Purpose

During a brand crisis, consumers construct attributions to understand the cause of the crisis and to assign blame, with attributions of blame to firms consequently lowering brand attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to explore attributions of blame in performance- versus values-related brand crisis. Do consumers assign different levels of blame to values- versus performance-related brand crises?

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted three experimental studies, plus one pilot study, with American, British and Australian participants in which they manipulated the type of brand crisis as values- or performance-related to determine the extent to which consumers attribute blame to the firm and the effects of those attributions on consumers’ brand attitudes.

Findings

Findings indicated that consumers assign more blame to firms for a values-related brand crisis than for a performance-related brand crisis.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study explain how consumers are harsher towards firms that violate some moral or social standards than those that exhibit product defects.

Practical implications

For branding and public relations officials, finding greater internal attribution for values-related brand crises offers implications for how and what information about such crises ought to be conveyed to manage consumer response and brand reputation.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the findings are the first to explore attributions in blame toward values- and performance-related brand crises.

中文翻译：

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消费者对与绩效和价值观相关的品牌危机的归因

目的

在品牌危机期间，消费者会构建归因来了解危机的原因并进行归咎，将责任归咎于企业，从而降低品牌态度。本文的目的是探讨绩效与价值观相关的品牌危机中的责任归属。消费者是否对与价值相关的品牌危机和与绩效相关的品牌危机赋予不同程度的责任？

设计/方法论/途径

作者对美国、英国和澳大利亚的参与者进行了三项实验研究和一项试点研究，他们将品牌危机的类型视为与价值观或绩效相关，以确定消费者将责任归咎于公司的程度及其影响这些因素对消费者品牌态度的影响。

发现

调查结果表明，消费者将更多与价值观相关的品牌危机归咎于企业，而不是与绩效相关的品牌危机。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究的结果解释了消费者对违反某些道德或社会标准的公司比那些表现出产品缺陷的公司更加严厉。

实际影响

对于品牌和公共关系官员来说，寻找与价值观相关的品牌危机的更大内部归因，对于如何以及应传达此类危机的信息来管理消费者反应和品牌声誉提供了启示。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这些研究结果首次探讨了与价值观和绩效相关的品牌危机的归因。