Retailers’ Interventions, Social Media Amplification, Consumer and Food Brand Scandal

Abstract

Well-known food brands get involved in brand scandals, leading to relationship tussles with their consumers. Retailers and social media may provide authentic viewpoints to the consumers in the context of brand scandal. The present research attempts to close this gap by empirically exploring the antecedents and consequences of consumer attitudes to food brand scandals and examining the moderating effects of retailers’ interventions and social media amplification in this context. A quantitative approach has been adopted in this study using structural equation modeling. The study reveals that consumers’ pre-scandal self-brand identification, brand trust, and brand loyalty favorably affect their attitudes to brand scandals. The findings highlight moderating effect of retailers’ interventions and social media amplification in shaping consumers’ attitudes and suggest that retailers significantly affect consumers’ pre-scandal brand trust and loyalty, while social media influence consumers’ perceived scandal severity and brand loyalty, both shaping consumer attitudes to brand scandal.