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The European Marketing Academy (EMAC) and the International Journal of Research in Marketing (IJRM) are pleased to announce the winner of the 2019 Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact:

Jill Klein and Niraj Dawar (2004), Corporate social responsibility and consumers’ attributions and brand evaluations in a product–harm crisis, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Volume 21, Issue 3, Pages 203-217

Abstract:

A growing body of research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in marketing has shown that (1) CSR plays a role in consumers’ brand and product evaluations, over and above economic or ‘rational’ considerations such as product attributes; and (2) CSR has a spillover or ‘halo effect’ on otherwise unrelated consumer judgments, such as the evaluation of new products. Yet CSR’s halo on consumer behavior may extend beyond product evaluations, into nonroutine types of judgments such as attributions. We examine the possibility that the CSR halo affects consumers’ attributions in a product–harm crisis situation. In two studies that employ experimental manipulations of prior CSR on a sample of consumers, we examine whether attributions that are influenced by CSR mediate the impact of product–harm crises on consumers’ brand evaluations. The results of Study 1 support the hypothesis. Study 2 introduces a boundary condition on the results of Study 1, showing that mediation effects are only found for consumers that are CSR-sensitive. The findings point to a role of CSR in consumer behavior that is more complex than previously conceptualized.

Selection Procedure

The Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award for Long-Term Impact is given annually to papers published in IJRM in recognition of their exceptional contributions to academic marketing research by demonstrating long-term impact.

A 4-member Award Committee, formed by the IJRM Editor-in-Chief and the EMAC VP of Publications, manages the nomination and selection procedure. For the 2019, the committee was composed of Don Lehmann (Columbia University, USA) (Chairperson), Benedict Dellaert (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands), Rosellina Ferraro (University of Maryland, USA), and Oliver Rutz (University of Washington, USA).)

The selection procedure for this award is as follows:

1. All papers published in IJRM 10 to 15 years prior to the year the award is being presented are eligible. Thus, for the 2019 Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp Award all papers published in the years 2004 through 2009 were eligible. Past winning papers of this award, papers authored or co-authored by Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, and by the current IJRM Editor-in-Chief are not eligible.
2. Nominations are invited from EMAC and IJRM Editorial board members. This year, the Award Committee received nominations for 54 papers. These nominated papers comprise the first ballot from which the IJRM editorial board can vote for up to 5 papers; self-voting is not allowed. The 10 papers that receive the most votes in the first round make up the ballot for the second and final round of voting in which the editorial board can choose only 1 paper.
3. After receiving the votes, the Award Committee deliberates on the winning paper guided by the following criteria: (1) the votes received from the IJRM Editorial Board, (2) its ISI and Google Scholar citations, and (3) its quality, as assessed by the committee’s in-depth reading. There can be two winners in exceptional cases (not more than once every 3 years on average).

Statement from the Award Committee

Companies have increasingly embraced the notion of corporate social responsibility and widely publicized their efforts in this area. Research has documented many positive benefits of this behavior. An interesting and important question, however, is what happens when a firm publicly dedicated to doing good does “bad”. The paper by Klein and Dawar explores this in the context of product failures that cause harm. More specifically, the paper explores whether the (generally positive) CSR provides some protection in the case where the company’s product fails and causes harm.

The paper focuses on how attributions of blame (e.g., whether the cause is the firm’s or external circumstances) are impacted by CSR. The results of Study 1 show that CSR does in fact reduce blame by, for example, reducing the beliefs that the firm will have repeated problems or has control over the problem. A second study then demonstrates the effect is stronger for customers who placed more emphasis on CSR.

This paper received the most notes of the IJRM Editorial Board by a clear margin and was approved unanimously by the award committee. It has been widely noted as evidence by the fact that it has 425 Web of Science and 1335 Google Scholar cites which make it the second most cited paper among the top initial round award nominees.

We congratulate the authors for receiving this award.

Don Lehmann
Chairperson
Columbia University, USA

Benedict Dellaert
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands

Rosellina Ferraro
University of Maryland, USA

Oliver Rutz
University of Washington, USA

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