Causal Attributions of Product Harm Crisis and Consumer Moral Reputation Toward the Wounded Company- How Does Societal Damage Matter?

Abstract

Despite large body of research on product harm crisis, wide spreading crises in the global market place induce the study to investigate the matter through a new empirical angle, i.e., company`s moral responsibility that reflects consumers` moral reputation toward the affected company. Societal damage significantly shapes consumers` moral reputation toward the affected company during product harm crises. Total 201 respondents participated in two crises grounds; company culpable and consumer culpable, in two cultures; China and Sri Lanka, showed that consumers` moral reputation toward the troubled company downgrades significantly during product harm crises regardless of the cause of the crisis. Perceived societal damage further downgrades the negative effect of company culpable crisis on consumers` moral reputation toward the troubled company. Interestingly perceived societal damage was insignificant when consumer himself culpable for the crisis. Further study showed that national culture significantly shapes consumers` moral reputational perceptions. Being consumers from a low uncertainty avoidance country, Chinese were morally disrepute the wounded company lower than their Sri Lankan counterparts. This study provides interesting theoretical and managerial implications in conjunction with future research directions for a sustainable marketing environment.