IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v201y2025i3d10.1007_s10551-025-05955-5.html

Why and When Do Historical Brand Transgressions Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Fabien Pecot

    (TBS Business School)

  • Renaud Lunardo

    (Kedge Business School)

  • Damien Chaney

    (EM Normandie)

  • Eugene Y. Chan

    (Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University)

Abstract

While many brands face the after-effects of historical transgressions, prior research provides little insight into these issues. Against this backdrop, this research presents five experiments providing convergent evidence for a lingering negative effect of historical brand transgressions (HBTs) on present brand evaluation, an effect that is due to a detrimental effect of HBTs on perceptions of brand warmth. Studies 1 and 2 establish the main effect and mediation. Studies 3–5 examine mitigating effects. Study 3 checks if high institutional pressure can serve as an excuse strategy that buffers the negative effects of a transgression. Studies 4 and 5 test the mitigating effect of different response styles (recognition, apology, and/or compensation). Together, these results contribute to the business ethics and marketing literature by defining the concept of HBT and showing why it harms a current brand’s evaluation and how brands can mitigate its negative effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabien Pecot & Renaud Lunardo & Damien Chaney & Eugene Y. Chan, 2025. "Why and When Do Historical Brand Transgressions Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 201(3), pages 621-637, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:201:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05955-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-05955-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-025-05955-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-025-05955-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:jbuset:v:201:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05955-5. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.