Repairing damaged reputations through targeted poverty alleviation: Evidence from private companies’ strategies to deal with negative media coverage

When negative media coverage causes reputational crises, companies must find suitable tools to repair their reputation and reverse their negative image. As a CSR activity with political- and livelihood-related implications, targeted poverty alleviation may be an effective tool. Using data on negative media coverage of Chinese A-share private listed companies, we examine whether companies engage in targeted poverty alleviation in response to reputational crises caused by negative media coverage. We find that negative media coverage leads private companies to engage more actively and intensively in targeted poverty alleviation because of the significant increase in public attention to the bad news. These companies must urgently rebuild their positive image using targeted poverty alleviation to resolve their public opinion crisis. Further analyses suggest that original and in-depth negative media coverage is more likely to cause companies’ active participation in targeted poverty alleviation. In addition, negative media coverage is more likely to lead companies to engage in targeted poverty alleviation when they are in heavily polluting industries or face greater pressure from external investors. Finally, we find that active involvement in targeted poverty alleviation helps companies improve their market reputation and thus effectively manage public relations crises caused by negative media coverage.