Effects of product failure severity and locus of causality on consumers’ brand evaluation

• Sujin Song

  Korea University , Korea University

• Dan A. Sheinin

  University of Rhode Island

• Sukki Yoon

  Bryant University

Although product failure causes both marketers and consumers to incur substantial damage and losses, failures are often very difficult for marketers to control. Building on the defensive attribution literature, we investigated how locus of causality and outcome severity of product failure interactively shape consumers’ (N = 366) brand evaluation. The results showed that after a product failure experience, consumers responded with the least favorable evaluation for brand-caused failure, a more favorable evaluation for natural disaster-caused failure, and the most favorable evaluation for consumer-caused failure. However, outcome severity moderated the effects: When the failure resulted in a severe outcome, positive brand evaluation deteriorated in the case of consumer-caused failure only. In addition, brand-blame attribution mediated these relationships. Our findings provide a foundation for recovery strategies in accordance with failure severity and responsible parties.

1. Sujin Song, Korea University, Korea University
   Department of Business Administration, College of Business and Economics
2. Dan A. Sheinin, University of Rhode Island
   College of Business Administration
3. Sukki Yoon, Bryant University
   Department of Marketing, College of Business

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