Public Relations 2018 Abstracts
Doug Newsom Award for Global Ethics Global Diversity
Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University; Sang (Sammy) Lee, West Virginia University; Ji Young Lee, WVU Public Interest Communication Research Lab • Being Bad Abroad: Effects of Stealing Thunder by Self-Disclosing Corporate FCPA Violations • Tensions between legal counsel and pubic relations counsel, especially during crises, are well established. For example, legal and PR professionals might find themselves at odds when an organization learns of its officials’ possible global ethics violations. Publics relations crisis best practices urge for quick, accurate, and full disclosure with publics; and the US government may require reporting; but legal and business teams may hesitate and request organizational silence, fearing image and financial concerns. Thus, this study seeks to investigate the public relations outcomes of voluntary disclosure to publics and the US government regarding corporate Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations. Primarily using the situational crisis communication theory and stealing thunder frameworks, this work offers a moderated serial mediation model of the effects of stealing thunder (i.e., self-disclosing crisis information first before a third party breaks the news). A 2 (stealing/thunder: organization vs. media) x 2 (corporate social responsibility history: CSR vs. no CSR) experiment probes participants’ responses. Results indicate a significant mediation effect of stealing thunder x CSR history on (a) attitudes toward the company, (b) perceived company ethics, and (c) investment intentions serially through perceived crisis severity and level of anger. Ultimately, results practically provide evidence to support legal teams joining PR teams for a transparent and perhaps more ethical approach to communicating about FCPA violations—while theoretically adding to SCCT and crisis communication literature by advancing knowledge about the mechanisms driving the scarcely researched but meaningful effects of stealing thunder in a global ethics context.
Open Competition
Alan Abitbol, University of Dayton; Miglena Sternadori, Texas Tech University College of Media and Communication • Championing Women’s Empowerment as a Catalyst for Purchase Intentions: Testing the Mediating Roles of OPRs and Brand Loyalty in the Context of Femvertising • This survey of U.S. adults (N = 419) examines company–cause fit, CSR association, purchase intention, organization-public relationships, and loyalty for four Fortune 500 companies in the context of messages that portray girls and women positively through empowering words and imagery. Results show consumers believe the women-empowerment messages fit with the tested companies. Company loyalty, by itself, or combined with OPRs, mediates the CSR association–purchase intention relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Tien-Tsung Lee, University of Kansas; Peter Bobkowski, University of Kansas; George Diepenbrock, University of Kansas; Patrick Miller • Research exposure: Associations between university news release features, news coverage, and page views • This study identified the features of a university’s news releases about faculty research and expertise that were related to news coverage of the university, and to unique page views on the university’s website. More than 800 news releases generated by one university’s news affairs office over nearly two years were examined. News release subjects (i.e., social sciences, arts and humanities), and the use of adverbs and distribution tools, were related consistently to news release effectiveness. Labeling the news release as an advisory, headline length, and the use of a video were not related to news release effectiveness.
Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University; Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University • Ultimate Crisis? An Examination of Linguistics and Ultimate Attribution Error in International Organizational Crisis • Through an experiment, this paper examines linguistics and ultimate attribution error in international organizational crisis. Findings suggest that attribution error exists when additional attribution information is minimal (e.g., low attribution victim crisis). Crisis attribution (crisis clusters) directly affects publics’ use of abstract language in describing and commenting on the social media crisis news. Results empirically test and apply two attribution-based theories, Linguistic Categorization Model and Ultimate Attribution Error, in international organizational crisis contexts.
Nicholas Browning, Indiana University; Sung-Un Yang, Indiana University; Young Eun Park, Indiana University; Ejae Lee, Indiana University; Taeyoung Kim, Indiana University • Do Ethics Matter? Investigating Donor Responses to Primary and Tertiary Ethical Violations • Using 2 x 2 experimental survey, the researchers examined how frequently committed (single vs. repeated occurrence) ethical misconduct regarding values closely aligned to an organizational mission (primary vs. tertiary values) affect stakeholders’ attitudes toward, support of, and relationship with an offending nonprofit. Findings showed negative main effects on attitudes toward the organization and donation intention. Additionally, perceived organizational responsibility for ethical misconduct and deteriorating organizational-public relationships (OPRs) significantly mediated the effects of primary ethical violations.
Zifei Chen, University of San Francisco • Examining the Impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Responses toward Company: An Alignment-Social Influence Model • An Alignment-Social Influence Model is proposed to examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by addressing its alignment with prior corporate associations and anticipated interaction on social media. Through a 2 (associations) x 2 (valence) x 2 (interaction: lurker vs. poster) experiment, three-way interactions showed lurkers who saw aligned negative eWOM had greater attitude shift than lurkers who saw nonaligned negative eWOM; no such difference was found for posters. Positive eWOM helped maintain positive attitude.
