The Effect of Fear Country of Origin and Time on Consumers Evaluation toward Product-Harm Crisis

One of the most recent problems faced by many businesses is product-harm crisis which caused by the reducing quality of material to compete with other companies, change manufacturing to be offshore in some developing countries to cut cost of production, and among other reasons. There are several studies with regard to product-harm crisis management but conversely just have a few studies related to the determinants that drive the crisis is growing more severe. These originated the motivation of this study. This study investigates the different effects of degrees of fear, types of country-of-origin, and period of time on consumers’ response toward the product-harm crisis in term of attitude toward the product, attitude toward the brand, and also behavioral intention. Furthermore, this study examines the relationship among those research construct as well. The conceptual framework is developed from previous researches by using 2 (levels of fear: high vs. low) x 2 (types of COO: developed vs. developing country) x 2 (types of period of time: last month vs. last year) are conducted with undergraduate and graduate students in Taiwan. The results present that the harmful product is produced from developed countries and happened last year with low level of fear has a more positive influence upon attitude toward the product, attitude toward the brand, and behavioral intention than the product is produced from developing country and happened last month with high level of fear.