The effects of response strategies and severity of failure on consumer attribution with regard to negative word-of-mouth

•How different response strategies and severity of failure on observers' attribution•Adopts attribution theory, attribution of locus and attribution of controllability on negative organizational reputation•Argues attribution of locus and controllability on negative WOM (NWOM)•Mediating effects of organizational reputation on NWOM

The negative word-of-month (NWOM) contained in comments posted on online forums can have significant effects on consumer purchase decisions. Despite this, the related corporate response strategies and their effects have not been investigated in depth. For this reason, this study examined the effects of different response strategies and the severity of failure on customer attribution in relation to NWOM. It also examined the relationships among customer attribution, organizational reputation, and NWOM. The results indicate that response strategies and severity of failure affect customer attribution, and that these have negative relationships with organizational reputation and positive relationships with NWOM. Severity of failure is likewise found to be an element influencing customer attribution in addition to response strategies, and the negative relationship between customer attribution and organizational reputation is verified. This study suggests that managers in service industries can adopt accommodative strategies and attempt to prevent severe failures so as to improve customer perceptions of organizational reputation, thereby reducing their desire to engage in NWOM.