Companies are increasingly held accountable for their corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). However, the extent to which a CSI event causes damage to the firm largely depends on the coverage of this event in high-reach news media. Using the theory of news value developed in communications research, the authors explain the amount of media coverage by introducing a set of variables related to the event, the involved brand, and media outlet. The authors analyze a sample of 1,054 CSI events that were reported in 77 leading media outlets in five countries in the period 2008–2014. Estimation results reveal a significant number of drivers: for example, the number of media covering the story may be 39% higher for salient and strong brands. 80% more media report the event if a foreign brand is involved in a domestic CSI event. When a brand advertises heavily or exclusively in a news medium, this reduces the likelihood of the news medium to cover negative stories about the brand. The average financial loss at the U.S. stock market due to a CSI event amounts to US$ 321 million. However, the market only reacts to the event if 4 or more U.S. high-reach media outlets report on the event.

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This article proposes that managers may use local consumer culture (LCC), or the culture of one’s home country, in their brand-building activities by adapting the brand’s positioning to the country image the brand targets. It introduces the concept of brand image–country image (BICI) fit, which measures the extent to which consumers in a specific country perceive a brand image as being congruent with their home country’s image. Using more than 350,000 brand-respondent observations across three countries, we develop and empirically illustrate a multiattribute methodology for operationalizing BICI fit and provide robust evidence that BICI fit is positively associated with consumers’ brand evaluations. A large number of validity and robustness tests support the proposed BICI fit metric and the findings derived from it. For example, we find that age, education, being female, and need for structure enhance the BICI fit effect, whereas materialism diminishes it. Furthermore, BICI fit matters more in categories that are closely tied to a local cultural context or that are characterized by high purchase risk. Given its multiattribute nature, the proposed BICI fit metric identifies concrete image attributes and thereby provides managers with an effective way to develop or revise LCC positioning plans for their brands.

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