Author(s): Kongkidakarn Sakulsinlapakorn, Jing Zhang
The present study investigates four factors (aggressive personality, brand trust, blame attribution, and perceived fairness) leading to Love-becomes-hate effect through the moderating effect of brand love on the relationship between failure severity and consumer’s negative emotions. This paper empirically examines the factors leading to Love-becomes-hate effect based on a questionnaire survey among 532 Chinese respondents. This study found that at high level of Aggressive personality, low level of Brand trust, high level of Blame attribution, and low level of Perceived fairness are considered as factors leading to Love-becomes-hate effect. Consumers with the above traits decide to vent negative emotions and pursue retaliation actions against the focal firms. This study contributes to the theory development of brand failure and consumer retaliation literature. This study also provides suggestions for private and public companies on how to properly deal with consumer’s negative responses to product or service failure. Research findings can be guideline for managers to take the quick decision and prompt action when product or service failure occurs.