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This study aims to establish the psychometric properties of behavioural integrity scale at an organizational level from external stakeholders’ perspective and its subsequent influence on consumer trust and commitment with a brand. Moreover, the study also examines how different crisis response strategies moderate the relationship between consumer attributions of the responsibility and corporate brand behavioural integrity in the context of emotional product harm crisis caused by alleged violation of Halal certification by an MNC.

A quasi-experimental design was applied to test the impact of firm crisis response strategies on its corporate brand behavioural integrity.

The results provide evidence that behavioural integrity scale can be used to measure consumer perceptions of a corporate brand behavioural integrity. In addition, results indicate that crisis response strategies offer some moderating influence on the relationship between consumer attribution processes and corporate brand behavioural integrity.

Results indicate that existing corporate crisis response strategies are not very helpful in the context of emotional product harm crisis. This study demonstrates that behavioural integrity positively impacts customer relationship-oriented constructs. Furthermore, behavioural integrity scale offers excellent psychometric properties when used at the corporate level.

Organizations can use this proposed conceptual model to monitor and manage behavioural integrity of its corporate brand and its influence on customer-brand relationship constructs.

This study is first of its nature that underscores the importance of measuring and monitoring corporate brand behavioural integrity as a customer trust-building mechanism. It is also the first study that investigates consumer reaction towards alleged brand transgression of its Halal certified product.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

A crisis can trigger perceptions of corporate brand integrity among different stakeholder groups. However, firms that act swiftly by adopting crisis response strategies appropriate to the context can help mitigate the potential harm to trust and commitment.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers’ subconscious/emotional responses to brand tarnishment.

Brand tarnishment and the responses of business firms in protecting their brands against economic harm have been controversial topics for many years. Unfortunately, those who have resorted to the courts to protect their brands have met with mixed success, mainly because the methodologies used to demonstrate economic harm have proved controversial. One caveat in the history of court cases is the absence of any investigation related to emotional responses to brand dilution in general, and to brand tarnishment in particular. This is so, despite several calls to investigate this relationship.

It is concluded that the brand tarnishment of fairly well-known brands is largely ineffectual (neutral emotional responses).

The primary contribution of this study is that, for the first time, some light is shed on consumers’ emotional responses to brand tarnishment. Irrespective of the neurophysiological measure used, the results consistently demonstrate that the subconscious responses to brand tarnishment are generally neutral. The results thus do not suggest any likelihood of severe economic harm due to negative emotional responses to brand tarnishment.

The results of this study have important managerial implications for brand managers, and particularly for those responsible for relatively well-established brands. It is clear that at the unconscious level, brand tarnishment is not as harmful as many seem to believe. There is evidence that brands will not be harmed if the “tarnishment” consists of social commentary.

It could also suggest that consumers can differentiate between different forms of tarnishment, and that tarnishment involving social commentary is not frowned upon. This may be because the consumer agrees with the social commentary, or finds it amusing. In short, it seems that consumers may see the tarnishment as mildly amusing, but realize that it is not of a serious nature.

The results seem to suggest that legal action against those who tarnish brands is unnecessary and probably ineffective. Instead, this study proposes more innovative ways to respond to brand tarnishment.

This paper aims to explore whether products branded with handwritten scripts suffer more from the effects of product-harm crises than other brands. Most studies on handwritten scripts focus on their positive effects, such as humanizing a product or creating an emotional tie with consumers. However, seldom have researchers investigated the negative effects of handwritten scripts. This paper goes some way to filling this gap.

Five experimental studies were conducted to test three hypotheses. These experiments provide evidence of the negative effects of handwritten scripts. In addition, they reveal the mechanisms that lead to these outcomes and outline the boundary conditions of the negative effects.

Framed by attribution theory, three conclusions can be drawn from the experiments: when a product-harm crisis occurs, consumers react with greater negativity toward the brand using handwritten scripts than to those using machine typefaces. The negative effect is explained by a serial mediation process that follows the pattern: typeface → perceived humanization → brand responsibility → brand attitude. The negative effect decreases when the crisis is perceived to be an accident.

