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Dissertation_Final_Jihee Choi_0815 .pdf (3.07 MB)

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Brand Crisis Management in the Restaurant Industry

Choi, Jihee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502924048683273

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Human Ecology: Hospitality Management.
The first study investigates the effect of a company’s past Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on consumer attitudes toward the brand and intention to visit a restaurant, and how this effect varies depending on the crisis type and severity. Using a scenario-based survey, our study found significant interaction effects between a company’s CSR history depending on the type of crisis and crisis severity. Specifically, when a company had shown a high level of CSR effort in the past, a moral harm crisis or a highly severe crisis led to more unfavorable consumer brand evaluations than did a product harm crisis or a less severe crisis. On the other hand, when a company had shown a low level of CSR effort in the past, there was no difference in consumer brand evaluations depending on the type of crisis or crisis severity. Our finding will assist restaurant brand managers in designing proper response strategies by taking these factors into account. The purpose of Study 2 is to investigate changes in consumer attitudes toward the brand, intention to visit a restaurant, and Negative Word of Mouth (N-WOM) intentions resulting from a brand rumor depending on the level of brand equity. We found that customers are more likely to reduce their favorable attitudes toward the targeted brand and intention to visit a restaurant when the company involved has high brand equity, but are relatively unaffected when the company involved has low brand equity. In addition, our results showed a significant interaction effect between company response strategy and level of brand equity on consumers’ attitude toward the brand and intention to visit a restaurant. No significant interaction effect was observed on N-WOM intention. This information may aid companies facing a brand rumor to devise a more effective response strategy by taking into account the company’s level of brand equity. Study 3 examines the interaction effects between a company’s response strategy to moral harm crisis and individual (e.g., moral equity level) and crisis characteristics (e.g., crisis victim’s vulnerability) on consumers’ reactions toward the brand. We found a significant interaction effect between moral equity level and response strategy on attitudes toward the brand and intention to visit a restaurant. In addition, we found that when a company injures a highly vulnerable population as a result of moral wrongdoing and then denies their responsibility, consumers are much more likely to form an unfavorable evaluation of the brand; such a company is much better off if it uses a rebuilding approach and shows their willingness to correct the problems. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of brand crisis management in the restaurant industry by examining three types of crises and considering various factors related to brand (e.g., past CSR activity, brand equity), crisis (e.g., victim’s vulnerability), and individual consumer (e.g., moral equity regarding corporate behavior). Both academic and practical implications of our findings are discussed, as well as the limitation of the three studies and recommendations for future research.
Soobin Seo, Dr. (Advisor)
Milos Bujisic, Dr. (Committee Member)
Sanja Ilic, Dr. (Committee Member)
210 p.
Communication

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Citations

  • Choi, J. (2017). Brand Crisis Management in the Restaurant Industry [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502924048683273

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Choi, Jihee. Brand Crisis Management in the Restaurant Industry. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502924048683273.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Choi, Jihee. "Brand Crisis Management in the Restaurant Industry." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1502924048683273

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1502924048683273
55
© 2017, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Brand Crisis Management in the Restaurant Industry by Jihee Choi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.