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How a publicized leader transgression can affect member outcomes and gift purchasing of associated symbolic products

Elten Briggs (Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA)
Abigail Torres Rico (Department of Marketing, College of Business Administration, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, USA)
Tracy R. Kizer (Department of Marketing, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, USA)
Zhiyong Yang (Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism, Bryan School of Business and Economics, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA)

European Journal of Marketing

ISSN: 0309-0566

Article publication date: 25 June 2024

Issue publication date: 25 September 2024

75

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the ramifications of an unfavorable public incident resulting from an organizational leader’s transgression on member outcomes and their intentions to purchase associated symbolic products as gifts. This study also considers how members’ attributions of organizational control affect the relationship between members’ organizational identification and their purchase behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies a longitudinal design involving two rounds of data collection over two years to examine a case of leadership transgression. Using the customer panel of a privately owned retailer, sorority members were surveyed before and after an unfavorable public incident involving their president. This study applied t-tests of mean differences and regression analyses to test the hypotheses.

Findings

After the leader’s transgressions were publicized, sorority members exhibited lower levels of cognitive organizational identification, satisfaction with the organization and purchase intention of organizational gifts. The association between cognitive organizational identification and gift purchase intentions was stronger after the incident. Further, controllability attributions positively moderated the association between cognitive organizational identification and the intended purchase quantity of organizational products after the incident.

Research limitations/implications

The sample limits the generalizability of the findings, as the study is conducted on one case of a leader’s transgression in an identity-based organization (IBO).

Practical implications

The findings imply that efforts to repair customer identification should be taken rather than satisfaction enhancement when a leader of an IBO commits a public transgression.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply identity threat theory to understand how an organizational leader’s public transgression affects member outcomes and purchasing. The findings imply that it is critical to repair members’ identification when these situations arise. The use of a real case and a longitudinal research design are rare contributions to this research stream.

Keywords

Citation

Briggs, E., Torres Rico, A., Kizer, T.R. and Yang, Z. (2024), "How a publicized leader transgression can affect member outcomes and gift purchasing of associated symbolic products", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 6, pp. 1630-1652. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-06-2022-0417

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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