Negative Spillover Effects of Product-Harm Crisis on Category: Moderating Role of Crisis-Involvement

Abstract

Product-harm crisis can seriously hurt a firms performance, has a negative impact on entire category. However, do negative spillover effects on category differ when the characteristics of product-harm crisis are varied? To verify this question, we conducted a scenario-based experiment and found: The more severe product-harm crisis, the more negative spillover effects on category. High crisis information involvement would cause consumers more changes of category attitude. Meanwhile the impact of crisis severity on category spillover effects will be moderated by the crises-involvement. Based on these findings, we talk about their marketing practice values.