Country Image at Risk: Spillover Effects of Product-Harm Crises and the Role of Trust

Abstract

This article investigates potential negative effects of a product-harm crisis (PHC) involving a product category that benefits from positive country-of-origin (COO) effects. In particular, the authors hypothesize that such a PHC generates deteriorations in consumers’ attitudes toward the product category involved, which in turn spill over to a country’s products in general (broad COO level) and, subsequently, to other product categories (narrow COO level), in that they generate attitude deteriorations on these two levels as well. Two online experiments confirm these negative effects and that attitudinal deterioration is particularly strong among consumers with relatively high initial trust if intentional actions of the concerned companies have caused the crisis.