Brand transgression in corporate social responsibility era: empirical evidence from hospitality industry

ABSTRACT

Consumers rely on prior information and interactions with the brands to develop their expectations through the firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, but some adverse incidents violate the customer-brand relationship. In such circumstances, it is inevitable for the brands to understand how consumers react and how they can be managed strategically. Therefore, this research aims to determine the impact of brand transgression on brand retaliation and the mediating role of negative emotions between brand transgression and brand retaliation. Using attribution theory, this study determines the extent to which the relationship between brand transgression and negative emotions is moderated by brand love and the association between negative emotion and brand retaliation is moderated by positive word-of-mouth (WOM). The data was collected using a survey questionnaire from 357 consumers and analyzed using process macros analysis techniques. The findings show a positive linkage between brand transgression and brand retaliation among consumers in the hospitality industry. Lastly, this study confirmed that brand love weakens the positive relationship between brand transgression and negative emotions, and positive WOM weakens the positive relationship between negative emotions and brand retaliation.

抽象的

消费者依靠事先的信息和与品牌的互动来通过公司的企业社会责任（CSR）举措来发展他们的期望，但一些不良事件违反了客户与品牌的关系。在这种情况下，品牌不可避免地要了解消费者的反应以及如何进行战略管理。因此，本研究旨在确定品牌越轨对品牌报复的影响以及负面情绪在品牌越轨和品牌报复之间的中介作用。利用归因理论，本研究确定了品牌越轨与负面情绪之间的关系在多大程度上受到品牌热爱的调节，以及负面情绪与品牌报复之间的关联受到积极口碑（WOM）的调节。数据通过 357 名消费者的调查问卷收集，并使用流程宏分析技术进行分析。调查结果显示，酒店业消费者的品牌越轨与品牌报复之间存在正相关关系。最后，本研究证实，品牌热爱削弱了品牌越轨与负面情绪之间的正向关系，而积极的口碑则削弱了负面情绪与品牌报复之间的正向关系。

KEYWORDS:

• Brand transgression
• brand love
• negative emotions
• word of mouth
• brand retaliation

关键词:

• 品牌越界
• 品牌热爱
• 负面情绪
• 口碑相传
• 品牌报复

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).