The COVID-19 pandemic threats and its subsequent restrictions on people's freedom, social interaction, closures of workplaces and shopping stores have caused public psychological reactance. In response, the study develops and tests a conceptual framework, which unveils the effects of perceived choice hesitation and perceived choice confidence on consumers’ psychological reactance. It also corroborates two bipolar behavioral outcomes of consumers’ psychological reactance— choice freedom satisfaction and resistance to persuasion. We employ the moderating role of anticipated worry and trust in government in strengthening the psychological reactance and final behavioral outcomes, respectively. Data collected from the country of origin of COVID-19 pandemic indicated the positive effects of antecedents on psychological reactance, which negatively affected choice freedom satisfaction and positively to resistance to persuasion. Anticipated worry and trust in government positively moderated these relationships. Findings extend the literature on psychology, service management, and consumer behavior, and suggest to government policymakers and store managers.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the underlying mechanism through which firms can achieve supply chain agility and augment business performance from the vendor’s perspective. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on dynamic capability view and contingency theory, the study conceptualizes a moderated mediation model to investigate the underlying influence of process integration (PI), supply flexibility and product-related complexity on supply chain agility and the subsequent effect of supply chain agility on firm’s business performance. Survey data from a sample of 148 firms, in the garment manufacturing industry, in Pakistan were analyzed using partial least square methods. Findings: The results revealed that supply flexibility (i.e. volume and mix) mediates the effect of PI on supply chain agility. Supply chain agility, in turn, influences a firm’s business performance. Furthermore, the competence‒capability framework is not consistent across the varying degrees of product complexity such as product complexity hinders the effect of supply flexibility on supply chain agility, whereas it amplifies the impact of PI on supply chain agility. The conditional indirect effects suggest that the indirect effect of PI on supply chain agility through supply flexibility becomes stronger when product complexity is high. Originality/value: The study is novel in the context of an emerging economy to educate fashion vendors to tune their competencies and capabilities to regain the market share in the global market place.