Blame and culpability in explaining changes in perceptions of corporate social responsibility and credibility

This study uses the sequential updating mechanism and draws on several theories, such as the attribution theory, the self‐perception theory and the shame theory, to explain the interplay between consumers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate credibility. It contends that both CSR and corporate credibility undergo the sequential updating mechanism. A two‐stage model (before and after a corporate public relation [PR] crisis) is used to investigate how individuals' perceptions of CSR and credibility are determined by their blame attribution to the firm, their self‐culpability, as well as their prior perceptions of CSR and credibility. To test the research hypotheses, four samples were collected from Spain (224 and 244) and the United Kingdom (307 and 236). Respondents had to state their opinions in relation to a Spanish and a British company operating in the fashion industry. For the model estimation, the SmartPLS 3 was used. The results show that consumers' perception of a firm's liability has a significant impact on their feeling of culpability, which in turn strongly and negatively affects their perceptions of the firm's CSR and credibility. In addition, consumers' prior perceptions of CSR and credibility play a relevant role in regulating and offsetting the final effect of a corporate PR crisis.