Ying Xiong, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Moonhee Cho, University of Tennessee; Brandon Boatwright • Hashtag Activism and Message Frames Among Social Movement Organizations: Semantic Network Analysis and Thematic Analysis of Twitter During the #MeToo Movement • In the recent #MeToo movement, social movement organizations (SMOs) establish an emotional bridge between the target public and the appeal for feminism. Applying both semantic network analysis method and thematic analysis, this study explored how SMOs address feminist activism and they use hashtags to participate in the #MeToo movement. Findings of the study enhance literature of social movement organizations and activism as well as provide practical implications for effective social movement.
Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Soo-Yeon Kim, Sogang University • Strategic Value of Conflict, Activism, and Two-way Communication: Examination of Activists’ Public Relations • This study investigated the relationships between activists’ perceptions of conflict, activism, and two-way symmetrical communication, and their use of public relations tactics, by surveying activists in Korea. Two conflict subdimensions, conflict and mediation approach, had significantly positive relationships with activism perception. Conflict approach had a positive relationship with a few legal and informational public relations tactics. This study found that activists are more likely to focus on informational activities through two-way symmetrical communication.
Angie Chung; Kang Bok Lee • Dealing with Negative Publicity: A Dual Process Model of CSR Fit and CSR History on Purchase Intention and Negative Word-of-Mouth • This paper proposes and tests a dual process model of CSR communication. Building upon the framing theory and associative network theory, the authors examine how including statements about a company’s CSR fit and CSR history in apology statements can impact purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. Perceived integrity, attitude towards the apology statement and attitude towards the company are the sequential mediators that will subsequently affect purchase intention and negative word-of-mouth. The results show that CSR fit will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. The findings also show that CSR history will positively affect purchase intention and negatively affect negative word-of-mouth through increased perceived integrity and attitude towards the apology statement, which will positively affect their attitude towards the company. For managers, the results of this study suggest that communicating a company’s CSR activities after bad publicity can help increase purchase intention and reduce negative word-of-mouth but two factors—CSR fit and CSR history—should be taken into account.
Hue Duong, University of Georgia; Hong Vu; Nhung Nguyen • Grassroots Social Movements in Authoritarian Settings: Examining Activists’ Strategic Communication and Issues Management • Triangulating 16 in-depth interviews with activists and campaign participants, news coverage, and social media content related to the campaign “6,700 people for 6,700 trees”, this study identifies activists’ strategic communication and its influence on a public protest in Vietnam. Results indicate that activists strategically used social media and interpersonal communication to advance an issue to the public arena. Activists’ unique strategies were key to the protest’s success. This study offers meaningful theoretical implications on issues management and practical lessons for activists on how to apply these strategies to foster social change.
Savannah Coco, Wayne State University; Stine Eckert • #sponsored: Consumer Insights on Social Media Influencer Marketing • Through in-depth interviews with 15 women, this study begins to fill the gap in scholarship on consumer perceptions of sponsored content posted by social influencers online. Findings show women follow social influencers because of prior topic interests, when they can relate to them, and find them authentic. But social exchange and relationship management theories cannot account for purchasing decisions despite negative views of consumers. We argue for a new theory called Influencer Relationship Management Theory.
Virginia Harrison; Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Pratiti Diddi; Jeff Conlin • What about Our Cause? The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Nonprofit Reputation • While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can boost a corporation’s reputation, little is known about how CSR impacts the nonprofit partner’s reputation. An online experiment tested how corporate reputation (high vs. low) and CSR message credibility influenced a high-reputation environmental nonprofit. While credibility and corporate reputation increased the nonprofit’s reputation, only the partnership with a low-reputation corporation increased supportive intention toward the CSR initiative. Implications for nonprofit CSR messaging are discussed.
Seoyeon Hong, Rowan University; Kyujin Shim, University of Melbourne • ETHICAL PUBLIC TYPOLOGY: How Does Moral Foundation Theory and Anti-Corporatism Predict Public Differences in Crisis? • This study proposes a new public typology utilizing Moral Foundation Theory and anti-corporatism. Based on a survey using population representative data (N = 1124), four ethical public types are classified as moralists, antagonists, optimists, and pragmatists. In testing the applicability of the new typology, our results suggest that ethical public types react differently in attributing crisis responsibility, expressing their emotional responses, and showing boycott intentions in evaluating a corporate crisis.
Hyun Ju Jeong, University of Kentucky • The roles of self-identity cues and public self-consciousness in supporting stigmatized causes on social media • The current study examines whether and when socially stigmatized cause (e.g., prochoice) campaigns can fuel the volunteering intention of young people through effective communication on social media. A 2 (self-identify cues: group vs individual) x 2 (public self-consciousness: high vs low) online experiment study found that the group-cues were more effective in generating the intention to volunteer than the individual-cues, in particular for those low in public self-consciousness. For those high in public self-consciousness, however, the intention to volunteer was not differently shaped by the type of self-identity cues soliciting the causes. Public self-consciousness negatively influenced the intention to volunteer. Theoretical and practical implications were further discussed.
