IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v8y2016i7p626-d73249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Ethical Judgment and Moral Reaction to the Product-Harm Crisis: Theoretical Model and Empirical Research

Author

Listed:
  • Dong Lu

    (School of Business, Sichuan Normal University, Collaborative Innovation Center of Sichuan Social Credit System Construction, Chengdu 610101, China)

  • Yide Liu

    (School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau 999078, China)

  • Hongfeng Zhang

    (Management Board Office, Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macau 999078, China)

  • Ivan K. W. Lai

    (School of Business and Hospitality Management, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Tseung Kwan O, New Territories, Hong Kong 999077, China)

Abstract

Based on the dual-process theory of ethical judgment, a research model is proposed for examining consumers’ moral reactions to a product-harm crisis. A national-wide survey was conducted with 801 respondents in China. The results of this study indicate that consumers will react to a product-harm crisis through controlled cognitive processing and emotional intuition. The results of the study also show that consumers view a product-harm crisis as an ethical issue, and they will make an ethical judgment according to the perceived severity and perceived relevance of the crisis. The ethical judgment in the perceived crisis severity and perceived crisis relevance will affect consumers’ condemning emotions in terms of contempt and anger. Through controlled cognitive processing, a personal consumption-related reaction (purchasing intention) is influenced by the perceived crisis severity. Furthermore, a social and interpersonal reaction (negative word of mouth) is influenced by the perceived crisis relevance through the controlled cognitive processing. This social and interpersonal reaction is also influenced by the perceived crisis severity and perceived crisis relevance through the intuition of other-condemning emotion. Moreover, this study finds that the product knowledge negatively moderates the impact of the perceived crisis severity on the condemning emotions. Therefore, when a consumer has a high level of product knowledge, the effect of perceived crisis severity on the condemning emotions will be attenuated, and vice versa. This study provides scholars and managers with means of understanding and handling of consumers’ reactions to a product-harm crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Dong Lu & Yide Liu & Hongfeng Zhang & Ivan K. W. Lai, 2016. "The Ethical Judgment and Moral Reaction to the Product-Harm Crisis: Theoretical Model and Empirical Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:7:p:626-:d:73249
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/7/626/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/7/626/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chieh-Peng Lin & Shwu-Chuan Chen & Chou-Kang Chiu & Wan-Yu Lee, 2011. "Understanding Purchase Intention During Product-Harm Crises: Moderating Effects of Perceived Corporate Ability and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(3), pages 455-471, September.
    2. Sora Kim, 2014. "What’s Worse in Times of Product-Harm Crisis? Negative Corporate Ability or Negative CSR Reputation?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 157-170, August.
    3. Claeys, An-Sofie & Cauberghe, Verolien, 2014. "What makes crisis response strategies work? The impact of crisis involvement and message framing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 182-189.
    4. Dutta, Sujay & Pullig, Chris, 2011. "Effectiveness of corporate responses to brand crises: The role of crisis type and response strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(12), pages 1281-1287.
    5. Yan Liu & Venkatesh Shankar, 2015. "The Dynamic Impact of Product-Harm Crises on Brand Preference and Advertising Effectiveness: An Empirical Analysis of the Automobile Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(10), pages 2514-2535, October.
    6. Small, Deborah A. & Loewenstein, George & Slovic, Paul, 2007. "Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 143-153, March.
    7. Grappi, Silvia & Romani, Simona & Bagozzi, Richard P., 2013. "Consumer response to corporate irresponsible behavior: Moral emotions and virtues," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1814-1821.
    8. Harald Van Heerde & Kristiaan Helsen & Marnik G. Dekimpe, 2007. "The Impact of a Product-Harm Crisis on Marketing Effectiveness," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 230-245, 03-04.
    9. Laufer, Daniel & Coombs, W. Timothy, 2006. "How should a company respond to a product harm crisis? The role of corporate reputation and consumer-based cues," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 379-385.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Toly Chen, 2016. "Competitive and Sustainable Manufacturing in the Age of Globalization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Marcelo Royo-Vela & Jonathan Cuevas Lizama, 2022. "Creating Shared Value: Exploration in an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-23, July.
