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Crisis spillover of corporate environmental misconducts: The roles of perceived similarity, familiarity, and corporate environmental responsibility in determining the impact on oppositional behavioral intention
Author(s) -
Ouyang Zhe,
Yao Chris Nengzhi,
Hu Xi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2474
Subject(s) - spillover effect , misconduct , categorization , opposition (politics) , similarity (geometry) , perception , business , corporate social responsibility , social psychology , psychology , public relations , economics , political science , politics , microeconomics , law , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science , image (mathematics)
Negative impact of a firm's environmental misconduct can spread to other firms under the same category due to stakeholders' categorization. Such problem implies a sociocognitive process that has yet to be explored. Therefore, this study extends the current literature by exploring how interfirm similarity affects the spillover effects through stakeholders' engagement. We propose that interfirm similarity can be perceived by stakeholders as a categorization standard, which can lead to their opposition to other firms. Spillover of misconduct is caused by the decreasing stakeholders' trust, wherein the negative effect is contingent upon stakeholders' perceptions. A questionnaire study is conducted to investigate how people resist an innocent firm in China when a chemistry firm experienced an explosion accident. Our findings confirm that interfirm similarity increases stakeholders' opposition to the innocent firm by decreasing their trust. However, the negative effect is alleviated when the innocent firm is perceived as highly environmentally responsible. Our work contributes to the crisis spillover literature and carries important implications for the management of innocent firms that may lose from an industry peer's misconduct.