RESPONSIBLE ATTITUDE MATTERS IN SMALL-SCALE RETAILING: A PRODUCT-HARM EXPERIMENT

摘要

This study proposes the potentials of prior WOM reputation and a responsible attitude inreducing business product-harm threats in a small-scale retail setting. The outcome is conductedin terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) relevance, based on eight experimentalscenarios. The findings evidence that product-harm publicity may trigger consumer attributionsof a firm's product-safety responsibility, and damage its CSR image and market stability,whereas these wounds may be amendable by prior reputation and a responsible attitude indealing with negative publicities. The results suggest the essence of a responsible action, overonly low price strategy in a small scale retailing.