The Relationships Among Corporate Reputation, Brand Crisis, and Customer Loyalty: An Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among corporate reputation, brand crisis, and customer loyalty in the Ghanaian marketplace. In addition, consistent with Lei et al. (2012), this study examines whether attributions moderate the relationship between brand crisis and corporate reputation. While the precise understanding and nature of the relationship existing between corporate reputation and customer behavior, and, more specifically, customer loyalty, remains a key challenge for both academia and management alike, research on the impact of brand crisis on key marketing constructs including corporate reputation and customer loyalty is limited (Dawar et al. 2009). Furthermore, most of the studies related to the research topic have been conducted in developed economies (Merchant et al. 2015; Decker 2012; Ma et al. 2010) to the exclusion of developing sub-Saharan African economies. These gaps provide much of the inspiration for this study in the Ghanaian marketplace. This study therefore seeks to (1) explore the established relationship between corporate reputation and customer loyalty, (2) investigate the influence of brand crisis on corporate reputation, (3) investigate the influence of brand crisis on customer loyalty, and (4) investigate if and whether attributions moderate the relationship between brand crisis and corporate reputation. We employed a mixed method approach which comprised two distinct phases (i.e., qualitative and quantitative). Data were obtained from a convenience sample of nine executives and experts in brand management through face-to-face and telephone interviews. A self-completion survey involving a convenience sample of 475 members of the general public complemented the interviews. The qualitative analysis highlighted a close relationship among the research constructs, namely, brand crisis, corporate reputation, and customer loyalty. The quantitative data were analyzed using EFA, CFA, and multiple linear regressions to assess the relationships among the variables under investigation. In addition, hierarchical regression was used to assess the moderating role of attribution on the relationship between brand crisis and corporate reputation. This study has provided a novel extension of the literature on corporate reputation and customer loyalty and has addressed issues surrounding customers’ perceptions of corporate reputation, branding, and loyalty, which have been overlooked in sub-Saharan African context. The findings reveal that the relationship between brand crisis and customer loyalty is an indirect one and therefore provides clarification to the contradictory findings with regard to the “brand crisis–customer loyalty” discourse (Huber et al. 2010; Ma et al. 2010; Lin et al. 2011). Methodologically, the study establishes how the use of mixed method can provide a better appreciation of underlying phenomena. Continued replication and validation of this study are important, and future research could employ a large sample size and compare consumers’ perceptions with that of brand managers in Ghana and/or other developing or emerging economies.