Why Do Customers Want to Buy COVID-19 Medicines? Evidence from Thai Citizens

Abstract

Purchase intention has been acknowledged as an important factor influencing businesses’ sales performances and sustainability. Thus, finding factors that influence purchase intention is essential to all relevant businesses. Based on the current importance of purchase intention to businesses, the main objective of this research was to investigate how country of origin, brand image, and perceived value influenced intentions to purchase COVID-19 medicines among Thai consumers. To accomplish this objective, researchers created a Google Form to survey 862 people around Thailand. However, researchers found only 653 valid data, which were analyzed through the structural equation model. The research findings revealed that perceived COVID-19 medicine value increased once the values of country of origin and brand image were highly considered by consumers. At the same time, consumers attempted to buy COVID-19 medicines for their COVID-19 treatments if the products contained high country of origin and perceived values. Finally, the perceived value was found to be a full mediator between brand image and purchase intention. In comparison, despite country of origin and perceived value being the significant factors in purchase intention, consumers’ intention to purchase COVID-19 medicines depended significantly on the degree of the consumers’ perceived value because perceived value contributed the highest impact on purchase intention. These results revealed that COVID-19 medicines were highly valued by many consumers because these medicines could help prevent heavy illness in consumers. As a result, consumers had a higher intention to purchase these medicines for their future COVID-19 treatments.