The interplay between post-crisis response strategy and pre-crisis corporate associations in the context of CSR crises

How should a company respond to a crisis that is related to its social responsibility by capitalizing on consumers’ existing corporate associations? To answer this question, the present study focuses on two primary types of corporate associations, corporate ability (CA) associations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations, and proposes two different types of response strategies that are association-based: CA strategy and CSR strategy. Drawing on the framework of CA-CSR, Expectancy Violation Theory, and information processing literature, this study examines whether and how these crisis response strategies interact with consumers’ pre-crisis associations and collectively influence consumer reactions in times of CSR crises. Results of two experiments render support for the predicted interaction effect. Furthermore, the results show that crisis response diagnosticity and novelty, as perceived by consumers with varied pre-crisis associations, serve as the underlying process explanations that drive the observed interaction effect. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these results to crisis communication are also discussed.     

Corporate Associations Written on the Wall: Publics’ Responses to Fortune 500 Ability and Social Responsibility Facebook Posts

This is a quantitative content analysis of Fortune 500 companies’ Facebook profiles, wall posts, and wall comments. It confirms that a 3-part typology of message strategies—corporate ability (CA), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and hybrid—exists in corporate online social networking communication. As predicted, when corporations used CA strategies in wall posts, publics’ wall comments demonstrated greater CA associations and product evaluations than CSR associations and company evaluations. Likewise, when corporations used CSR strategies, publics showed greater CSR associations than CA associations. These corporate messages and publics’ responses in the real-world digital market support the synergistic model of corporate communication strategy.     

A two-path model of the impact of LGBTQ+ diversity CSR levels on public response

Since conflicting opinions and expectations of stakeholders about LGBTQ+ diversity coexist, companies contemplate how far to draw the line of CSR involvement in relation to LGBTQ+ diversity. This study examines how different levels of LGBTQ+ diversity CSR (i.e., proactive, passive, refusal) affect public responses. The proposed model investigates how public perceptions of corporate support for LGBTQ+ diversity (PCSL), influenced by CSR level, affects two dimensions of corporate associations differently (corporate ability and CSR association), and consequently CSR responses (supportive communication intent, purchase intent, and corporate evaluation in this study). The role of perceived value-driven motivation as a mediator was also examined. An online experiment was conducted with two Fortune 500 companies (Dell and Kellogg's). Overall, the results suggest that proactive CSR leads to higher PCS-L and better CSR outcomes among the general public than a passive or refusal approach. PCS-L, directly and indirectly, affects individuals’ CSR associations, which are mediated by value-driven motives. In turn, CSR associations positively influence publics’ supportive communication intent, purchase intent and corporate evaluations. As for CA associations, we found that they had a rather complicated relationship with PCS-L. Specifically, PCS-L had a direct negative effect on CA associations (Dell) or no effect (Kellogg), indicating possible backlash effects. However, higher PSC-L resulted in more favorable perceived motives of the CSR program, driven by the company's moral grounds and corporate values, consequently resulting in greater CA associations (positive indirect impact). Thus, perceived value-driven motives can offset potential backlash effects related to CA associations and corresponding CSR outcomes.     

The effects of CSR communication in corporate crises: Examining the role of dispositional and situational CSR skepticism in context

Although consumer skepticism about corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on the rise, research is sparse on the psychological dynamics of this skepticism, particularly when CSR communication serves as a company’s crisis response strategy. Employing two between-subjects design experiments, this study aims to fill this gap by looking at the role consumer CSR skepticism plays in consumer reactions to CSR communications in different types of crises. The study 1 results show that dispositional CSR skepticism did not moderate the effect of crisis type on attitudes and intentions when CSR was used as a post-crisis response strategy. The study 2 findings, however, indicated that situational CSR skepticism significantly mediated the impact of crisis type and CSR motives on purchase intentions only when the crisis stemmed from some accidental rather than preventable circumstance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Consumers’ responses to CSR activities: The linkage between increased awareness and purchase intention

