Abstract: The spillover effects of corporate misconduct refer to the positive or negative changes in the stock prices, reputation, resources, and opportunities of bystander firms that are not directly involved in the misconduct, resulting from the wrongdoing of other firms. Current theories predominantly focus on industry or product similarity, using shared characteristics to explain both positive and negative spillover effects. However, few studies simultaneously consider both types of effects, leading to a lack of theoretical integration in the literature. From the perspective of attributional cognitive processes, this study constructs a unified theoretical framework to explain and integrate both positive and negative spillover effects of corporate misconduct. Specifically, this study clarifies that the direction of spillover depends on stakeholders’ “attribution locus” regarding the cause of the incident: if the cause is attributed solely to the perpetrator (isolated attribution), it leads to positive spillover; if the cause is perceived as a systemic issue shared by a broader organizational group (systemic attribution), it results in negative spillover. Furthermore, this research indicates that the nature of misconduct and its multidimensional attributes influence stakeholders’ attribution choices. Additionally, the study explores the moderating role of corporate reputation and the multidimensional attributes of behavior in the attribution process, providing a cross-industry theoretical tool for anticipating and managing the spillover effects of misconduct.

Key words: Stakeholder perception, corporate misconduct, spillover effect, attribution cognitive process