CSR Attributions and Crisis Types: Effects on Public Trust and Purchase Intentions

This study investigates how different attributions of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) motives, combined with crisis types, affect public trust and purchase intentions. Based on Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Attribution Theory, we explore the interplay between altruistic and egoistic CSR attributions and preventable versus unpreventable crises. Two two-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted on data from 272 participants, revealing that crisis type significantly impacts both trust and purchase intention, with unpreventable crises leading to higher levels of trust and purchase intention compared to preventable ones. However, CSR attribution alone did not significantly influence trust or purchase intention. These findings suggest that companies facing unpreventable crises may benefit from CSR strategies to maintain public trust and purchase intention, while preventable crises may invest heavily in rebuilding trust, as the public tends to be less forgiving in such situations.