Why and When Do Historical Brand Transgressions Matter?

Fabien Pecot (), Renaud Lunardo (), Damien Chaney () and Eugene Y. Chan ()
Additional contact information
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

Journal of Business Ethics, 2025, vol. 201, issue 3, No 5, 637 pages

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Historical transgression; Brand transgression; Historic corporate social responsibility; Stereotype content theory; Time; Warmth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-025-05955-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:201:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-025-05955-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-05955-5

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().