Jeesun Kim, Incheon National University; Hyun Jee Oh, Hong Kong Baptist University; Chang-Dae Ham, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign • Leadership Matters: The Role of Values Congruence between Leadership Styles and CSR Practice in Corporate Crises • Studies have examined the role of CSR in the crisis context; but no studies examined the role of values congruence between leadership styles and CSR practice. We aim to fill this gap by conducting a 2 (crisis type) x 2 (leadership style) x 2 (CSR motive) between-subjects experiment. We found that insulating effects of CSR practice were maximized when leadership styles and CSR motives were congruent, but only when a victim crisis occurred. Implications are discussed.
Arunima Krishna, Boston University • Climate Change Lacuna Publics: Advancing a Typology of Climate Change Disinformation Susceptibility • The purpose of this study is to (a) identify lacuna publics about climate change, and (b) reconceptualize Maibach et al.’s (2009) Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation into a typology of disinformation susceptibility by integrating it with Krishna’s (2017a) operationalization of lacuna publics. Surveys were conducted among American adults to understand lacuna publics’ information behaviors compared to non-lacuna publics, and to identify individuals falling within four zones of disinformation susceptibility conceptualized in this study.
Seow Ting Lee, University of Colorado Boulder • H1N1 News Releases: How Two Media Systems Responded to a Global Health Pandemic • Pandemics, as non-linear, atypical health communication contexts characterized by high uncertainty and information scarcity, present a valuable opportunity for explicating the relationships between health authorities’ information subsidies and news coverage. This study is based on a two-country comparative analysis to examine the intersections of public relations and journalism in the U.S. and Singapore with respect to the use and influence of information subsidies in shaping news coverage of the H1N1 Influenza A pandemic. It examines framing characteristics related to episodic-thematic frames, gain- and loss-frames, and tonality and traces the development of framing devices in two public health agencies’ news releases to subsequent news stories about the 2009 H1N1 A influenza. Findings reveal parallels and differences, and salient patterns that are contextualized to assess the relationships of variants between the two distinct media systems.
Sun Young Lee, Texas Tech University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Yeuseung Kim • The Co-Creation of Shared Value: What Motivates the Public to Engage with Participatory Corporate Social Responsibility Activities • The purpose of the study is to explore contextual factors—an organizational factor and four issue-related factors—that might influence the public’s intention to engage with a participatory CSR activity, based on the scholarship on organization–public relationships (OPRs) and the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS). We conducted a survey with 698 respondents living in the U.S., and we tested the model across two issues (girls’ empowerment and deforestation). The results showed that constraint recognition, involvement recognition, and a referent criterion, and OPRs were significant factors, and that OPRs and involvement recognition were the strongest predictors. Problem recognition, however, did not have significant relationships with CSR participation intention. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.
Zongchao Cathy Li, San Jose State University; Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Linwan Wu, University of South Carolina • The Love-Hate Dilemma: Interaction of Relationship Norms and Service Failure Severity on Consumer Responses • This study aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes after service failure encounters with companies they previously established good relationships with. The study argues that consumers’ decision making is guided by the conformity or violation of relationship norms, and that their subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes are further dependent on the severity of the service failure. Through a 2 (relationship norm types: exchange vs. communal) ✕2 (service failure severity: minor vs. major) between-subjects experiment, the study shows well-maintained relationships can help companies mitigate the negative impact of service failure under the minor failure condition. Such a buffering effect holds true for both communal and exchange relationships. However, the study also evidences a counterintuitive situation where communal relationships backfire and induce more negative consumer responses than exchange relationships when the severity of the service failure becomes extreme. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Wenlin Liu, U of Houston; Weiai (Wayne) Xu, University of Massachusetts • Tweeting to (Selectively) Engage: A Network Analysis of Government Organizations’ Stakeholder Management on Twitter during Hurricane Harvey • The ability to manage a multitude of stakeholder relationships has long been viewed important for effective crisis management. With stakeholder communication increasingly taking place on social media like Twitter, however, it remains less explored how organizations may selectively engage with multiple stakeholders (e.g., citizens, NGOs, media, businesses) on this networked platform, and how engagement priorities may shift dynamically across different stages of a crisis. Using stakeholder theory for crisis management, the current study examines the stakeholder engagement network on Twitter by 42 government and emergency management (EM) organizations across three stages of Hurricane Harvey. Organizational actors’ reply and mention networks were analyzed, suggesting that government and EM organizations prioritize engaging with primary stakeholders including citizen groups and peer governmental agencies during crisis, whereas secondary stakeholders like media and nonprofit organizations are more prioritized only at post-crisis stage.
