When things get personal: Understanding revenge by proxy as a function of consumer nationalism

Abstract

The process of spillover occurs when a crisis in one organization affects the entire industry. It has been documented that the effects a spillover can seriously affect organizational performance and damage relationships with various stakeholder groups. Yet, little research has examined the notion of spillover in crisis communication. Research has coined the term crisis contagion to denote a special type of spillover that goes beyond industry as a risk factor. This paper proposes that country of origin and consumer nationalism could create a unique type of spillover, namely revenge by proxy. We provide several extended examples of revenge by proxy as well as an overview of possible crisis response strategies available to managers when dealing with revenge by proxy.