The Impact of Brand Crisis Types on Willingness to Pay in Online Shopping Platforms: The Moderating Role of Product Types

In the current highly digitalized business environment with increasingly fierce brand competition, the frequent occurrence of brand crises has become a significant challenge for enterprise management. This study focuses on the impact mechanism of brand crisis types (performance-based vs. moral-based) on consumers’ Willingness to Pay (WTP), introducing perceived risk as a mediating variable and product types (utilitarian vs. hedonic) as a moderating variable to construct a three-stage experimental research model for empirical exploration. The results show that: brand crisis types have a significant negative impact on consumers’ WTP; there is an interaction effect between brand crisis types and product types; perceived risk plays a mediating role between brand crisis types and WTP. Further research reveals that performance-based crises are more likely to trigger a significant increase in perceived risk for utilitarian products, thereby reducing consumers’ WTP, while moral-based crises have a stronger negative effect on hedonic products. Moreover, product types further moderate the path intensity of brand crises on consumers’ perceptions and behaviors. This study not only enriches the theoretical foundation of brand crisis management and consumer behavior research but also provides a scientific basis for enterprises to formulate precise marketing strategies and product positioning when facing different types of brand crises. Especially against the background of technology-driven industries such as AI and consumer electronics, it provides a systematic analytical perspective and empirical support for brand strategic management and consumer psychological prediction.