ABSTRACT
This chapter puts forward and then operationalizes a framework delineating the relationships between corporate reputation, brand crisis, and customer loyalty in a fast expanding sub-Saharan African economy and an advanced developed economy. Study one involved extensive qualitative studies involving executives and experts in Ghana and the United States. In study two, data were collected from 525 members of the general public in Ghana while 321 members of the general public in the United States were surveyed using a drop-off-and-collect simple random sampling approaches. The results are interesting and demonstrate evidence of statistically significant relationships among corporate reputation, brand crisis, and customer loyalty, but at the same time the findings contradict extant studies which show that brand crisis has a negative effect on customer loyalty. Study one in particular (qualitative analysis) works to explain these contradictory findings. Specifically, not only does brand crisis influence customer loyalty but the reverse relationship also exists. Additionally, there is evidence of a moderating effect of attribution on the relationship between brand crisis and corporate reputation in the United States sample but not in the Ghana sample.
