Consumer attributions toward brand-harm crisis : the role of corporate brand dominance

This paper aims to investigate the moderating role of corporate brand dominance in the relationship between negative brand publicity and consumer attributions. Corporate brand dominance is associated with corporate branding strategy and refers as the visibility of a firm's corporate brand in product communications. The experimental results show that the effect of negative brand publicity on consumer attributions is moderated by corporate brand dominance. When corporate brand dominance is high (vs. low), consumers are more inclined to form non-firm-related locus of causality and uncontrollability attributions in response to performance related negative brand publicity. However, in response to morality-related negative brand publicity, consumers are more inclined to form firm-related locus of causality and controllability attributions when corporate brand dominance is high (vs. low). Managerial implications are discussed.