The body of research showing the positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on consumer behavior has been growing steadily. However, previous studies have not characterized corporate behaviors in terms of their perception by consumers as significant CSR and researchers have paid little attention to consumers’ understanding of this notion of CSR. The present study explores the relationship between consumer awareness of CSR activities and their purchase intentions. This study employs a questionnaire survey involving Korean consumers. For the analysis, measurement scales for CSR activities and consumers’ purchase intention scales are respectively developed. From the results it is found that there is a significant positive relationship between these two parameters. This study finds out as CSR activities corporate social contribution and local community contribution affect consumers’ purchase intention while corporate environmental protection and contribution have no effects on consumers’ purchase intention.     

Hybrid happening: Organizational reputations in corporate crises

Public relations professionals strive to develop mutually beneficial relationships among key publics that will result in favorable organizational reputations, but crises typically threaten those reputations. Much of public relations crisis research focuses on how to respond after a crisis, but drawing on Expectation Violation Theory (EVT), this research focuses on the expectations of stakeholders before a crisis and how they process information during a crisis. Drawing from reputation management research in marketing, it conceptualizes corporate reputations as encompassing associations related to corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Reputation management research generally has investigated reputations as strong on either CA or CSR, but this research examines the effects of a “hybrid” reputation, which is strong in terms of both CA and CSR associations. The results of an experiment reveal that stakeholders’ responses during a crisis vary based on their expectations, how they perceive a hybrid reputation, and the crisis type. The study has theoretical implications regarding stakeholders’ information processing during a crisis, and it provides public relations professionals insights regarding how to cultivate and protect an organizational reputation.     

Making nice may not matter: The interplay of crisis type,response type and crisis issue on perceived organizational responsibility

Experimental findings suggest limited effects for corporate social responsibility (CSR) to inoculate a company prior to a crisis. CSR may be viewed as accommodative window dressing that diminishes resources to assure corporate competence. When an accident occurs, emphasis in crisis communication on corporate ability (CA) may be more effective than CSR, especially when corporate culpability is low.     

Company Post-Crisis Communication Strategies and the Psychological Mechanism Underlying Consumer Reactions

A theoretical framework is developed to explain the mechanisms that underlie the effectiveness of matching postcrisis communication strategies to the crisis types on relevant consumer reactions. Two studies are conducted regarding an actual crisis case: the Costa Concordia shipwreck on 2012. Study 1 provides evidence of more favorable consumer reactions to a company when confession strategy and preventable crisis are matched. The results verify that consumers’ emotions of anger and sympathy play a mediating role. Study 2 demonstrates corporate reputation's moderating role on the link between postcrisis communication strategy and sympathy and, through it, on consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses.     

Baoren Baoguo: Zhongguo Xinwenshi De Lingyizhong Dufa [To Serve the Nation: Journalists as Prisms of Chinese Press History] edited by CHIN-CHUAN LEE

Social networking sites (SNS) have become an important vehicle for corporate communication. However, there has been little research on how East Asian firms use international SNSs to communicate with global stakeholders. This study compares the communication strategies of Chinese and Japanese companies on Facebook and Twitter and analyzes the public responses and complaints on these corporate SNSs. The results revealed that in addition to the traditional strategies of corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR), Chinese and Japanese firms adopted the human interest (HI) strategy. The results showed that the Chinese companies in the study sample had a stronger preference for the CSR and interactive strategies, and they responded faster to online complaints compared with the Japanese firms, which were more likely to adopt the strategy of transferring in handling complaints. Moreover, “inviting participation into events” and “seeking specific feedback” were two types of interactive messages that received the highest numbers of responses from the public on Facebook, whereas “promoting sales” showed the highest engagement on Twitter. This study is the first to compare the effectiveness of different corporate response strategies for specific complaint topics on social media. Thus, it contributes to the literature on stakeholder–company interactions.     

