| Faced with fierce market competition and the rise of the "fan economy",brand owners have become commonly used methods in the industry to hire celebrities to endorse products and carry out brand image construction.On the one hand,the good reputation of celebrity endorsements can endorse the brand,and on the other hand,they can leverage the appeal of celebrities to promote product sales and enhance brand awareness.However,in recent years,negative news from brand spokespersons has been frequent,and celebrities have gained widespread attention and dissemination due to their enormous fame,which has also had a negative impact on brand reputation.From the literature review,it can be seen that in existing research on negative news about brand spokespersons,scholars have focused on exploring rational factors such as attribution,and studied the impact of negative news on spokespersons from the perspectives of enterprises and consumers,neglecting the predictive role of consumers’ emotions after negative news about spokespersons on consumer behavior.Based on the above practical and theoretical background,this article uses virtual brands to divide brand spokesperson negative news into illegal negative news and immoral negative news.Real brand spokesperson negative news materials are adapted to study the impact of spokesperson negative news on consumer retaliation and forgiveness behavior.At the same time,we introduce consumer indignation as a mediating variable,and examine the moderating effect of CSR reputation on consumer indignation mesomeric effect.The empirical research results indicate that:(1)negative news from brand spokespersons can cause consumer retaliation behavior,and compared to illegal negative news from brand spokespersons,immoral negative news has a more significant impact on consumer retaliation behavior.(2)Consumer indignation plays a mediating role between negative news from brand spokespersons and consumer retaliatory behavior.(3)CSR reputation regulates the mesomeric effect of consumer indignation between negative news of brand spokesmen and consumer retaliation.And as the reputation of CSR improves,the mediating effect of consumer righteous anger will gradually weaken.(4)The role of CSR reputation in arousing forgiveness behavior is only effective in the context of spokesperson’s illegal negative news.In the context of spokesperson’s immoral negative news,CSR reputation can only reduce consumer anger caused by negative news and cannot significantly improve the tendency towards forgiveness behavior.This study enriches the study of negative news about endorsers,emphasizes consumer anger and its impact,strengthens the brand’s confidence in continuing to carry out CSR activities,and provides theoretical support and practical management suggestions for strengthening the precrisis CSR construction,spokesperson selection,and crisis public relations management of brand endorsers. |
