Response, attributions of blame and corporate reputation during a product-harm crisis: A quantitative exploratory study

In recent years, there has been increased prevalence of product-harm crises, emphasizing the importance of each company establishing proactive measures to mitigate the risk of long term reputational damage.;The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of response type and attributions of blame on corporate reputation. A survey of undergraduate business students was conducted, and the data analyses use confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression. The findings of the study suggest that negative response situations "Denial" and "No Response" have important impacts on attributions of blame. Denial affects external locus (i.e. level of blame towards other parties) and perceived stability of the situation. No Response affects internal locus (ie. level of blame towards the company). These results suggest the potential for serious implications to corporate reputation if companies respond to crises in a negative manner.