How to Make an Industry Sustainable during an Industry Product Harm Crisis: The Role of a Consumer’s Sense of Control

Abstract

Product harm crisis involving multiple products increasingly leads to an industry crisis. Yet previous researches have usually focused on the effectiveness of repair strategies under a single-company product harm crisis. Moreover, less is known about the effectiveness of repair strategies under an industry product harm crisis. This paper explores how firms should respond to an industry product harm crisis to make the industry sustainable. We used experimental methodology to examine the above effects. Across three experiments, this research finds that a consumer’s sense of control is a key variable that is found to mediate the effectiveness of a firm’s repair strategy. Results show that in general functional and informational repair strategies are more effective in restoring a consumer’s sense of control when compared with an affective repair strategy. The more control consumers feel they have, the higher their brand attitudes, and the more positive they rate a firm’s response appropriateness for an industry product harm crisis. However, for consumers who score high on an emotion-focused coping style, an affective repair strategy is more effective. The findings generate practical suggestions for firms in an industry product harm crisis to restore consumers’ sense of control to keep industry sustainability.