This paper enriches the theory of marketing in terms of both handwritten scripts and product-harm crises, providing valuable guidance for enterprises that use handwritten scripts in their marketing activities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of gender on the neural substrates of theories on consumer behavior (i.e. the original compared with the revised versions of consumer learning [CL] theory) and to examine whether gender influences brain activation associated with word-of-mouth (WOM) communications (i.e. information specificity, source expertise and tie strength) after a product harm crisis. This article also discusses the WOM effects of product quality perception, negative emotion and purchase intentions by precise localizing brain activity.

This study applied functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity (i.e. the blood oxygen level-dependent signal) during WOM communication after a product harm crisis.

The male participants treat the product quality as a constant and tend to support the original CL theory. The female participants, however, showed differentiable brain activation across three factors, suggesting a dynamic representation for product quality (i.e. not a constant), and they appear to be more sensitive to the revised CL theory.

This paper concluded that the original CL theory applies to males and the revised version applies to females. Therefore, gender determines whether the original or the revised version of the CL theory works in consumers’ decision-making, and the extant of research has not focused on the information after a product harm crisis in terms of whether the information being communicated is specific or tensile through WOM communication.

Customers often trace a product-harm crisis to the deviant firm's capability- or character-relevant issues. This study examines how capability- and character-based stigma associated with product-harm crises influence foreign customers' product preferences (i.e. brand affect and purchase intention) for other firms from the same country of origin.

Qualitative survey data are used to test hypotheses with a structural equation model.

The authors find that negative capability judgment significantly affects foreign customers' product preferences for other firms from the same country of origin, whereas negative character judgment does not. However, customers' national animosity and product knowledge moderate the stigma spillover effects. Specifically, national animosity and product knowledge weaken the spillover effects of capability-based stigma but strengthen those of character-based stigma.

Future research could examine strategies for uninvolved firms to avoid the stigma-by-association effect. Moreover, due to the lack of resources to collect data, this study does not investigate how customers' generalized favorability and familiarity with crisis-stricken firms and uninvolved firms moderate the stigma-by-association effect.

The findings of this study advance our knowledge on product-harm crises and the stigma-by-association effect.

This study aims to examine how culture influences consumer attitudes toward the brands of products they own during a product-harm crisis. To this end, average consumers from two countries - the USA, representing a highly individualistic society and China, a less individualistic (i.e. collectivist) society – are compared.

The study conducts an invariance test of the measurement model for a more rigorous comparison of the two countries. Structural equation modeling is performed to identify how average consumers respond to a product-harm crisis (e.g. iPhone explosion) based on survey results of 188 American and 197 Chinese consumers.

These results reveal that in both countries, an individual’s susceptibility to a normative interpersonal influence determines their brand consciousness, which, in turn, enhances consumer attachment to well-known brands, resulting in favorable brand attitudes. During a brand crisis, an owned brand’s buffering effect is observed among consumers high in brand consciousness in collectivistic but not in individualistic societies. The moderating role of feelings of betrayal on the brand attachment-consumer attitude relationship is also reported.

Culture shapes consumer behavioral patterns. In today’s global market, a company’s decisions are no longer limited by borders and many companies experience product failures. Thus, findings that show consumers’ distinguishable psychological experiences between different cultures contribute to crisis management literature.

Although preferential treatment has been considered a positive relationship marketing tactic, this research aims to examine how perceived harm to others as a result of preferential treatment invokes consumers’ negative moral emotions and negative attitudes towards the service provider.

Four studies are presented in this research. A pilot study first provides empirical evidence that customers who receive preferential treatment are aware of potential harm caused to other customers. Three experimental studies then test the hypothesis that shame and embarrassment mediate the effect of perceived harm to others on consumers’ responses to earned and unearned preferential treatment, respectively.

