The effect of corporate social responsibility actions of firms on consumer purchasing behavior in a product-harm crisis: A research based on attribution theory

The main research topic of this thesis is the impact of corporate social responsibility, which is one of the dimensions of reputation, to businesses during crisis period. Accordingly, it is aimed to reveal the effect of being a socially responsible company on consumers' interpretations, and then the consequent effects of these interpretations on emotions and repurchasing intentions of consumers. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first three chapters are the literature reviews and the last two sections are about the field research. For a better understanding of the topic a foundation is set in the theoretical background sections by examining the concepts and previous literature on crisis management, corporate social responsibility and attribution theory. In the field research sections of the thesis, qualitative and quantitative techniques are used together. In the fourth chapter information provided on the qualitative research which is a pioneer study for the quantitative research. Additionally, this section covers semi-structured deep interviews conducted with thirty participants. The aim of this qualitative research is to learn whether the reactions of consumers will change based on actual and fictional problems and the firm's social responsibility level. In the fifth anf final chapter the quantitative research constructing the main framework of the thesis is conducted. This section focuses on the effects of a firms' social responsibility level on consumers' attributions and the effects of these attributions on emotions and repurchasing intention of consumers in a product-harm crises period. In this section, the research method is survey and data are collected by using questionnaires. Concordantly, two questionnaires form are composed. One of them is about a firm which is socially responsible and other is about a firm which is not socially responsible. In both questionnaires there is also a common scenario about a product crisis. Questionnaire forms are distributed to participants randomly. Collected data are analyzed by using SPSS 18.0 and LISREL 8.51. Analysis reveals that the obtained results are consistent with the literature. Results of the qualitative research shows that; participants have generally experienced problems with tangible products. When the problem is actual, frequent emotions are anger and dissatisfaction. When the problem is heard, frequent emotions are reduced trust and anxiety. The most serious problems are those impactşng health negatively. Responses after crisis are generally complaints and negative word of mouth. With negative responses increasing when people experience the problem themselves and decreasing when the firm is reputable and socially responsible. Results of the quantitative research show that being socially responsible creates positive halo effect during product harm crises. In the period of harm-crises people perceive the problem less stable and less controllable by firm, if the firm is proactively socially responsible. In the product-crisis period, the density of attributions of consumers changes based on firm's socially responsible status. If the firm is not socially responsible, consumers believe that the problem is more controllable by the firm and more stable. In terms of the responsible actor, attribution error occurs. While consumers tend to hold responsible the firm and its employees for the crises, other consumers and retailers aren't held responsible regardless of the firm's socially responsible statue. Additionally, if the firm is not socially responsible, the density of negative feelings increases. The firm's state of socially responsible, affects consumers repurchase intention positively. Accordingly, if the firm's social responsibility level decreases, repurchase intention of consumers also decreases. When the effects of attributions are examined it is seen that controllability dimension and stability dimension has positive effects on emotions and repurchase intention. If consumers believe in that the reason behind the problem is controllable and stable, negativity level of the emotions increases. The problem can be controlled by the business, and the problem is persistent they believe that when customers feel that the product of the intensity of the negative feelings in the aftermath of the crisis is also increasing. These comments show us that attribution process has got both cognitive and emotional elements. When consumers, who may have a problem with product they had purchased, decide to repurchase, they firstly think about the reason of the problem cognitively and then responsd emotionally and behaviorally.