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This research aimed to find whether information about a product can give rise to negative perceptions even in inert situations (nocebo effects), and to understand how price levels impact such judgments.

In all experiments, participants were exposed to negative product information in the form of potential side-effects. In an initial study, a higher non-discounted versus a discounted price frame was presented for a health drink after customers were exposed to negative aspects. Then, in experiment 1, price (high vs low) and exposure to information (no information vs negative information) was manipulated for skin creams where participants physically evaluated the cream. In experiment 2, price was manipulated at three levels (low, high, discounted) orthogonally with product information (no negative information vs with negative information) to get a more nuanced understanding.

In the initial study, after exposure to negative information, the non-discounted group had more positive ratings for the drink. Study 1 showed that reading about negative information resulted in a nocebo effect on perception of dryness (side-effect). Moreover, when no information was presented, perception of dryness by low and high price groups were similar but in the face of negative information, perception of dryness by low-price group was more pronounced compared to a high-price group. Study 2 conceptually replicated the effect and also confirmed that not only discounts (commonly linked with product quality), but absolute price levels also show a similar effect.

Nocebo effects have been rarely documented in consumer research. This research showed how simply reading generically about potential side effects gives rise to nocebo effects. In addition, even though marketers might find it tempting to lower prices when there is negative information about certain product categories, such an action could backfire.

To the best of our knowledge, the link between observable nocebo effects and its link with pricing actions is a novel research thread. We were able to show a nocebo effect on product perception after reading about negative information and also find that a higher price can mitigate the nocebo effect to some extent.

This study aims to investigate the responses of young Chinese consumers with different cultural characteristics to negative brand information about electric vehicles.

The current study is quantitative research with an experimental method. It shows two different levels of severity for negative publicity and asks participants to self-report through questionnaires.

Chinese young consumers, being collectivist and of high uncertainty avoidance, tend to search for and spread information; consumers with low power distance search and share information more under low information severity. In addition, information search positively affects brand attitude under lower severity; negative word-of-mouth intention negatively affects brand attitudes at both severity levels.

The current study examines the influence of personal cultural values on information searching and negative information dissemination among young consumers, providing insights to complement previous studies. Furthermore, it explores how such exposure influences young consumers’ brand attitude and intention to purchase. Limitations include simple sample scopes and single-product stimuli.

This research highlights the importance of cultural dimensions in shaping young consumers’ responses to negative publicity. Marketers worldwide should consider cultural influence and develop specific strategies to address negative information about different products. Understanding customers’ unique characteristics and preferences can help marketers effectively tailor their approaches to counter negative publicity.

This study originally provides a supplement to prior studies on cultural dimensions and consumer behavior and provides suggestions to marketers on young Chinese consumers.

To determine the role of status information conveyance in a negative reward allocation setting.

Using previously published experimental data, we test the relative effects of status information conveyed by expressive and indicative status cues on the allocation of a negative reward. Further, we construct an alternative graph theoretic model of expectation advantage which is also tested to determine its model fit relative to the classic model of Reward Expectations Theory.

Results provide strong support for the conclusion that status information conveyed by expressive status cues influences reward allocations more than information conveyed by indicative cues. We also find evidence that our alternative graph theoretic model of expectation advantage improves model fit.

This research is the first to test the relative impact of expressive versus indicative status cues on the allocation of negative rewards and shows that status characteristics can have differential impacts on these allocations contingent on how characteristics are conveyed. Furthermore, the research suggests a graph theoretic model that allows for this differentiation based on information conveyance and provides empirical support for its structure in a negative reward allocation environment.

Future research is required to validate the results in positive reward situations.

The results show that an individual’s expectations are altered by varying the manner in which status information is presented, thereby influencing the construction and maintenance of status hierarchies and the inequalities those structures generate. Thus, this research has implications for any group or evaluative task where status processes are relevant.

A firestorm is a vast wave of negative information about a brand that disseminates quickly online. Their relative unpredictability represents a particularly challenging problem for brand marketers. This paper aims to show how firestorms are enabled and can be disabled by online community members (OCMs), exploring the dissemination of negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), the challenges in countering negative brand information and how brands can effectively communicate with OCMs to facilitate offsetting negative e-WOM.

This paper uses a sequential mixed-method research methodology. Study 1 uses an experimental design and tests serial mediation using PROCESS Model 6. Study 2 extends the findings while introducing a moderator using the PROCESS Model 83. Finally, qualitative findings are used to develop a practitioner-friendly typology of OCMs.

The perceived authenticity of a message can influence the believability of negative WOM in the presence of a negative availability cascade. Positive cascades are likely to prevent online communities from enabling negative e-WOM when the instigating message is perceived to be inauthentic. Qualitative findings from a post hoc analysis identify a typology of eight OCM types that enable and are also capable of disabling firestorms.

OCMs can both actively fuel and cool a firestorm. Brands should always monitor online communities and closely monitor discussions that are most likely to generate firestorms. More proactively, they should also develop communication strategies for each OCM type to help disable firestorms in the making.

Both negative and positive cascades are explored quantitatively and qualitatively to understand the mechanisms that can drive firestorms and provide both warnings and guidance for brands. An OCM typology guides brands’ mitigation strategies.

To date, research on sponsorship considers the effects of only positive or only negative sponsorship information on consumers’ attitudes toward the sponsor brand. However, in practice, sometimes mixed information (positive and negative) is available that influences consumers’ sponsor evaluations. To mirror the information situation of the real world, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the valence of sponsorship information (only positive vs mixed vs only negative) and the strength of sponsorship information (weak vs strong) influence the consumers’ attitudes toward the sponsor brand.

