Brand quality crises and supplier trade credit: evidence from CCTV 3·15 gala exposures

Purpose Trade credit represents a critical yet underexplored dimension of supply chain relationships, reflecting suppliers' comprehensive assessment of counterparty reliability. This study examines how brand quality crises reshape trade credit relationships between suppliers and affected enterprises in the Asia-Pacific context, and investigates the moderating roles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and media scrutiny pressure. Design/methodology/approach Using exposures from China's state-broadcasted annual consumer rights program, the CCTV 3·15 Gala, as an exogenous shock, this study applies a difference-in-differences framework to Chinese A-share listed companies over 2011–2021 (14,826 firm-year observations). Multiple robustness checks are conducted, including alternative dependent variables, stricter treatment group criteria, manufacturing subsamples, extended lag structures, and propensity score matching-difference-in-differences estimation, complemented by parallel trends, placebo validation, and Callaway-Sant'Anna group-time ATT estimation to address staggered treatment timing. Findings Brand quality crises are associated with notable reductions in trade credit across both credit amounts and payment duration. The effect is more pronounced among private enterprises and firms with high terminal consumer exposure industries. Accumulated CSR performance attenuates this negative association, while stronger negative media scrutiny pressure amplifies it. Originality/value This study extends brand quality crisis research from capital markets to supply chain financing relationships, addressing the underexplored supplier-side response mechanisms in crisis literature. By showing how reputational capital and the external information environment jointly condition supplier trust under crisis shocks, it offers new empirical support for extending signaling theory to Asia-Pacific supply chain contexts.