How did consumers of McDonald's remain loyal after negative publicity?. Overview of a fast food brand crisis in China

      Аннотация: China food safety scandal caused a crisis of trust in food encompassing McDonald's products. This paper aimed to explore the effectiveness of multiple customer trust repair efforts on loyalty of customers in fast food industry following negative publicity. The survey method is applied to obtain data from 850 respondents through email invitations, social medias and the customers from five random-selected McDonald's restaurants in Shanghai, China. The study used a structural equation modeling to evaluate data reliability and validity in the measurement model and tested the research hypothesis in the structural model. Data analysis shows that among trust repair efforts, only functional repair has no direct effect on dimensions of trust. In addition, all three trust facets positively and significantly affect customer loyalty. The target market of this study is selected only from a limited section of fast food customers in Shanghai. The researchers and management in fast food industry can exploit the results to uphold and improve customers' loyalty formation in times of crisis.

Ключевые слова: Trust repair efforts, customer loyalty, Fast food restaurant, Negative publicity.