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Many managers and scholars focus on how to repair brand image after a corporate crisis. This research paper aims to propose that a fresh start mindset (FSM) and brand crisis type can jointly influence consumer forgiveness.

Three studies were conducted to examine the authors’ hypotheses. Study 1 is a 3 (FSM: high vs low vs control) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to test the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 2 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) between-subjects factorial design to identify the affective and cognitive mechanisms in the influence of FSM and brand crisis type on consumer forgiveness. Study 3 is a 2 (FSM: high vs low) × 2 (brand crisis: controllable vs uncontrollable) × 3 (strategy: defensive strategy vs accommodative strategy vs reticence) between-subjects factorial design, aimed to identify the possible boundary conditions of this effect and tested the moderating role of brand crisis response strategies.

Study 1 finds that the FSM interacts with brand crisis type to affect consumer forgiveness. Specifically, consumers faced with uncontrollable (vs controllable) brand crises tend to increase (vs decrease) consumer forgiveness after a corporate crisis. Study 2 identifies the underlying mechanism, such that two distinct mechanisms drive the interaction effect. Affective empathy and perceived responsibility mediate the interaction effect of FSM and brand crisis type on forgiveness. Study 3 replicates the findings of studies 1 and 2 and confirms the boundary condition of the effect, showing that crisis response strategy moderates the interaction between FSM and brand crisis type.

Theoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research observes the interactive effect of FSM and brand crisis for the first time, thus extending the existing research on both FSM and brand crisis. This study also enriches existing empathy and responsibility literature by examining the mediating role of empathy and perceived responsibility. Practical implications for marketers are apparent, especially after a brand crisis occurs. Corporates can deal with different types of the brand crisis based on consumers’ FSM. Finally, future research with regards to the findings is discussed.

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.

During a brand crisis, consumers construct attributions to understand the cause of the crisis and to assign blame, with attributions of blame to firms consequently lowering brand attitudes. The purpose of this paper is to explore attributions of blame in performance- versus values-related brand crisis. Do consumers assign different levels of blame to values- versus performance-related brand crises?

The authors conducted three experimental studies, plus one pilot study, with American, British and Australian participants in which they manipulated the type of brand crisis as values- or performance-related to determine the extent to which consumers attribute blame to the firm and the effects of those attributions on consumers’ brand attitudes.

Findings indicated that consumers assign more blame to firms for a values-related brand crisis than for a performance-related brand crisis.

The findings of this study explain how consumers are harsher towards firms that violate some moral or social standards than those that exhibit product defects.

For branding and public relations officials, finding greater internal attribution for values-related brand crises offers implications for how and what information about such crises ought to be conveyed to manage consumer response and brand reputation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the findings are the first to explore attributions in blame toward values- and performance-related brand crises.

When apologizing for a brand crisis, self-attribution by a business inevitably affects consumer attitude and behavior. The purpose of this study is to draw from the dissonance-attribution model and investigate the effect of self-attribution in apologies on consumers’ brand attitude.

This study includes two scenario-based experiments of 2 × 2 design.

In the first experiment on product failure, the results show that internal attribution generates significant change in brand attitude in a positive direction, while external attribution leads to negative change in brand attitude. Dispositional attribution leads to significantly more positive brand attitude than situational attribution. Internal/dispositional attribution produces significantly more positive effect on consumer attitude than the other three types of attribution. Moreover, perceived risk is found to mediate the relationship between attributions and brand attitude, and such mediating effect is moderated by consumers’ corporate associations. However, in the second experiment on moral crisis, the mediating and moderating effects are not significant.

Clearly, how a company apologizes for a product crisis makes a big difference in the effectiveness of recovery strategies to restore consumer confidence. Sincere apologies based on internal/dispositional attribution are more effective to re-gain the respect of consumers and win them back.

This study is the first to examine consumer reactions to self-attributions by marketers apologizing for a brand crisis and the combined effect of self-attributions along the horizontal dimension (internal versus external attribution) and the vertical dimension (dispositional versus situational attribution).

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether negative meanings consumers attribute to a corporation transfer to the endorser and to examine the moderating effects of corporate-specific and product-specific negative meanings on an endorser’s credibility.

Following a protocol designed by Till and Shimp (1998), two experiments were conducted to examine if meaning transfer exists (experiment 1) and if meaning type moderates reverse meaning transfer (experiment 2). A doubly repeated multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to investigate changes in the endorser’s credibility and attitudes toward the brand.

The results revealed that the negative meanings consumers associated with these corporate crises influence consumer perceptions of the endorser as well as attitude toward the brand.

This finding supports the position that meaning type moderates reverse meaning transfer and may explain variances in the literature on the significance of reverse meaning transfer. Based on these findings, brand crises have a negative effect on the endorser’s credibility.

The results lead the authors to suggest that endorsers as well as marketers should closely scrutinize brand partnerships, as the relationship may positively and negatively influence consumer perceptions of the athlete endorser.

