When brands break trust
Our work examines how brands suffer reputational and financial damage when their actions are perceived to violate ethical norms and social expectations. Unlike product failures, which undermine competence, moral harm crises strike at the core of a brand’s values and identity, making recovery far more difficult and uncertain.
To address this challenge, the authors conducted a systematic review of seventy‑four peer‑reviewed studies published over four decades. Their goal was to consolidate fragmented research into a coherent framework that explains how moral harm crises emerge, escalate, and affect consumer responses. This review highlights the triggers of crises, the psychological and emotional mechanisms that shape consumer reactions, and the broader market consequences that follow.
The paper emphasizes that moral harm often arises from issues such as exploitative labor practices, discriminatory advertising, environmental misconduct, or misaligned social advocacy. Social media plays a critical role in amplifying outrage, spreading damaging revelations, and mobilizing boycotts at unprecedented speed. Consumers respond with emotions like anger, betrayal, and even schadenfreude, which can translate into behaviors such as negative word‑of‑mouth, activism, and organized boycotts.
Importantly, not all moral transgressions escalate into full crises. Escalation depends on factors such as cultural values, visibility of victims, and a brand’s history of misconduct. Crises are most severe when they undermine defining brand attributes or appear hypocritical, as these incidents resonate deeply with consumers’ moral expectations.
By organizing these insights into a multi‑level conceptual model, the authors provide both scholars and practitioners with a roadmap for anticipating, mitigating, and learning from moral harm crises. They call for future research that is culturally inclusive, longitudinal, and attentive to emotional complexity, social media contagion, and cross‑cultural differences.
In essence, the article underscores that when brands break trust, the fallout is not only reputational but deeply moral. Navigating these crises requires careful attention to values, accountability, and consumer expectations in an era of heightened scrutiny.
Cohen, J., Sands, S., Raw, J., Chan, E. Y., Ferraro, C., Desmar, V., & Wang, L. (2025). Navigating moral harm brand crises: A conceptual framework for understanding consumer response (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of Business Ethics. DOI: 10.1007/s10551-025-06170-y