Is risk mitigation responsibility shifting to the consumer?
A new research paper shows that governments and corporations are shifting more responsibility for COVID-19 risk mitigation onto the shoulders of consumers as the pandemic continues over time. The research paper is co-authored by: Charles H. Cho, the Erivan K. Haub Chair in Business & Sustainability at York University’s Schulich School of Business; Aya Aboelenien, Assistant Professor of Marketing at HEC Montréal; and Zeynep Arsel, Associate Professor of Marketing at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University.
The researchers examined how policymakers, firms and consumers have managed risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the researchers analyzed government and corporate communications to Canadian consumers during the first five months of the pandemic. They found that once the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus as a pandemic, firms and policymakers began actively managing risk by putting concrete measures in place. The messages from governments and companies then quickly shifted from ownership of responsibility to requesting consumers act responsibly by complying with new directives such as keeping physical distance and limiting time spent at stores. According to the research paper, “as the pandemic escalated, the expectations and roles shifted: consumers were pushed to the center stage to protect themselves and other marketplace actors.”