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A research note exploring firm action announcements and consumer attributions of blame: The moderating role of base‐rate information
Author(s) -
Yuan Zhimei,
Guo Yi,
Wang Xingdong
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12276
Subject(s) - attribution , blame , action (physics) , social psychology , base (topology) , business , psychology , mathematics , mathematical analysis , physics , quantum mechanics
Consumer attributions of negative events have significant implications for crisis communication. This paper employs a scenario‐based between‐subjects design experiment to examine the effects of two types of action announcement, technical and ceremonial, on consumer attributions under different base‐rate conditions (crisis frequency in category). The findings suggest that, under high base‐rate condition, technical action announcements lead to more controllability and stability attributions than ceremonial action announcements for uninvolved firms. Under low base‐rate condition, technical action announcements lead to more stability attributions than ceremonial action announcements for involved firms.