Abstract
Although product failures cause marketers and consumers to suffer substantial damages and losses, failures are often beyond control. Building on defensive attribution literature, this study experimentally investigates how locus of causality and outcome severity of product failure interactively shape consumers’ brand evaluations. Findings show that following a product failure experience, consumers respond with the lowest brand evaluation for a brand-caused failure, a higher brand evaluation for a natural disaster-caused failure, and the highest brand evaluation for a consumer-caused failure. Outcome severity moderates the effects; however, when the failure causes severe outcomes, positive brand evaluation deteriorates for the consumer-caused failure but not for the brand- and natural disaster-caused failure. In addition, brand-blame attribution mediates the relationships.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download conference paper PDF
Although product failures cause marketers and consumers to suffer substantial damages and losses, failures are often beyond control. Building on defensive attribution literature, this study experimentally investigates how locus of causality and outcome severity of product failure interactively shape consumers’ brand evaluations. Findings show that following a product failure experience, consumers respond with the lowest brand evaluation for a brand-caused failure, a higher brand evaluation for a natural disaster-caused failure, and the highest brand evaluation for a consumer-caused failure. Outcome severity moderates the effects; however, when the failure causes severe outcomes, positive brand evaluation deteriorates for the consumer-caused failure but not for the brand- and natural disaster-caused failure. In addition, brand-blame attribution mediates the relationships.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Academy of Marketing Science
About this paper
Cite this paper
Song, S., Sheinin, D.A., Yoon, S. (2016). Product Failure: Severity and Locus of Causality Effects on Brand Evaluations. In: Petruzzellis, L., Winer, R. (eds) Rediscovering the Essentiality of Marketing. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29877-1_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29877-1_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29876-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29877-1
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)