Industry-wide crises, characterized by multiple companies within an industry allegedly engaging in similar misconduct, lead to disruptions in the social order. During such crises, one or a few of the involved companies often attract more media attention and receive punishment ahead of the others. Will such punishments take the heat off other involved companies or increase their risk of further punishment? This research shows that the observation of these punishments increases consumers’ intent to punish other involved companies. Observing one involved company get punished signals that the involved companies are indeed at fault, thereby increasing consumers’ certainty in blame attribution. Subsequently, consumers increase their motive to restore social order and their intent to punish other involved companies. Four theoretically and managerially relevant moderators have been identified and tested. Seven studies involving secondary data and experiments with both hypothetical and real behavioral outcomes support the proposed effects.

行业范围内的危机，其特点是行业内多家公司涉嫌从事类似的不当行为，导致社会秩序混乱。在此类危机中，一家或几家涉案企业往往会引起更多媒体关注，并先于其他企业受到惩罚。这样的惩罚是否会减轻其他涉案公司的压力或增加他们受到进一步惩罚的风险？这项研究表明，对这些惩罚的观察会增加消费者惩罚其他相关公司的意愿。观察一家涉案公司受到惩罚就表明涉案公司确实有过错，从而增加了消费者对责任归属的确定性。随后，消费者恢复社会秩序的动机和惩罚其他涉事企业的意愿增强。已经确定并测试了四位理论上和管理上相关的调节器。七项涉及二手数据和假设和真实行为结果实验的研究支持了所提出的效果。