    3. Qing Li & Haiying Wei & Daniel Laufer, 2019. "How to Make an Industry Sustainable during an Industry Product Harm Crisis: The Role of a Consumer’s Sense of Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Jin-Myong Lee & Hyo-Jung Kim & Jong-Youn Rha, 2017. "Shopping for Society? Consumers’ Value Conflicts in Socially Responsible Consumption Affected by Retail Regulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Huashan & Bapuji, Hari & Talluri, Srinivas & Singh, Prakash J., 2022. "A Cross-disciplinary review of product recall research: A stakeholder-stage framework," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Yang, Zhiyong & Freling, Traci & Sun, Sijie & Richardson-Greenfield, Pam, 2022. "When do product crises hurt business? A meta-analytic investigation of negative publicity on consumer responses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 102-120.
    3. Ramah Al Balawi & Yuheng Hu & Liangfei Qiu, 2023. "Brand Crisis and Customer Relationship Management on Social Media: Evidence from a Natural Experiment from the Airline Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(2), pages 442-462, June.
    4. Yijing Wang & Louisa Wanjek, 2018. "How to Fix a Lie? The Formation of Volkswagen’s Post-crisis Reputation Among the German Public," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(2), pages 84-100, June.
    5. Zhihui Sun & Dejun Wu & Min Zhang, 2021. "Better late than never? Corporate social responsibility engagement after product-harm crises," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 1209-1259, December.
    6. Singh, Jaywant & Crisafulli, Benedetta & Quamina, La Toya & Xue, Melanie Tao, 2020. "‘To trust or not to trust’: The impact of social media influencers on the reputation of corporate brands in crisis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 464-480.
    7. Yang Gao & Wenjing Duan & Huaxia Rui, 2022. "Does Social Media Accelerate Product Recalls? Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 954-977, September.
    8. Amélie Guèvremont & Bianca Grohmann, 2018. "Does brand authenticity alleviate the effect of brand scandals?," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 25(4), pages 322-336, July.
    9. Lei Huang, 2023. "A moderation of business misdeeds on corporate remedy strategies," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 21-31, March.
    10. Singh, Jaywant & Crisafulli, Benedetta & Quamina, La Toya, 2020. "‘Corporate image at stake’: The impact of crises and response strategies on consumer perceptions of corporate brand alliances," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 839-849.
    11. Mukherjee, Arka & Chauhan, Satyaveer S., 2021. "The impact of product recall on advertising decisions and firm profit while envisioning crisis or being hazard myopic," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(3), pages 953-970.
    12. Qi Sun & Fang Wu & Shanjun Li & Rajdeep Grewal, 2021. "Consumer Boycotts, Country of Origin, and Product Competition: Evidence from China’s Automobile Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5857-5877, September.
    13. Mukherjee, Arka & Carvalho, Margarida & Zaccour, Georges, 2023. "Managing quality and pricing during a product recall: An analysis of pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis regimes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(1), pages 406-420.
    14. Jafarzadeh Ghazi, Amirhossein & Karray, Salma & Azad, Nader, 2023. "Price and quality competition while envisioning a quality-related product recall," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(2), pages 486-501.
    15. Menno D. T. Jong & Mark Meer, 2017. "How Does It Fit? Exploring the Congruence Between Organizations and Their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 71-83, June.
    16. Hansen, Nele & Kupfer, Ann-Kristin & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2018. "Brand crises in the digital age: The short- and long-term effects of social media firestorms on consumers and brands," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 557-574.
    17. Omer N. Gokalp & Sami Keskek & Abdullah Kumas & Marshall A. Geiger, 2020. "Insider trading around auto recalls: Does investor attention matter?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 1003-1033, October.
    18. Hannah Oh & John Bae & Sang‐Joon Kim & Ryan Choi, 2019. "Product recall as a way of responsible management of a firm: The roles of corporate social responsibility and board members' sense of ownership," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 902-915, July.
    19. Vaid, Shashank & Donthu, Naveen, 2023. "When injured product users may also stay satisfied: A macro-level analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    20. John D’Arcy & Idris Adjerid & Corey M. Angst & Ante Glavas, 2020. "Too Good to Be True: Firm Social Performance and the Risk of Data Breach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 1200-1223, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:8:y:2016:i:7:p:626-:d:73249. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.