The present studies demonstrate that consumers naturally scan the environment and seek out information about others when judging their own experience; consequently, when preferential treatment is perceived to cause harm to others, it can trigger negative moral emotions. In particular, the authors show that shame mediates the effect of perceived harm to others when preferential treatment is earned, whereas embarrassment mediates this effect when preferential treatment is unearned.

The results of this research contribute to the literature on earned and unearned preferential treatment and negative moral emotions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to show that negative moral emotions may arise because of perceptions of harm to other customers, particularly in the context of earned preferential treatment. The authors demonstrate that ordinary shopping contexts have the potential to elicit these negative emotions, raising concerns about ethical and moral practices in service environments.

When designing relationship marketing programs incorporating preferential treatment, firms need to consider both the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. Guidelines considering ethics of care should be developed for employees to ensure appropriate training to deliver preferential treatment effectively and avoiding situations causing potential harm to others. Strategies could include encouraging employees to better scan the servicescape to identify if other customers’ needs should be attended first, and providing clearer justifications when administering preferential treatment. The provision of choices such as delayed redemption and passing on benefits to others can help minimise harm and potentially enhance customer service experience.

The studies presented here are the first to examine the role of perceived harm to others as an antecedent of consumers’ negative responses to preferential treatment. In particular, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to show that negative moral emotions may arise in the context of earned preferential treatment, calling into question some basic principles of relationship marketing.

The current research aims to introduce the concept of frontline employee (FLE) vulnerability and examine its antecedents and consequences using a framework grounded in Job Demands-Resource theory (JD-R).

A systematic review and meta-analysis guided by PRISMA is utilized to review previous FLE literature (204 studies) and develop a conceptualization of FLE vulnerability. The meta-analysis then examines the antecedents and consequences of FLE vulnerability and provides generalizable findings including the identification of critical areas for future research.

The meta-analysis provided support for the proposed conceptualization of FLE vulnerability. Specifically, job demands and individual characteristics were observed to increase FLE vulnerability, conceptualized as an individual's susceptibility to experience state-based harm. Job resources were seen to minimize FLE susceptibility to vulnerability. FLE vulnerability was also observed to significantly strengthen negative outcomes and decrease positive outcomes.

This research addresses calls for greater investigation into how negative events may impact FLE vulnerability. This is achieved by defining FLE vulnerability as a concept which represents one's susceptibility to experience state-based harm as a result of job and/or individual characteristics. The research also provides greater understanding of the health impairment process within JD-R through the introduction and expanded definition of harm that moves beyond physical considerations to also include emotional and psychological harms. Finally, the research adds to the small body of meta-analytic research in the field of service management.

Earlier, the consumption of products was based mainly on their utilitarian benefits, but at present, the love for nature has driven consumers towards products not harming the environment and society. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the influence of consumers' attitudes towards organic personal care products on brand love, brand trust, altruism and sustainable consumption behaviour. Furthermore, the study further examines the impact of sustainable consumption behaviour on continuous purchase intention using health consciousness as a moderator. Finally, the study validates Behavioural Reasoning Theory and the emotional affinity towards nature to understand the proposed claims.

The data were collected from 364 respondents from India. Only those respondents were included in the survey who had prior experience of using organic personal care products. This study used the structural equation modelling approach to test the conceptual model.

Results of the study confirmed the positive influence of consumer attitude on brand love, brand trust and altruism. Brand love and altruism had a significant impact on sustainable consumption behaviour. Health consciousness also emerged as a moderating variable between sustainable consumption behaviour and continuous intention. Interestingly, the brand trust had no impact on sustainable consumption behaviour. Furthermore, sustainable consumption behaviour had a significant impact on continuous intention.

The study is helpful to organic product companies, practitioners, academicians, environment protection agencies and market regulatory authorities as it gives fresh insight into the new collective relationship of consumer attitude with brand love, brand trust, altruism and sustainable consumption behaviour in case of organic personal care products.