The responsiveness pyramid: Embedding responsiveness and interactivity into public relations theory

Responsiveness and interactivity are two terms that play an important part in any communicative process. Nevertheless, both academic studies and daily conversations tend to merge or transfer their meanings. Drawing on Rafaeli's interactivity model (Rafaeli, 1988) the purpose of this paper is to clarify the complex relationship between responsiveness and interactivity and to present the responsiveness pyramid, a model that suggests a clearer theoretical distinction between these concepts. In addition, responsiveness and interactivity are presented as relational maintenance strategies that may contribute to organization–public relationship building. This study is based on a field experiment and a content analysis of 799 organizational responses of Israeli businesses and nonprofit associations. The study reveals that organizational representatives, from both businesses and nonprofit associations, do not utilize the interactive and dialogic potential of their online responses in order to promote organization–public relationship building.