Me, myself and my close brands: the effect of close brand relationships on forgiveness likelihood

This research examines how the diagnosticity of a brand’s transgressions and the closeness of the brand’s consumers work together to affect how consumers reduce blame on the brand. Through moral decoupling, brand forgiveness likelihood and subsequent repurchase from consumers are affected. In other words, the authors suggest that transgression diagnosticity and consumers’ closeness to a brand affect how consumers are able to morally decouple, or separate the brand’s morality and performance, which subsequently affects consumers’ forgiveness likelihood and repurchase intentions. In five studies, the authors test their proposed model, using several different dependent variables and end with a discussion on findings, limitations, and future research.