Many firms unfortunately experience data breaches in which personal records information are accessed by external agents without firms' and consumers' consent. To improve customer relationships and re-build equity, it is important for brands to apologize, and many do. In the current inquiry, we study how consumers' political ideology moderates their brand trust and purchase intentions after brands apologize for a data breach. In two experimental studies, we report that an apology for a data breach has little sway in conservatives' (vs. liberals') brand trust (Study 1) and purchase intentions (Study 2). The explanation is that conservatives (liberals) have entity (incremental) beliefs, so they see firms as unlikely to change even after an apology or statement of how they intend to mitigate future data breaches. Although our context is on data breaches and how consumers with different political ideologies consider privacy breaches of personal data, we are also the first to examine how consumers respond to a brand crisis apology based on their political ideology. Consequently, understanding who a firm's consumers are in terms of their ideological makeup is crucial in predicting the effectiveness of an apology for data breaches in order to restore brand equity.

不幸的是，许多公司经历了数据泄露事件，在这些数据泄露事件中，未经公司和消费者同意，外部代理可以访问个人记录信息。为了改善客户关系并重建资产，重要的是品牌道歉，许多品牌也这样做。在当前的询问中，我们研究了在品牌因数据泄露而道歉之后，消费者的政治意识形态如何降低其品牌信任度和购买意图。在两项实验研究中，我们报告了针对数据泄露的道歉在保守主义者（相对于自由主义者）的品牌信任（研究1）和购买意图（研究2）中没有什么影响。原因在于，保守主义者（自由主义者）具有实体（增量）信念，因此他们即使在对自己打算如何减轻未来数据泄露的行为进行道歉或声明之后，也认为公司不太可能改变。尽管我们的背景是数据泄露，以及具有不同政治意识形态的消费者如何考虑违反个人数据的隐私，但我们还是第一个根据消费者的政治意识形态研究消费者如何应对品牌危机道歉的方法。因此，了解一家公司的消费者的意识形态构成对于预测为数据泄露道歉以恢复品牌资产的有效性至关重要。