Title: Confucian value's influences on Chinese customer relationships in product crisis recovery

Authors: Hong-Jing Cui; Feng Yao; Tai-Yang Zhao; Tjong Budisantoso; Er-Shuai Huang; Xiao Yang

Addresses: Business School, Jilin University, Changchun, China ' Business School, Jilin University, Changchun, China ' School of Philosophy and Sociology, Jilin University, Changchun, China ' Indonesia International Institute for Life Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia ' Business School, Jilin University, Changchun, China ' Business School, Jilin University, Changchun, China

Abstract: Confucian value has been a topic of increased discourse amongst business and management literature and has important influence on Chinese consumers' customer relationships in the context of product crises. This paper focuses on the effect that Confucian value has on customer loyalty and forgiveness. The mediation of empathy and attribution, and the moderation of purchase experience, country of manufacture, and perceived severity are also considered. The results show that Confucian value has a positive influence on customer loyalty and forgiveness; empathy and attribution play a mediated role; and purchase experience and perceived severity has a moderation effect. This paper suggests that European companies should design campaign remedies from the perspective of Confucian cultural value to prime consumer empathy and unstable attribution.

Keywords: Confucian value; product crisis recovery; consumer loyalty; consumer forgiveness; saving face; doctrine of the mean; hierarchy; reciprocity; empathy; attribution.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2022.120704

European Journal of International Management, 2022 Vol.17 No.2/3, pp.324 - 348

Received: 28 Feb 2019
Accepted: 08 Dec 2019
Published online: 04 Feb 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article