Enterprise reputation threats on social media: A case of data breach framing

Reputation threats on social media in the aftermath of a data breach is a critical concern to enterprises. We argue that any effort to minimize reputation threats will require an orderly assessment of how reputation threat manifests on social media. Drawing on crisis communication and social media literature, we analyze Twitter postings related to the 2014 Home Depot data breach. We identify a taxonomy of data breach frames and sub-frames and the related reputation threats as manifested by data breach responsibility-attributions and negative emotional responses. Results indicate that reputation threats vary for intentional, accidental, and victim data breach frames. Based on crisis stage theory, we also analyze the dynamics of evolving reputation threats as data breach situation unfolds on social media. Results suggest that the data breach frames and associated reputation threats vary across the crisis stages. Further, intentional and accidental frames increase subsequent responsibility-attributions and negative emotions. Tweets with responsibility-attributions further increase the subsequent generation of reputation-threatening tweets. Negative emotions, particularly anger and disgust, also increase subsequent reputation threats. Our study has implications for enterprise reputation management and word-of-mouth literature. The results yield valuable insights that can guide enterprise strategy for social media reputation management and post data breach intervention.