This research uses an experimental research design (n=210). Data were collected among students of a German university.

The results reveal that when the strength of information was weak, attitudes in the mixed information condition were not significantly worse than in the only positive condition and significantly better than in the only negative condition. In addition, when the strength of information was strong, attitudes in the mixed information condition were significantly worse than in the only positive condition and significantly better than in the only negative condition.

This study offers several practical recommendations regarding the sponsors’ evaluation of their investments and the decision to maintain or exit the sponsorship of a controversial object.

This study expands the research on the effects of available sponsorship information on consumers’ sponsor evaluation. The present research highlights the effects of different types of sponsorship information on consumers’ attitudes and considers the strength of information as a boundary condition of these effects.

The goal of this study is to investigate the relationships among brand attachment, online source credibility, and severity of negative online information on perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk.

A 2×2×2 experiment was conducted to explore the effects of brand attachment (low or high), online source credibility (low or high), and online information severity (low or high) on perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk.

The results showed that the severity of negative online information affects perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk significantly. However brand attachment can reduce the effects of negative online information on perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk significantly. The results also showed that the effect of the severity of negative online information on perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk is moderated by online source credibility.

In addition to the main effects in the proposed research model, it is the first study to explore the moderating effects of brand attachment and online source credibility on the relationship between negative online information and perceived negative change in brand evaluation and perceived brand risk.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature regarding negative information’s impact on consumer behavior in the context of tourism services. In addition, this paper empirically examines the likely difference between first-time and repeat tourists in terms of their: resistance to negative information.

Using a sample of 539 visitors to Mount Yuelu, a popular tourist destination in China, this study explores the differences between first-time and repeat tourists regarding how destination social responsibility (DSR) and service quality (SQ) influence tourist resistance to negative information.

The effect of SQ on resistance to negative information is stronger for repeat tourists than for first-time tourists. In addition, the study identifies that DSR and SQ have a positive impact on tourists’ resistance to negative information. Finally, findings indicate that destination identification partially mediates the relationship between DSR, SQ and tourists’ response to negative information, respectively.

The findings provide valuable theoretical and empirical insights into the driving factors that influence consumer resistance to negative information.

The paper brings together DSR, SQ and tourist-destination identification to better understand the impact that visitation frequency (first-time versus repeat tourists) has on how tourists resist negative information about a tourist destination.

Negative information that is generated about a destination may cause the number of future tourism visits to decline. Findings of this paper provide insight as to the framework that can make tourists more resistant to said negative information.

This study contributes to the services marketing and tourism literature by investigating the degree to which DSR and SQ affect tourist resistance to negative information as mediated by tourist-destination identification and moderated by visiting frequency.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between hard, negative corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure and corporate social performance.

This study uses a generalised least squares panel data analysis based on a sample of firms ranked in the Fortune Global 500 for the period 2013–2016. Robustness check tests were conducted to limit endogeneity concerns.

The results show that in line with strategic legitimacy theory, agency theory and organisational stigma theory, poor sustainability performers disclose a low quality of hard, negative CSR information.

This paper provides guidance for stakeholders to identify good and poor CSR performers by better understanding whether corporate CSR reports are more likely to be symbolic or substantive when considering the amount of hard, negative content in their CSR stand-alone reports.

The research highlights the opportunistic behaviour of CSR reporting, which is used more as a legitimation device than as an accountability mechanism. Thi

Although numerous studies have investigated the association between the level of corporate social disclosure (CSD) and corporate social performance, no research has focussed on hard, negative CSD. Also, an index that captures the disclosure quality rather than the quantity of negative CSR information was constructed.

The effect of affect in accounting contexts has recently attracted interest, but numerous questions still remain. Given that affect can significantly impact a variety of accounting judgments and decisions in theoretically different manners, the purpose of this synthesis is to understand the state of extant accounting literature in affect and identify directions for future research.

This synthesis systematically reviews experimental accounting papers related to affect in both theoretical and functional respects. The authors first elaborate on the affect infusion theory as the theoretical foundation for the synthesis. The authors then present the sampling method. In Section 4, the authors conceptually and factually summarize affect accounting papers in terms of four major functional areas: auditing, managerial/corporate accounting, tax and financial accounting. The implications of moderators examined in some papers are also discussed. Finally, the authors conclude by revisiting the importance of affect in accounting contexts.

Throughout the synthesis, the authors provide future research opportunities with respect to theories, each functional area and other gaps in the accounting literature.

This synthesis contributes to the accounting literature by providing a pathway to understand the development of accounting research on affect, integrating theoretical foundations and offering future research opportunities to advance the literature.

This paper aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to brand crisis and examine an empirical model to explain consumer’s internal process in the context of negative information about a brand, analyzing the relationships between the brand association types, brand-customer relationship strength and consumers’ responses depending on the types of brand crises.

This study uses an integrative approach based on qualitative and quantitative methods: a focus-group interview and an experiment.

The results indicated that consumers’ responses were more favorable in the corporate ability (CA) crisis than in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis. In addition, consumers with high brand-customer relationship strength and brand associations for CA (CSR) showed more favorable responses to a brand crisis related to CA (CSR) than to that related to CSR (CA).

Managerially, firms should improve their marketing activity to reinforce particular brand association type that strongly related customers mainly have. In addition, firms should carefully find the best timing and channel that strongly related customers usually access, to present corporate corresponding statements in brand crisis and information of their corporate crisis-coping process.

Theoretically, this study will contribute to the literature on brand crises by providing critical insights into the mechanism underlying consumers’ responses to brand crises.