Crisis responsibility is insufficient to explain organizational reputation
threat. To address the literature gap, this study used a 3×3 between-subjects
experimental design to examine how crisis types and response strategies
affect organizational reputation within the framework of image repair
theory. The design included three scenarios—bleaching water incident,
slashing incident, and illegal suture incident—and three response
strategies—rebuild, diminish, and adjust information. The results revealed
that the public’s perception of offensiveness is a key variable in assessing the
threat of a crisis. Perceived offensiveness can serve as not only an indicator
for classifying crisis types but also a stronger predictor of organizational
reputation than crisis responsibility. It also mediates the relationship
between crisis types and organizational reputation. The present study
established a moderated mediation model of crisis types and response
strategies for organizational reputation, and this article discusses the
findings’ theore