Regaining Consumers' Trust

Résumé du livre

Background: Crisis in organizations are misfortunate events waiting to happen Fink S. (1986). As many scholars stated, it is almost certain for a brand to undergo a crisis during its lifetime (Fink, 1986; Dawar & Pillutla, 2000; Zhao, Zhao, & Helsen, 2011). Although this seems to be unavoidable, companies are not always prepared in handling crisis events (Pearson and Clair, 1998). Nevertheless, crisis and scandals oftentimes dominate media and public spaces, shaping consumers intention to purchase, changing their trust and impacting brand attitude. And, sometimes, crises are a threat for the life of the company itself. Many scholars dealt with this topic, providing the crisis management with a rich list of best practices (Cleeren, Van Herde, & Dekimpe, 2013; Coombs, 2007; Dutta & Pullig, 2011). Still, the predominant managerial insights on the market are those related to product-harm crises. Until now, for my best knowledge, few studies have been done concerning services crises, although many scholars pointed out this step as a future research possibility (e.g. Yannopoulou, Koronis, & Elliott, 2011). This thesis introduces the concept of service crises, evaluating organizations responses and their impact on consumer-based brand attitude, blame assignment and risk perception. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to extend prior work on product-harm crises to the service industry to assess how different types of firms responses are perceived by consumers (according to brand attitude, blame assignment and risk perception). Method: Data is collected by means of a quantitative online survey. Participants of the survey are 351 people from different nationalities and age-groups Besides descriptive examination, the main tool for the analysis is SPSS software with which independent sample T-tests and linear regressions are performed. Results: The results show that service crises do not work as the product-harm crises. The best response that service providers can give to their stakeholders, in case of a crisis situation, is to deny. Consumers prior beliefs do matter: they constitute a shield against negative events. Based on these findings, implications for practice are put forward. Keywords: Brand crisis, services, firm s responses, blame assignment.