Managing product recalls: The effects of time, responsible vs. opportunistic recall management and blame on consumers' attitudes

The number of defective, unsafe or dangerous products recalled from the market has been increasing markedly in the last few years, making product recalls recurring events in the current “new normal era”. As a consequence, every firm should develop a strategic plan to manage such crises. Nonetheless companies are still often unprepared to deal with such events and scientific knowledge on this issue is still scarce.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to enhance our knowledge on this issue, by investigating through a comprehensive model the effect of the following four variables on consumers’ post-recall brand attitudes: the time taken to start the recall after the primary signals of potential injuries arose; responsible recall management; opportunistic recall management; the blame attributed to the company for the defective, unsafe or dangerous products. The model is tested through an experiment involving 217 subjects, showing that responsible recall management is positively related to post-recall brand attitude, while time, opportunistic recall management and blame have a negative relationship with post-recall brand attitude.
Some useful strategic insights are derived from the results of the study. In particular, to reduce the product recall's negative effects, the company should react promptly to the first signals of product's dangerousness, acting in a responsible way by underlying their sincere concern for their consumers’ health, and avoiding every opportunistic behavior (such as trying to make consumers buy the company's newly released products).