Moral intensity theory is used to explain how characteristics of moral issues affect ethical decision-making. According to moral intensity theory, individuals and firms will make more ethical decisions when moral intensity is present, such as greater negative consequences, including harm to customers. However, evidence suggests this does not always happen in crisis situations. For example, Fisher Price waited until 30 babies died before recalling its Rock’n Play Sleeper in 2019. In this article, the concept of immoral entrenchment is introduced to address how crises affect the expected firm responses to morally intense ethical issues. Immoral entrenchment suggests that firms experience threat-rigidity responses to crises that lead to collective moral disengagement. Immoral entrenchment results in firms’ denial of responsibility and unethical behavior, instead of ethical behavior, in the face of highly negative consequences. The study in this article tests immoral entrenchment in the context of the speed to recall 843 consumer products. Supplemental qualitative evidence illustrates the collective moral disengagement dimension of immoral entrenchment. Contributing to the literature on ethics and crisis, the findings demonstrate that crises can generate immoral entrenchment in firms, which reverses the expected ethical response of those firms to issues with high moral intensity.

道德强度理论用于解释道德问题的特征如何影响伦理决策。根据道德强度理论，当道德强度存在时，个人和公司将做出更多的道德决策，例如更大的负面后果，包括对客户的伤害。然而，有证据表明，这并不总是发生在危机情况下。例如，费雪等到30名婴儿2019年回顾其ROCK'N玩梦之前就去世了。在这篇文章中，概念不道德侵占介绍了危机如何影响预期的公司对道德强烈的伦理问题的反应。不道德的固守表明，公司对导致集体道德脱离的危机经历了威胁刚性反应。不道德的固守导致公司在面临高度负面后果时否认责任和不道德行为，而不是道德行为。本文中的研究在召回 843 种消费品的速度的背景下测试了不道德的固守。补充的定性证据说明了不道德壁垒的集体道德脱离维度。研究结果对道德和危机方面的文献做出了贡献，表明危机可以在公司中产生不道德的根深蒂固，