Abstract: This paper explores how the interaction of entrepreneurs’ negative exposure events and entrepreneur’s image affect consumer perception of his or her image. To clarify the internal influence mechanism with the evidence from the previous literature, we divide entrepreneur negative exposure event into two types: incompetence and immorality. The results of the experimental studies indicate that: if the entrepreneur’s image is “Expertise” type, the difference of consumer’s evaluation on the entrepreneur’s image encountered with negative exposure between incompetence and immorality is not significant; If the entrepreneur’s image is “Trustworthiness” or “Attractiveness” type, consumer’s evaluation on the entrepreneur’s image will be significantly lower when the entrepreneur is encountered with immorality than incompetent.

Key words: entrepreneur&rsquo, s image