Mechanism Of Consumer Evaluation On Negative Events Of Entrepreneurs And Response Strategies Effects

Although a growing number of scholar agree that negative exposure of entrepreneurs will influence the consumer on the evaluation of their image, neither the mechanisms or logic has been found, nor the effects of the response strategies to the negative exposure have been found so far from the consumer perspective. This paper trying to find the mechanism of consumer's evaluation to the negative exposure of entrepreneurs, and their response strategies which can minimize the negative effects also been discussed from the perspective of consumers.The study took attribution theory, cognitive appraisal theory and situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) as the theoretical basis, we integrate cognitive appraisal and the emotion of consumers as well the response strategies of entrepreneurs under the frame of negative exposure. Experimental study proves that the evaluation of the entrepreneur is more negative in immorality exposure than that in incompetence situation. Furthermore, when the entrepreneur is encountered with negative exposure of incompetence, compared with defense strategy, accommodation strategy is better for attenuating the negative consumer's evaluation on the entrepreneur. On the other side, when the entrepreneur is encountered with negative exposure of immorality, for attenuating the negative consumer's evaluation on entrepreneurs, defense strategy is better than accommodation strategy.Because of the different cognition of consumers on the two types of negative exposure, which trigger different emotions. Pity will be salient when the consumers encounter negative exposure of incompetence of entrepreneurship. Disappointment will be salient when the consumers encounter negative exposure of immorality of entrepreneurship. We examined the interaction of response strategies of entrepreneurs by scenario experiments and found that accommodation strategy is better for reconciliating consumers'pity emotions triggered by the negative exposure of entrepreneurship's incompetence, which attenuating consumers' negative evaluation of the image of entrepreneurs; Defense strategy is better for reconciliating consumers'disappointment emotions triggered by the negative exposure of entrepreneurship's immorality, which attenuating consumers' negative evaluation of the image of entrepreneurs.The study can be divided into four parts including an introduction, literature review, empirical research and the overall discussion. Chapter ? is an introduction to the research questions, significance of the topic, the research framework and methods. Chapter ? is literature review focuses on negative exposure of entrepreneurs and response strategies, as well as the emotion of consumers triggered by negative exposure. Chapter ?,?,? are empirical studies. Chapter ? includes a pretest and two main experiments to examine the different evaluation of consumers on different types of negative exposure of entrepreneur and the interaction of the response strategies. ChapterIV examines the consumer's cognitive and emotional response to incompetence exposure and immorality exposure of entrepreneur, which resulting in different evaluation on the entrepreneurs. Consumer's emotion response mediates the main effect. Chapter V tests the interaction effects of response strategy of entrepreneur and emotion response of consumer trigger by the negative exposure. Chapter VI concludes the paper, discuss research findings and management implications, and indicate research limitations and future research directions as well.Chapter ? introduced the research questions, research ideas and the significance. From a practical point of view, in the traditional media, especially the growing prosperity of we-media, entrepreneurs'tiny mistake may be magnified, therefore, it would be practically significant to explore the relationship of negative exposure of entrepreneurs and their image evaluation. From the theoretical point of view, entrepreneurs should be clear the type of negative exposure, and emotional response of consumers to the negative exposure, so as to select the appropriate response strategies to attenuate consumers' negative evaluation of the entrepreneur. Since consumer cognition of the entrepreneurial behavior and the resulting negative emotions is a fundamental factor in consumer evaluation of entrepreneurs, this study attempts to explore the post-event evaluation mechanism of entrepreneurs negative exposure on consumers'perspective to acquire more detailed insights to consumers' evaluation mechanism and logic, so as to find more effective response strategies, which will benefit to consolidate the theoretical basis.Chapter II reviewed the relevant research on entrepreneurs negative exposure events. Firstly, the literature review including the definition of the negative exposure of entrepreneurs and their classification and their influencing factors; Secondly, from consumer's perspective, the literature about the mechanism on attribution route and emotions generated to negative events are reviewed; Finally, the literature of the types and effects of communication strategies and response strategies of crisis and negative exposure are also reviewed.Chapter III presented hypotheses and examines by experimental study. Based on the basis of the literature review, this chapter first proposed the hypothesis, specifically compared the differences of consumers' evaluation on entrepreneurship between the negative exposure of incompetence and immorality, which is the main effect of this period of research. Furthermore, the interaction effects of the types of negative exposure and the response strategies on the evaluation of entrepreneur are also verified.Chapter IVexamined the mediation role of consumer's emotion by scene experiments. Although the results of chapter ? indicated that the evaluation on entrepreneur would be more negative in negative exposure of immorality than that of incompetence, but mechanism of this effect still not found, so the path cannot be clearly revealed about the type of negative exposure and the differences in image evaluation of entrepreneurs. This chapter deepened this issue and found that the emotion of pity will salient in the negative exposure of incompetence and the disappointment will be salient in the negative exposure of immorality, which make the differences in the evaluation of consumers'evaluation to different types of negative exposure of entrepreneurs.Chapter V examined the interaction of response strategies of entrepreneurs and the emotions triggered by negative exposure of entrepreneur on their image evaluation. Specifically, accommodation strategy would be better for reconciliating consumers'pity emotions triggered by the negative exposure of entrepreneurship's incompetence; Defense strategy is better for reconciliating consumers' disappointment emotions triggered by the negative exposure of entrepreneurship's immorality. This two approach can attenuate consumers' negative evaluation of the image of entrepreneurs. The outcome repeated the main effect in Chapter ?.Chapter VI is the overall discussion. This chapter pointed out the theoretical and practical contribution of this research, as well as the limitations and future research directions. Besides the author's further research, other scholars broaden this research field would be appreciated.