Love is a two-sided why: exploring Valentine’s Day’s ritual purchases and consumption behaviors via comparative textual big data analysis and predictive modeling

Consumers are recently experiencing substantial changes due to pivotal factors in the current scenario. Specifically, because of the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are beginning to adopt different consumption patterns and behaviors. Besides, with the dissemination of disruptive technologies, individuals communicate their experiences and their relationships through social media even more intensively, generating a huge volume of data that marketing scholars and practitioners can exploit to better understand current phenomena. In this study, consumer behavior related to Valentine’s Day in five Anglosphere countries during the pandemic is analyzed, employing big data textual analytics. Results about consumer perceptions, purchase intentions, and consumption patterns on February 14th provide relevant insights about ritualized behaviors, special holidays, and gift giving.