HOW CHINESE AND SRI LANKAN CONSUMERS PERCEIVE SOCIETAL DAMAGE IN A PRODUCT HARM CRISIS – THE MODERATING ROLE OF GENDER

The main purpose of current study is to uncover how consumer perceives societal damage of the crisis with respect to culture, gender and causal attributions of the product harm crisis. Based on a survey conducted in China and Sri Lanka study uncovers that gender moderates the impact of culture on societal damage perceptions when company is accused for the crisis. However, gender is insignificant when consumer himself is accused for the crisis. In addition, female consumers perceive higher societal damage than males in both countries and perceived seriousness of the societal damage depends on the culpability of the crisis. This study provides new insights for crisis managers for implementing crisis management strategies in midst of product harm crisis and for further research initiatives