Silence is golden? Mitigating different types of online firestorms of Fortune 100 corporations on Twitter

IF 4.1 3区管理学 Q2 BUSINESS Public Relations Review Pub Date : 2023-10-13 DOI:10.1016/j.pubrev.2023.102391

Jiayu Gina Qu , Jingjing Yi , Wanjiang Jacob Zhang , Charles Yu Yang

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Abstract

Guided by crisis communication literature, the study addresses the importance of sentiments in corporate online firestorms, with a focus on the effectiveness of different immediate response strategies (explanatory vs. sympathetic response vs. silence) on mitigating the negative sentimental discussions and engagement behaviors. It also aims to clarify the relationship between different types of online firestorms (ability vs. social responsibility online firestorms) and intensity of negative sentiments from the online public. Leveraging unobtrusive data and computational methods, we employed a DID design to test the causal effects of response strategies on 335 online firestorms on Twitter to answer the concerned questions. Results showed that silence strategy functioned better than the other two strategies in reducing the negative sentiments and engagement behaviors in online firestorms on Twitter. Moreover, sympathetic response strategy would rather elicit more likes and retweets engagement behaviors in social responsibility-online firestorms than in ability-online firestorms. This study also revealed that there were generally more social responsibility online firestorms than ability-related ones on Twitter, whereas no sentiment differences were identified in the two types of online firestorms. Theoretical advancement, practical implications, and methodological contribution were discussed in detail.

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沉默是金？缓解《财富》100强企业在推特上的不同类型的网络风暴

在危机沟通文献的指导下，该研究探讨了情绪在企业网络风暴中的重要性，重点关注不同的即时反应策略（解释性反应与同情性反应与沉默）在缓解负面情绪讨论和参与行为方面的有效性。它还旨在澄清不同类型的网络风暴（能力与社会责任网络风暴）与网络公众负面情绪强度之间的关系。利用不引人注目的数据和计算方法，我们采用DID设计来测试应对策略对推特上335场在线风暴的因果影响，以回答相关问题。结果表明，沉默策略在减少推特网络风暴中的负面情绪和参与行为方面比其他两种策略效果更好。此外，同情回应策略更倾向于在社会责任网络风暴中引发更多的点赞和转发参与行为，而不是在能力网络风暴中。这项研究还表明，网络上的社会责任风暴通常比推特上的能力相关风暴更多，而在这两种类型的网络风暴中没有发现情感差异。详细讨论了理论进展、实际意义和方法学贡献。

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来源期刊

Public Relations Review Multiple-

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

19.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Public Relations Review is the oldest journal devoted to articles that examine public relations in depth, and commentaries by specialists in the field. Most of the articles are based on empirical research undertaken by professionals and academics in the field. In addition to research articles and commentaries, The Review publishes invited research in brief, and book reviews in the fields of public relations, mass communications, organizational communications, public opinion formations, social science research and evaluation, marketing, management and public policy formation.