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Crisis contagion, or how a crisis spreads from one company to another, has received very little attention from researchers. This is surprising as the negative consequences of crisis contagion can be significant when customers make assumptions of guilt by association. This article focuses on this important issue and describes four risk factors-country of origin, industry, organizational type, and positioning strategy-that increase the likelihood of crisis contagion. Valuable guidance is also provided on whether a company should issue a denial or remain silent if it faces the risk of crisis contagion.

This article examines an important issue in crisis management: how to influence public perceptions of the news media's reporting of a crisis. Previous research has found that congruency between the regulatory orientation of a consumer and a product recall message-also known as the regulatory fit effect--increases compliance with a product recall request. Could the creation of a regulatory fit effect prior to reading a news article about a crisis also be beneficial to a company? Two separate experiments conducted in the United States and India involving crises in different industries (airline and tires) examined this issue, and found that contrary to previous research, reactions toward the company were more negative in termsofexpectationsfor a product recall and future purchase intentions. The findings revealed that these negative consumer reactions occurred because regulatory fit enhanced people's vulnerability to harm after reading the article. These results suggest that a company should consider creating regulatory non-fit in order to influence the public's perceptions of a crisis.