How corporate social responsibility (CSR) saves a company: The role of gratitude in buffering vindictive consumer behavior from product failures

Product failures often lead consumers to engage in vindictive behaviors. Dissatisfied consumers can easily share their negative product/service experiences with others online and often deliberately express their frustration in ways that harm companies (e.g., brand sabotage). Hence, minimizing such behaviors after a product failure is critical to maintaining long-term customer relationships for companies. The present research demonstrates how a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement mitigates vindictive consumer behaviors in response to a product failure from the company. We suggest that the buffering effect of CSR engagement is driven by consumers’ feelings of gratitude for a priori pro-social effort and its impact on the perceived trustworthiness of the company. We also propose failure attribution (i.e., internal vs. external) as a boundary condition that moderates the buffering effect through consumer gratitude and trustworthiness.