CRISIS COMMUNICATION: LOWERING ATTRIBUTIONS TO RESTORE BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

Sonia Capelli () and William Sabadie ()
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Sonia Capelli: MAGELLAN - Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon
William Sabadie: MAGELLAN - Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon

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Abstract: We examine four crisis communication strategies (scapegoating, apology, denial, and justification) on consumers' judgments of the firm. Study 1 examines the relationships between post-crisis communication strategies and consumer attributions. Building on the attribution framework, study 2 then compares the effect of crisis communication strategies on consumers' post-crisis firm judgments and behavioral intentions. We find that relative to a non-response strategy, scapegoating and justification enhance positive word of mouth. Results show that relative to denial, apology recovers loyalty. Scapegoating is significantly superior compared to deny in the case of channel loyalty and the tendency is the same, but not significantly, concerning retailer loyalty. We emphasized the impact of the switching costs when focusing on intent of changing of retailer or of channel. Indeed, the responses have no impact when respondents are high committed with the attacked retailer.

Keywords: apology; denial; justification; crisis communication; scapegoating; communication de crise; bouc émissaire; excuses; deni (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-08-05
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Published in 17th AMS World Marketing Congress, Aug 2014, Lima, Peru. pp.cd-rom

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01071615

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