Correspondence: Aikaterini Vassilikopoulou, Athens University of Economics and Business, 76 Patission street, 104–34 Athens, Greece. E-mail: katva@aueb.gr

¹is an adjunct lecturer in Marketing at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). She holds a BSc in Business Administration from AUEB; an MSc in Economic Psychology from the University of Exeter, UK; an MBA from the National Technical University of Athens and AUEB and a PhD in marketing from AUEB. Her research interests include business ethics, crisis management and consumer behaviour.

²is a PhD candidate in marketing at AUEB. He also works as a product analyst in a telecommunications company.

³is Professor of Marketing and ex-Chairman of the Department of Business Administration at the AUEB. He has worked as a research associate at the Industrial Crisis Institute of New York. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Marketing and Management, an MBA in Finance, an MSc in Statistics & Operations Research, an MPhil in Marketing and a PhD in Marketing and Corporate Strategy from Stern School of Business, New York University.

⁴is an adjunct lecturer in Marketing in the Department of Business Administration of AUEB. She received her PhD in Marketing from AUEB, Athens. Her research interests are in the areas of marketing information systems, services marketing, retail marketing and tourism.

Received 10 December 2008; Revised 10 December 2008; Published online 16 February 2009.

Abstract

Product-harm crises can seriously impact the viability of a company. By considering the factors that affect the outcome of a crisis, organisations could manage crisis situations to minimise negative consequences. The aims of this paper are to (a) examine the importance of each factor of product-harm crises (that is, corporate social responsibility, organisational response, time and external effects) influencing consumer purchase intentions and (b) study variations in the purchase intentions across three different crisis extent levels. In order to investigate trade-offs and the relative importance of the above factors, conjoint analysis is used. The results reveal that organisational response and time are the most important factors in high- and medium-extent product-harm crises, whereas social responsibility and external effects mostly influence consumer purchase intentions in severe crises. Based on the importance of the factors, managerial implications are discussed.