College Students' Perception of Philip Morris's Tobacco-Related Smoking Prevention and Tobacco-Unrelated Social Responsibility

This study examined the effects of 2 Philip Morris corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs—a tobacco-related smoking prevention versus a tobacco-unrelated program—on college students' perceived CSR motive, attitudes toward Philip Morris, and behavioral intentions to support the company. Using 2 college student samples in the United States and South Korea, this study found that the tobacco-unrelated program and a positively perceived CSR motive elicited more positive responses about CSR values, attitudes toward CSR activities and the company, and behavioral intentions to support Philip Morris. Korean college students were more likely to perceive Philip Morris's CSR activities as mutually beneficial and to support Philip Morris than were American college students.     

When crowdsourcing in CSR leads to dialogic communication: The effects of trust and distrust

In this study, we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) crowdsourcing on dialogic communication considering trust/distrust as a moderator, as well as the role of dialogic communication in causing positive CSR and company evaluations. A 2 (crowdsourcing vs. non-crowdsourcing) × 2 (trust vs. distrust) between-subjects experiment was conducted using real company names. The results show that trust generated a higher perception of dialogic communication, CSR, and company evaluations than distrust. We also identify accessibility and grounding as the dialogic communication outcomes induced by crowdsourced CSR. A moderated mediation test shows that crowdsourced CSR leads to positive evaluations only when conducted by a trusted company through accessibility/grounding. As expected, distrust nullified such mediation effects.     

Dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) skepticism and their impacts on public evaluations toward CSR

This study attempts to examine the dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) skepticism and to identify the strongest predictor by testing the relationships between the skepticism constructs and public responses. The study further examines the role of cynicism either as an antecedent, a moderator, or a component of CSR skepticism. Through a series of model tests, three factors of CSR skepticism were identified to better predict public responses to CSR: (a) skepticism toward a company’s altruism, (b) disbelief of CSR messages and CSR activities, and (c) skepticism toward CSR informativeness. Skepticism toward a company’s altruism was identified as the strongest predictor in determining negative public response to CSR, whereas cynicism did not have much predictive power to explain public response to CSR; as a result, it was excluded from the final dimensions of CSR skepticism.     

Trading Diamonds Responsibly: Institutional Explanations for Corporate Social Responsibility

This article identifies factors that led to a comprehensive regulatory regime for the global diamond trade, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), established through negotiations among NGOs, states, and the industry. The conflict diamonds case provides important insights into the processes by which global norms redefine how corporations are expected to conduct business. First, we show that global corporate social responsibility (CSR) norms rooted in the construct of world citizenship facilitated the rapid progress of the conflict diamonds campaign. Second, we detail how these norms became institutionalized in the KPCS, stressing the importance of the legitimacy of NGOs as bearers of corporate world citizenship models and the role of moral leaders within the diamond industry itself. We consider two theoretical perspectives on CSR development: management theories, which are strong on practitioner issues but mute regarding the content and authority of CSR ideology, and institutional theories, which offer better frameworks for understanding the impact of cultural and institutional environments on company responses to the moral claims advanced by NGOs. We use the conflict diamonds case to draw conclusions about how NGOs can effectively define new social responsibilities that companies come to see as obligations they must heed as responsible world citizens.     

Exploring effective crisis response strategies

This study examines effective crisis response strategies using Coombs’ SCCT as a theoretical framework. Results of an experiment show that base responses (instructing and adjusting information) could mitigate reputational decline for a company during a severe, preventable crisis. The sole use of bolstering (reminding) strategy or no response is ineffective because it negatively influences consumers’ trust in the company, attitudes toward the company, perceived corporate reputation, and supportive behavioral intentions.     