Based on the findings from this study, brand managers need to appreciate differences in brand crisis type by tailoring brand image remediation strategies to fit the type(s) of meaning(s) associated with a specific controversy.

The results from the current study add, significantly, to the literature by being the first to evidence that different meanings associated with different types of brand crises produce different attitudes toward the brand.

As one of the largest industries in the global economy, the fashion industry has emphasized the symbolic and aspirational features of its products while maximizing the efficiency of its manufacturing processes. However, the labor-intensive and competitive nature of the industry has meant that brand moral transgressions often occur. This study aims to understand the role of moral emotions and concerns (i.e. perceived spillover) caused by different moral transgressions and explain consumer anti-brand behaviors (i.e. negative word of mouth [WOM] and patronage cessation).

Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine group differences (ethical vs social transgressions) in Study 1 (n = 584). Also, the moderation effect of moral disengagement was examined in Study 2 (n = 324).

The results indicate that, for ethical transgressions, both moral emotions and perceived spillovers explain negative behaviors while moral emotions alone explain negative WOM on social media for social transgressions. Additionally, for social transgressions, the results of Study 2 indicate a negative interaction effect of moral emotions and moral disengagement on anti-brand behavior of patronage cessation.

Based on the literature’s theoretical approach to moral crises, this paper examines the emotional and cognitive reactions of consumers to the fashion industry’s moral transgressions.

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.

Previous research on brand crisis has introduced the difference between a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis. However, little remains known regarding consumers’ varying negative responses towards these two different types of brand misconduct. This paper aims to investigate and compare consumers’ affective and behavioural negative reactions (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention) towards a faulty brand during a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis by testing the mediation of negative emotions and introducing the moderating role of cultural belongingness (collectivistic vs individualistic).

The authors tested a model of moderated mediation in a cross-cultural investigation on a sample of 229 Italian and Asian consumers. The study is a 2 (cultures: collectivistic vs individualistic) × 2 (crisis: performance-related vs values-related) between-subjects experimental design. The moderated mediation model shows that consumers’ negative reactions (negative word of mouth and negative purchase intention) towards a faulty brand involved in different crisis typologies is explained by the mediating role of negative emotions, and that this mediation depends on a consumer’s cultural belongingness.

The results suggest that consumers belonging to a collectivistic culture (e.g. Asian culture) tend to react in a more severe and strict manner when faced with a values-related brand crisis event then when faced with a performance-related crisis. The arousal of negative emotion towards a brand represents the mediating variable in behavioural responses (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention).

The present study extends current knowledge in the field of consumers’ negative response to brand irresponsibility behaviours while introducing the role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness. In particular, individualistic people are more sensitive to a values-related crisis in comparison with a performance-related one. The findings of this study have strong managerial implications for defining effective response strategies to negative events involving brands in different markets.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how companies make use of social media communication to turn crises into opportunities and how consumers respond to this brand management strategy, and evaluate the effects of this kind of advertising campaign.

This study uses the textual analysis method to examine the verbal fight between two brand competitors on Sina Weibo. An interpretative analysis approach is adopted to analyze a series of micro-blog messages and relevant responses and comments. A statistical analysis is conducted to reveal the public opinion on this case.

The brand crisis due to trademark dispute has been successfully turned into an advertising campaign, which received eager and favorable responses from the consumers. In the name of making apologies, the company in crisis availed itself of the Weibo platform to make a veiled protest against the verdict of the Court. The technique “acting cute” was proved to be effective in diminishing the negative effect of a brand crisis and winning public sympathy and support.

The research findings may provide insights into the interplay between brand advertising and corporate crisis communication on the platform of social media.

This study can inform practitioners of useful techniques to deal with brand crises via social media.

The value of this study lies not only in its contribution to the body of knowledge on online crisis management with a case of Chinese companies, but also in its validation of the interplay between crisis communication and advertising.

The brand crisis literature remains unilateral and scattered, necessitating academic effort to comprehend the extant body of knowledge. This study aims to provide the required comprehensive overview of the domain, by outlining its significance, progression and future research directions.

Following the PRISMA approach, journal articles for review are selected. The study uses a hybrid (structured and bibliometric) review, to provide a systematic insight and graphical visualization of the existing literature. It applies VOSviewer software to analyse bibliographic data through citation and co-occurrence analysis.

The hybrid review outlines most-cited articles, authors, frequently used theories, methodologies and data analysis techniques in this domain. Findings are further presented as integrative framework that distinctly highlights prior studies from a dichotomous perspective and across three stages of crisis. Finally, research opportunities and directions for future research are presented.

The study is useful for scholars and practitioners to understand the brand crisis literature and to cognize the inferences drawn by distinct researchers. It provides contemporary research agendas using the theory, context and method (TCM) framework, to augment future investigations through interdisciplinary approach.

To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that synthesizes the academic work of brand crisis using a hybrid method. Also, the novelty of the work lies in presenting the future research direction in the form of multiple (macro, meso and micro) levels with inter-disciplinary theoretical underpinnings.