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Abstract Drawing from the theories of protection motivation (PMT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM), this study aims to understand the role of psychological distress (i.e., feeling disconnected) in retail consumer's attitude and behavior toward online shopping during COVID‐19 pandemic. An analysis of the data set collected from an online survey ( n = 839) shows that the experience of online shopping at big‐box retailers during a pandemic provides not only a novel experience for consumers (i.e., the TAM perspective) but also a coping mechanism to mitigate the risk of infection (i.e., the PMT perspective). The result indicates that the experience (i.e., utility and enjoyment) of online shopping positively influenced consumer attitudes toward it while protection motivation (i.e., severity, self and response efficacy) also has positive effects on the attitude. Furthermore, feeling disconnected (i.e., less connected/more connected/no difference) moderated the effects on consumers’ attitudes to the online service. The study finds that the experience of online shopping at big‐box retailers during a pandemic provides an implication that consumers’ hedonic and utilitarian values and their protection motivations cater to the social and psychological condition within the extended theoretical framework.
Youn et al. (Fri,) studied this question.