Impact of Social Consumption Crisis Strategy on Distribution Marketplaces' Relationships

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reviews the attitudes of consumers related to the consumption crisis response strategy (i.e., defensive vs. receptive) that companies implement during crises. Research design, data, and methodology: We discuss the interaction between the crisis response strategy and the consumption crisis type (i.e., corporate ability vs. corporate social responsibility). We used SAS ver. 9.4 software to analyze the results. We applied a 2 × 2 intergroup experimental design to our sample of subjects, who were undergraduate and graduate students at a university in Seoul, South Korea. The three experimental variables considered were the entity‟s risk response strategy, the crisis type, and public relations strategy. The experiments were conducted by presenting a hypothetical scenario to eight groups. Prior to this experiment, five preliminary surveys were conducted to determine the three variables just mentioned. Preliminary surveys were conducted on the basis of these criteria. For eight selected product lines, 320 undergraduates were required to enter the product lines that are frequently used in the assessment center up to the fourth priority. Results: Analysis of variance revealed that experiments related to crisis response strategy, type of enterprise crisis, and type of public relations message were successful. Conclusions: Our results verify the impact of different types of social initiatives on distribution marketplaces.