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Top1. Introduction
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting economies globally. Many governments have adopted mandatory solutions to minimize the impact of this pandemic on public health. There have been widespread quarantines, travel restrictions, social-distancing measures, and a shift to move the purchasing of goods from brick-and-mortar stores to online vendors. To adapt to the crisis in service, business innovation has become increasingly necessary even in those business organizations not desiring to innovate (Heinonen, 2020). From the consumer's perspective, the fear of risks during a pandemic cause changes in their services-related buying patterns because of self-protective behavior. The most recognized cases of individual self-protective behavior in recent decades were observed during the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and influenza A (H7N9) in Asia and the Ebola disease in Africa. Page et al. (2012) and Yoshikura (2013) posited that an epidemic crisis or new pandemic would have a profound impact on businesses, including those in the service industry like restaurants. Although restaurants have faced many crises in recent decades (Kim et al., 2020; Alonso-Almeida et al., 2015), the impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented. For the first time, restaurant operations on various scales were suspended despite their significant contributions to the economy (La Marca et al., 2020). Seetharaman (2020) suggested changes in the business model to address the challenges and business opportunities by product characteristics. The benefits of imposed service innovation such a change of mindset and new business opportunities can mitigate negative consequences of the pandemic (Nenonen & Storbacka, 2020). For example, the higher-end restaurants of Michelin-starred chefs have been found to implement strategies aimed to increase the well-being of communities, consumers, and food service agents (Batat, 2020). However, those studies reflect only a small portion of the restaurant industry, and most lower-key establishments enjoy less agency and economic flexibility. One of the solutions suggested is to promote online shopping platforms, including for pre-prepared meals (Nguyen & Vu, 2020). Although online sales are not new in Vietnam, consumers tend to prefer buying ingredients and pre-prepared meals face-to-face. Many distrust the hygiene of food provided online as basic information is typically unavailable and product or procedural safety rarely certified by outside agencies (Kim Dang et al., 2018). Therefore, this study focuses on the impact of COVID-19 in pushing customers towards the online purchasing of meals from restaurants.
This article approaches this question from the context of a small city in Vietnam. Section 2 frames this study by outlining the existing theories of online purchasing and self-protective behaviors. In Section 3, the article shifts to explore how self-protective behavior can be utilized to explain changes in online purchasing behavior during a pandemic based on the given hypotheses. Subsequently, the procedural design, measurement, and analysis of empirical testing on the applicability of the above theories is in Section 4. Finally, results are presented, and their implications discussed. Overall, this study fills a gap in the literature by exploring how pandemics and self-protective measures affect consumer response in the geographical context of smaller municipalities in the global south.