A company’s emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR) signals its concern with benefits for society, whereas a company’s emphasis on corporate ability (CA) signals its expertise in delivering good quality products. Product-harm crises often put companies at serious risk. Would a company’s prior emphasis on CSR versus CA mitigate the potential reputation damage of a product-harm crisis? In an experiment, we found that when a product-harm crisis occurred, having a CSR focus softened the public’s negative evaluation of the focal company, but this protective function of CSR was found only among people who had the lay theory that CSR and CA are compatible. The joint effect of CSR focus and the lay theory was mediated by the tendency to exonerate the focal company for the causal responsibility of the crisis.

中文翻译：

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在产品危机中，对社会负责的做法是否可以减轻声誉损失？企业社会责任外联理论的调节作用

公司对企业社会责任（CSR）的重视表明了其对社会效益的关注，而对公司能力（CA）的重视则表明了其在提供优质产品方面的专业知识。产品损害危机通常使公司面临严重风险。公司先前对CSR和CA的重视会减轻产品危害危机对声誉的潜在损害吗？在一个实验中，我们发现当发生产品损害危机时，以企业社会责任为重点可以减轻公众对焦点公司的负面评价，但是只有在那些具有以下事实的人中发现企业社会责任的这种保护功能：兼容。企业社会责任焦点和外行理论的共同作用是由趋向于减轻焦点公司对危机的因果责任的倾向所介导的。