information exchange which ultimately leads to the development of the customer psychology of stockpiling. This study aims to develop a research framework which helps to understand the customer psychology of stockpiling during a global pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study opted for a social constructionist approach because it can help to understand both individual and social subjective realities with respect to stockpiling behaviour due to the fear and risk of Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the researcher collected data from 40 customers of UK retail stores who actively use social media. The data were collected during telephonic interviews and thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Findings Results highlighted that institutional communication and social public interpretation of uncertainties and risk enhanced misinformation and sensationalism through social media platforms; therefore, stockpiling behaviour increased during Covid-19 pandemic. The fear of items being out of stock, illness, misinformation, family fear and going out were some of the possible causes that led to the development of panic stockpiling behaviour. The global uncertainty proof, as well as a public social consensus for staying at home and protecting the future also increased customers’ intention to buy in bulk for their future. Although social media played an important role in transferring relevant and timely information, it also increased uncertainty and social proof which may have led to stockpiling of retail products. Research limitations/implications The results of this study are beneficial for understanding how Covid-19 creates and enhances uncertainties and risks at both global and national level which developed into customer panic stockpiling behaviour, even when there is no promotional scheme or decrease in prices. This study helps marketers understand the psychology of customer stockpiling during a global pandemic. This study also helps to understand the role of social media, which promotes social interpretations of uncertainties and risk which ultimately enhance panic stockpiling among customers. Originality/value Limited research is available which provides an understanding of how social media can play a role in socially generated uncertainties and risks, which enhance misinformation and sensationalism, as well as the development of stockpiling behaviour. This study provided a stockpiling behaviour model based on the theory of uncertainty and social proof. The results of this study are unique as there is limited literature available which connects social media, uncertainties and risk, Covid-19 pandemic and stockpiling behaviour among educated people.

Although sulfur is an essential element for marine primary production and critical for climate processes, little is known about the oceanic pool of nonvolatile dissolved organic sulfur (DOS). We present a basin-scale distribution of solid-phase extractable DOS in the East Atlantic Ocean and the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Although molar DOS versus dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) ratios of 0.11 ± 0.024 in Atlantic surface water resembled phytoplankton stoichiometry (sulfur/nitrogen ~ 0.08), increasing dissolved organic carbon (DOC) versus DOS ratios and decreasing methionine-S yield demonstrated selective DOS removal and active involvement in marine biogeochemical cycles. Based on stoichiometric estimates, the minimum global inventory of marine DOS is 6.7 petagrams of sulfur, exceeding all other marine organic sulfur reservoirs by an order of magnitude.