"Not on purpose? Okay, you are forgiven.” : consumers’ different reactions to corporate digital irresponsibility (CDIR)

Abstract

As the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry has become more reliant on digital data, the importance of responsible use of digital data (corporate digital responsibility; CDR) has become more critical than ever. However, despite the importance of CDR, H&T brands are accidentally or intentionally involved in irresponsible use of digital data (corporate digital irresponsibility; CDiR). Extending the psychological contract violation concept to consumer-brand relationship, this research, through four experimental studies, examined how the nature of CDiR incidents (accidental vs. transgressional) differently influence consumers’ responses, via brand betrayal. Furthermore, the moderating effects of consumers’ prior expectations/perceptions of brands (i.e., prior CDR advertisement) and consumer characteristics (i.e., data privacy vulnerability) were investigated as the boundary conditions. The findings from Studies 1 and 2 suggest that consumers are more likely to forgive a brand and exhibit more favorable behavioral intentions following accidental (vs. transgressional) CDiR incidents. Study 3 revealed that prior advertising of CDR practices amplifies the negative impact of transgressional CDiR. Additionally, Study 4 found that consumers who are more vulnerable to data privacy concerns experience a stronger negative impact from transgressional CDiR.