关键词: 产品伤害危机, 自我一致, 感知社会距离, 感知责任, 购买意向

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer attribution and behavioral intention during product harm crises by examining the interdependencies that exist among their self-congruity as consumers, their attributions of blame, their perceived social distance and finally their purchase intentions towards the affected company. The paper utilizes experimental method and structural equation modeling is used to analyze data. To test the five research hypotheses, questionnaires containing a iPhone product harm crisis scenario of Apple Inc. were distributed to respondents. Respondents were asked to evaluate the scenario of ambiguous product harm crises and answer questions regarding their self-congruity, their attribution of responsibility to the company, their perceived social distance and their purchase intentions. Regression results reveal a significant, negative correlation between attributions of blame, perceived social distance and self-congruity. The results also indicate that the lower the level of perceived social distance is, the lower the level of perceived responsibility is. Moreover, perceived responsibility negatively affects purchase intentions, whereas perceived social distance is found to be negatively connected to purchase intentions. Managerial and theoretical implications based on the results of this paper are discussed.

Key words: Product harm crisis, Self-congruity, Perceived social distance, Perceived responsibility, Purchase intention