The “Swiss Made” Label - An experimental study on the effect of market position, place of manufacture and domestic country bias in relation to corporate reputation and crisis contagion.

With the increasing sensitivity of corporate reputations and the emergence of an interconnected world through social media, evermore companies are at risk of experiencing crises. Despite extensive research on (post crisis) reputation, this study has identified certain gaps in literature in relation to the market position and the place of manufacturing of brands and or products. This research also tackled the under-researched notion of crisis contagion as a possible spillover effect might occur when corporations experience a crisis, where not only the focal corporation suffers from the crisis, but also the whole industry or even other corporations from the same country as the focal corporation. To lead this research, the main question was constructed to contest the possible influence of market position and place of manufacture on the post-crisis reputation and the spillover effect. This research followed an experimental research design, which was executed through the use of an experiment. A total of 300 respondents were gathered with equal proportions of 150 American and 150 Swiss respondents. This total sample of 300 respondents provided useful insights on the proposed hypotheses and implications. The findings indicated that the market position, the place of manufacturing and the nationality indeed had a significant effect on the post-crisis reputation and the spillover effect. In short, the findings revealed that when products are located in the high-end market produced locally, in a country with a prestigious country branding, the eventual post-crisis reputation is higher, as well as a possible spillover effect. In contrast the products located in the low-end market produced abroad, in a country with a low country branding, suffered from a lower post-crisis reputation, as well as a lower spillover effect. The results also portrayed that the domestic public was more eager to forgive the corporation under crisis translating to a higher post-crisis reputation and a lower spillover effect in comparison to the foreign public. This research reveals the complexity of the aforementioned concepts in relation to post-crisis reputation and crisis contagion and at the same time advises caution to managers and decisions makers in regards to applying these complex findings to their respective corporations.