The Ethical Judgment and Moral Reaction to the Product-Harm Crisis: Theoretical Model and Empirical Research

Abstract

Based on the dual-process theory of ethical judgment, a research model is proposed for examining consumers' moral reactions to a product-harm crisis. A national-wide survey was conducted with 801 respondents in China. The results of this study indicate that consumers will react to a product-harm crisis through controlled cognitive processing and emotional intuition. The results of the study also show that consumers view a product-harm crisis as an ethical issue, and they will make an ethical judgment according to the perceived severity and perceived relevance of the crisis. The ethical judgment in the perceived crisis severity and perceived crisis relevance will affect consumers' condemning emotions in terms of contempt and anger. Through controlled cognitive processing, a personal consumption-related reaction (purchasing intention) is influenced by the perceived crisis severity. Furthermore, a social and interpersonal reaction (negative word of mouth) is influenced by the perceived crisis relevance through the controlled cognitive processing. This social and interpersonal reaction is also influenced by the perceived crisis severity and perceived crisis relevance through the intuition of other-condemning emotion. Moreover, this study finds that the product knowledge negatively moderates the impact of the perceived crisis severity on the condemning emotions. Therefore, when a consumer has a high level of product knowledge, the effect of perceived crisis severity on the condemning emotions will be attenuated, and vice versa. This study provides scholars and managers with means of understanding and handling of consumers' reactions to a product-harm crisis.

Competitive and Sustainable Manufacturing in the Age of Globalization

“…In addition, after studying a Korean case, the intensity of this transferring mechanism was shown to differ from industry to industry. Lu et al [28] examined consumers' moral reactions to a product-harm crisis. After conducting a national-wide survey with 801 respondents in China, they found that consumers will react to a product-harm crisis through controlled cognitive processing and emotional intuition.…”

How to maximize the effectiveness of stealing thunder in crisis communication: the significance of follow-up actions and transparent communication

“…Crisis communication includes various ethical aspects, such as having a moral duty to address safety issues and providing an opportunity for stakeholders to acknowledge corporate core values (Sellnow and Seeger, 2013). A few empirical studies (Cheng and Shen, 2020;Lu et al, 2016) emphasized the meaning of ethical judgment (EJ) in organizational crisis communication. Particularly, EJ refers to "an individual's personal evaluation of the degree to which some behavior is ethical or unethical" (Hopkins and Deepa, 2018, p. 504).…”

How to Make an Industry Sustainable during an Industry Product Harm Crisis: The Role of a Consumer’s Sense of Control

“…Previous research has found that perceived severity and consumer affect influence consumer reactions [31,32]. According to previous researches [12,33], consumers will experience an emotional reaction to a crisis, which in turn shapes the evaluations of the organization's recovery efforts [34] and organizational reputation [35]. In addition, Cox et al [36] proposed that positive affect does have an influence on consumers' response to drug product risk information.…”