The Influence of Product-harm Crises on Consumer Attribution and Identification: The Moderating Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between types of product harm crises and consumer attribution, the moderating effects of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) image, and furthers the relationship between consumer attribution and consumer-company identification. The experimental design adopts 4(product harm crises: internal personal / internal impersonal / external personal / external impersonal) × 2(high CSR image / low CSR image) between-subjects factorial design. The findings show that different product-harm crisis has respective influence on consumer attribution. Under the scenarios of internal personal, internal impersonal, and external personal, enterprises with higher CSR image will lower consumer attribution. Locus and stability will influence consumer-company identification