The Matching Effect of Destinations’ Crisis Communication

The match between destinations’ crisis communication sources and crisis types, and their impacts on tourists’ travel intentions, has not yet been investigated. This research explored the effect of destinations’ crisis communication on tourists’ travel intentions based on different crisis types (i.e., victimized and preventable crises) and communication sources (i.e., from the government, businesses, and other tourists). Results showed that crisis type had a matching effect on the impact process of crisis communication sources on tourists’ travel intentions. In addition, the mediation effects of tourists’ heuristic processing and perceived safety on destinations’ crisis communication–tourists’ travel intentions were confirmed. This study uncovered a matching effect of destinations’ crisis communication sources and crisis types. Results offer valuable theoretical and practical implications regarding destinations’ crisis communication agendas, crisis communication systems, and strategies for alleviating negative consequences of crises.

Major League Missteps: How MLB Mishandled the Astros Cheating Scandal

Major League Baseball (MLB) has been criticized for its handling of the Astros’ cheating scandal. Researchers used a case study method to test whether Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) should be expanded to include collaborative brand attack (CBA) as a crisis type. Researchers used traditional and extended SCCT to analyze MLB’s crisis response to determine which version fit best. Data were triangulated from sports news sources, MLB’s official statement and Twitter account, and social media influencer and stakeholder posts. Researchers asked which SCCT response MLB used and whether it was effective with stakeholders. Because of poor history, MLB’s accidental crisis response mismatched the level of stakeholder attribution of responsibility. Another question examined the role of social media. Major League Baseball underestimated the role of social media and SM influencers and, by underutilizing its Twitter feed, left stakeholders to attribute greater responsibility to MLB. Two final questions asked whether SCCT should be updated to include the CBA crisis type and whether it applied in this case. The results indicate the negative consequences of crisis/response mismatch and indicate that CBA should be incorporated into SCCT to address social media influence. This is the first known study to apply CBA in a sports context.

The Impact of the CSR-Embedded Crisis Response: The Role of Values Congruence between Leadership Styles and CSR Motives

Grounded in the values congruence proposition, this study examined the interplay between leadership styles and corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives in different crisis contexts. The results of a 2 (crisis type) × 2 (leadership style) × 2 (CSR motives) between-subjects experiment showed that the congruent combination of leadership styles and CSR motives maximized the insulating effect of CSR practice but only when the crisis type was victim. In a victim crisis, utilizing intrinsic CSR motives gained greater word-of-mouth intention and purchase intention when combined with transformational leadership than with transactional leadership. In a preventable crisis, the positive effect of values congruence disappeared and even backfired. More specifically, the congruence between transactional leadership and extrinsic CSR motives amplified the negative impact of a crisis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Organizational and Institutional Crisis Management

Research on organizational crisis emanates from multiple disciplines (public administration, international relations, political science, organization science, communication studies), yet basically argues that three main categories of crises exist: • Crises in organizations: often tangible, immediate threats or incidents that completely upset an organization’s primary process or performance, while both cause and problems are more or less confined to the organization and those affected by its malperformance. • Crisis to the organization: a threat or damage occurs outside of the organization at hand but implicates the organization by attribution of responsibility or culpability (for causing the problems or allowing them to occur). • Crisis about the organization, or institutional crisis: even without a tangible threat or damage, in a short period of time the organization’s perceived performance deficit becomes so deeply problematic that the organization itself is subject to intense scrutiny and criticism. Previously agreed-on values and routines, the structure, and policy philosophy of the organization are no longer seen as adequate or legitimate. The three types of organizational crises tend to have not only different causes but also different implications as to the commensurate crisis response, both functionally and politically. There is no single best response to organizational crises: appropriate responses are both commensurate to the crisis type at hand and to different phases of a crisis. Still, discerning between crisis typologies opens a research agenda to provide a better understanding of the relation between the internal and external dynamics of a crisis.

The Use of Crisis Communication Strategies in Emergency Management

As emergency management evolved to encompass a focus on supporting safe growth and development for communities, the role and responsibilities of government became increasingly complex with aspects of emergency management becoming quintessential. Issues with communication uncovered the need to understand how managers collect, disseminate, and adapt critical information through understanding crisis type and local community needs. This paper examines the use of crisis communication strategies in emergency management practice and how these strategies have been impacted by Situational Crisis Communication Theory. This theory’s prescriptive approach connects leaders’ response to strategies emphasizing adaptation to local community needs and crisis type. Utilizing structural equation modeling and qualitative analysis, results from a nationwide survey of county, and county-equivalent, emergency managers in the United States is included. The survey focused on the relationship between crisis communication strategies, local community needs, crisis type, and perceived resilience. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significant indicators impacting use of crisis communication strategies by emergency managers along with critical importance of adaptation to local community needs and crisis type. In addition, the paper unveils practical recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in the field of emergency management and its counterparts.

Focusing on the “Public” in Public Relations: The Importance of Person-Centered Messages (PCMs) in Crisis Communication on Twitter

Based on the theoretical frameworks of situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and person-centered messages (PCMs), this interdisciplinary study conducted a 2 x 3 experiment to examine the role of PCMs in crisis management on social media. Our findings suggest that crisis type (victim, preventable) has an effect on people’s perceptions/reactions toward an organization and that PCM levels (low, medium, and high person-centered messages) in crisis communication on social media influence organizational reputation and participants’ intention to post negative feedback about the organization in crisis. We suggest that when organizations are responding to crisis online, they provide additional attention to the interpersonal dynamics of those interactions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Impact of socio-economic growth and economic potential on the sustainable development of region

This article presents a methodological approach to assessing the real wellbeing of citizens in the territory of their residence. An attempt was made to comprehensively assess wellbeing, taking into account the economic factors of potential and growth. Moreover, under crisis conditions, these factors may demonstrate a different dynamic. The ongoing economic uncertainly inherent in the development of Russian regions has intensified with the unfolding of the Covid-19 pandemic. The structural heterogeneity of the domestic economy, manifested in the underfunding of human development, led to an increase in poverty, population decline and, ultimately, to a decrease in welfare. The principle of catch-up modernization has not justified itself for over almost three decades of its application. We propose a diagnostic approach to assessing the state of a region’s economy taking into account the dynamics of indicators and impulse response behaviour of turning points. In order to provide a timely manner of calculations, techniques of express diagnostics were used, which enabled estimation of the development trajectory in the context of a certain crisis type. The proposed methodology was tested using the example of the Ural Federal District.