Netizens’ evaluations of corporate social responsibility: Content analysis of CSR news stories and online readers’ comments

Analyzing stories about corporate social responsibility (CSR) published in two online Korean newspapers and reader's comments about them, this study investigated how the online readers interpreted the CSR activities, looking at the effect of CSR types, situations, and the degree of corporate fame. The study found that readers tend to be cynical toward CSR activities after a crisis and a monetary donation type of CSR. In addition, the more famous the company, the more likely there were cynical comments about its CSR activities.     

Issue contention and consumers’ reactions to corporate social responsibility: Challenging the dyadic assumptions

Two experiments (one fictitious on environmental CSR and one real-life on a company’s social advocacy on gun violence) were conducted to examine how issue contention affects consumers’ reactions to corporate social responsibility (CSR). Results of the two experiments suggest that while issue contention does not lower consumers’ agency, it makes consumers less likely to engage the organization based on their values and beliefs (i.e., symbolic avoidance) regardless of the organization’s viewpoints. The results also suggest that this effect does not directly extend to actual purchase intention, which indicates that actual purchase intention is confounded by both symbolic interactions and tangible factors such as price and corporate expertise. Results of the two experiments provide important implications for public relations research, challenging the dyadic assumptions of organization-public interactions and relationships and calling for further attention on inter-publics and inter-organizations dynamics.     

Can strategic message framing mitigate the negative effects of skeptical comments against corporate-social-responsibility communication on social networking sites?

This study connected framing theory with corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication literature to examine whether a CSR message that emphasizes customers’ contribution to CSR efforts can enhance CSR communication and mitigate the negative effects of skeptical comments from other users on social networking sites (SNSs). Specifically, this study examined whether a customer-credit-sharing CSR message, compared to a conventional self-promoting message, better mitigated the effects of skeptical comments from other SNSs users on values-driven motives perceived by customers, customers’ positive attitudes, and behavioral intentions. It also explored whether the effects of strategic framing changed when skeptical comments were made online by friends or strangers. A total of 400 customers participated in an online between-subjects experiment. The results showed that the credit-sharing message better protected perceived values-driven motives and positive attitudes toward the company after the customers were exposed to skeptical comments, regardless of who posted the skeptical comments. Customers who read the credit-sharing message also showed stronger intention to defend the company’s CSR efforts and stronger purchase intention when the skeptical comments came from a friend. More theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Corporate social responsibility communication of Chinese and global corporations in China

This paper explored how leading Chinese and global companies operating in China communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles and practices to the Chinese stakeholders through a content analysis of these companies’ corporate websites. It was found that companies usually take one of the following three major approaches in their CSR communication: CSR as ad hoc public philanthropy, CSR as strategic philanthropy, and CSR as ethical business practices. Furthermore, this paper examined the effects of country of origin and industry on companies’ CSR communication and found that whether companies are targeting at businesses or consumers has a bigger impact on their CSR communication than whether they are Chinese or global. Finally, despite a tendency towards convergence, Chinese and global companies still present their CSR principles and practices differently because of their different relations with major Chinese and global stakeholders.     

Strategic communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR): Effects of stated motives and corporate reputation on stakeholder responses

This study examined stakeholder responses toward two communication strategies of CSR motives: stating both self- and society-serving motives or only society-serving motives. How the effect of stated motives differs by corporate reputation was studied as well. The study found that acknowledging a self-serving motive reduces skeptical attribution and enhances stakeholders’ favorable intent to support, seek employment with, invest in, and purchase from the company. Possible backlash effects were detected when companies with poor reputations emphasize only society-serving motives and omit self-serving motives.     

The complex attribution process of CSR motives

This study examines how consumers reconcile two possibly contradictory motives (public-serving and firm-serving) to the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies in socially stigmatized industries. Our results indicate that consumers are willing to accept and give reputational credit for firm-serving motives behind the companies’ CSR initiatives, as long as they also perceive that the companies are sincere in serving public interests (i.e., high public-serving motives). Consumers highly engaged in social causes are also willing to accept firm-serving motives when they also perceive sincere public-serving motives behind the companies’ CSR activities.