产品伤害危机下品牌来源地对顾客品牌脱离的影响：企业回应策略的调节作用

The Impact of Brand Origin on Customer Brand Disengagement in Product-Harm Crises: The Moderating Role of Corporate Response Strategies

摘要: 现有危机管理研究普遍忽视了“品牌来源地”作为关键社会身份线索，如何影响顾客对危机的归因逻辑与修复偏好。基于社会认同理论，本文通过三个实验深入揭示了“内外有别”的危机心理机制及危机缓解策略。结果发现：产品伤害危机情境下，顾客对外国品牌(vs.国产品牌)产生更强烈的品牌脱离；心理距离和交易型心理契约违背在品牌来源地对品牌脱离的影响中发挥中介作用，外国品牌(vs.国产品牌)让顾客感知到更远的心理距离和更强的交易型心理契约违背，进而产生更强烈的品牌脱离；企业回应策略在品牌来源地对心理距离和交易型心理契约违背的影响中发挥调节作用，国产品牌采用“感性”(vs.“理性”)的回应策略显著拉近与顾客的心理距离，而外国品牌采用“理性”(vs.“感性”)的回应策略显著降低顾客感知的交易型心理契约违背；心理距离和交易型心理契约违背在品牌来源地和企业回应策略对顾客品牌脱离的交互影响中发挥中介效应。本文将“内群体偏爱”与“外群体工具化”视角引入危机管理，厘清了心理距离与契约违背在不同身份下的非对称作用，为中外品牌制定差异化危机管理预案提供了理论指导。

Abstract: Most extant crisis management studies overlook the mechanism through which Brand Origin, a vital social identity cue, influences customers’ crisis attribution logic and post-crisis recovery preferences. Drawing on Social Identity Theory, this paper conducts three experiments to deeply unveil the psychological mechanisms and crisis mitigation strategies underlying the “ingroup-outgroup distinction”. The results show that: In the context of product harm crises, customers exhibit stronger brand disengagement toward foreign brands compared to domestic brands; Psychological distance and transactional psychological contract breach play mediating roles in the effect of Brand Origin on brand disengagement. Specifically, foreign brands (vs. domestic brands) evoke a perception of greater psychological distance and a more severe breach of the transactional psychological contract, thereby inducing stronger brand disengagement; Corporate response strategies significantly moderate the impact of Brand Origin on psychological distance and transactional psychological contract breach. For domestic brands, adopting an “emotional” (vs. “rational”) response strategy significantly reduces psychological distance with customers; whereas for foreign brands, adopting a “rational” (vs. “emotional”) response strategy significantly mitigates the perceived breach of the transactional psychological contract; Psychological distance and transactional psychological contract breach mediate the interactive effects of Brand Origin and corporate response strategies on brand disengagement. This paper introduces “in-group favoritism” and “out-group instrumentality” lenses to the crisis management literature, disentangling the asymmetric effects of psychological distance and psychological contract breach under divergent identity conditions. These insights offer actionable theoretical frameworks for Chinese and foreign brands to craft asymmetric crisis response strategies.