The effects of crisis types on corporate warmth and competence perceptions: Interplay with post-crisis promotion types for corporate attitude recovery

This research investigates the effects of crisis type and post-crisis promotion type on corporate perceptions and attitude. A 2 (crisis: moral-harm vs. product-harm) x 2 (post-crisis promotion: donation vs. discount) between-subjects experiment was conducted with a total of 360 participants recruited from Amazon MTurk. Results indicate that moral-harm crises have a more negative impact on perceived corporate warmth and attitude than product-harm crises. However, this negative effect can be better mitigated through post-crisis donations toward society than through post-crisis discounts for consumers. In contrast, product-harm crises have a more negative impact on perceived corporate competence than moral-harm crises. Nevertheless, post-crisis discounts are more effective than post-crisis donations in alleviating this negative effect. Further, moderated mediation models reveal that stakeholder perceptions of corporate warmth and competence mediate the matching effects of crisis type and post-crisis promotion type on attitude recovery. The findings highlight the dynamic effect of crisis communications through strategic compensation with post-crisis promotions in consideration of crisis types.