Abstract

This study explores gender differences in relation to the effect of corporate apology on corporate evaluation recovery when implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) to overcome corporate crises and the interaction effects thereof. Additionally, as a psychological mechanism of this effect, we examined the mediating effect of forgiveness. A 2 (apology: with apology and without apology) × 2 (gender: male and female) subject design was employed to examine the interaction effect of apology and gender. The data of 246 participants were collected through a questionnaire. Through the experiment, the following results are obtained. First, we found that the interaction effect between apology and gender for recovering corporate evaluation was significant. Second, the effect of apology on corporate evaluation was greater for women than men. Third, forgiveness mediated the interaction effect between apology and gender on corporate evaluation. Through this result, we confirm that when CSR is employed as a reactive crises management tool, the level of consumer forgiveness was higher when the apology strategy was employed than when not used. Additionally, women responded more to apologies than men because they exhibited more empathy for others. Therefore, when women are the primary agents of consumption and purchase, a sincere apology from a company may be important.