Abstract:

A firm’s product-harm crisis carries some influence on its’ competitors, which can lead to competitors response strategies. Prior research has found that a competitor’s response strategies have some effect on itself, as well as the firm in crisis. This paper differs from prior research. It focuses on the effect of a competitor’s response strategies on non-response competitor. The results suggest that industrial spillover level of the crisis and brand equity of the non-response competitor can moderate the spillover effect of competitor’s response strategies to non-response competitor. They can also moderate the mediating effect of crisis probability of the non-response competitor between competitor’s response strategies and consumer’s attitude toward the non-response competitor.

Key words: product-harm crisis, response strategy, competitor, spillover effect