Crisis communication and corporate reputation on Twitter: How companies deal with it?

Abstract

Despite the numerous studies in the field of crisis management and corporate reputation, there is a lack of studies that study this field in the Saudi context, especially using social media. Therefore, this study aims to add a contribution in this area. A qualitative approach was adopted using virtual ethnography to monitor the interactive activity between the National Dairy Company and its customers while communication via Twitter during crises. The data was analysed by qualitative content analysis using the unit of meaning as the unit of analysis. The findings suggest that the company, in its first crisis, adopted the excuse strategy. In the second crisis, the strategy of denial was used. In the context of a consumer products company, the denial strategy is believed to be more effective than the excuse strategy in terms of quelling the intense attack by consumers via Twitter. However, it is uncertain why the company used these strategies. The aim of this study was to explore whether communication strategies have a direct impact on managing consumer product companies’ crises or not. The results proposes further exploration in future studies of the effect of corporate reputation on consumer purchase intentions of consumer products. In addition, the impact of the boycott campaigns in Saudi Arabia on the reputation of consumer products companies. Regarding the limitations of this study, it is believed that virtual ethnography based on pure observation may lack the accuracy of obtaining answers due to the lack of direct communication with the respondents. In addition, it is not possible to generalise the findings of this research to all companies, due to the different nature of commercial activities and the difference of factors affecting them.