Hua Jiang; Yi Luo, Montclair State University • Driving Employee Organization Engagement through CSR Communication and Employee Perceived Motives: CSR-Related Social Media Engagement and Job Engagement • Employee engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been two important issues attracting an increasing amount of attention from both public relations and CSR researchers. A theory-driven model that conceptualizes employee social media engagement, job engagement, and organization engagement and explicates how they are related to CSR communication strategies and motives is still lacking. To place our study in the context of employee/internal communication and CSR communication, we proposed a strategies-motives-employee engagement model. Results from an online Qualtrics survey (n = 836) supported all our hypotheses except for the direct link between interacting CSR communication strategies and employee organization engagement. Interacting CSR communication strategies significantly predicted employees’ CSR social media engagement and job engagement. Employee perceived intrinsic CSR motives were significantly associated with all three engagement variables in our model. We conducted a two-step Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis to test all our hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.
Liang (Lindsay) Ma, Texas Christian University; Joshua Bentley, Texas Christian University • Understanding the Effects of CSR Message Frames and NWOM Sources on Customers’ Responses on Social Networking Sites • Negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) communication on social networking sites (SNSs) is influential to customers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. This study examined how strategic framing of CSR communication can better counter the effects of online NWOM, depending on the NWOM information source. Four hundred Starbucks’ customers recruited from a Qualtrics panel participated in this 2 (strategic framing: company-centered vs. engagement-centered) 2 (NWOM source: stranger vs. friend) online experiment. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Angela Mak; Song Ao, School of Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University • Revisiting social-mediated crisis communication model: The Lancôme regenerative crisis after Hong Kong Umbrella Movement • This paper intends to 1) identify how this case follows the regenerative crisis model, 2) explore the trends of emotions and engagement of different publics and Lancôme in the Social-Mediated Crisis Communication model, and 3) identify the roles and strategies used by social media influencers. An online content analysis revealed the interlocking connection among the involved publics. Followers’ emotional responses were not only attached to Lancôme, but also the re-framing strategies adopted by the influencers.
Menqi Liao; Angela Mak • “Comments are disabled for this video”: A heuristic approach to understanding perceived credibility of CSR messages on YouTube • Scarce research has focused on the technological aspects of social media in CSR communication. This study explored how bandwagon heuristics (more likes/dislikes) and identity heuristics (enable/disable commenting) influence the perceived source credibility assessment (trustworthiness, goodwill, and competence) on YouTube through a 2 x 2 experiment (N=108). No main effects were found separately, but an interaction effect existed towards perceived competence of the company. Implications of CSR communication research and effectiveness of using YouTube are discussed.
Brooke McKeever; Robert McKeever, University of South Carolina; Geah Pressgrove; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina • Predicting Public Support: Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving to Prosocial Behaviors • This study explores the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) through a survey of people (N=1,275) who supported issues they care(d) about in 2017, a year filled with social movements, natural disasters, and other important issues. Beyond finding support for the STOPS model in terms of predicting communicative action, this study found support for situational motivation influencing other behaviors, including volunteering, donating, and other forms of advocacy. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Rita Men, University of Florida; Cen April Yue, University of Florida • Creating a Positive Emotional Culture: Effect of Strategic Internal Communication and its Impact on Employee Supportive Behaviors • The study surveyed 506 employees in the United States to test the effect of strategic internal communication (i.e., corporate-level symmetrical and leadership-level responsive communications) on fostering a positive emotional culture characterized by companionate love, joy, pride, and gratitude. In addition, we tested the interplay between corporate internal communication and a positive emotional culture and its influence on positive employee behaviors, specifically, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee advocacy. Results indicated that symmetrical communication and responsive leadership communication cultivated a positive emotional culture in organizations. Such culture also fostered employee OCB and advocacy. Moreover, corporate symmetrical communication directly and positively influenced employee OCB. Finally, this study found that employee OCB positively affected employee advocacy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for public relations scholars and practitioners were discussed.
Tham Nguyen, University of Oklahoma; Robert Pritchard, U of Oklahoma • Enhancing Student Learning Outcomes from the Business Side of Student-run Public Relations and Communication Firms • Existing studies found pedagogical benefits of public relations and communication student-run firms. Yet, very little research has been done in this area. In a recent study, Bush, Haygood, and Vincent (2017) found that although interviewees placed the highest value on real-world experiences, developing soft skills, securing first jobs as well as career successes, student-run firms fell short in providing a better understanding of the business process and protocols of public relations and communication firms. This study examines the student learning outcomes from the business and financial side of student-run firms. Specifically, four research questions are proposed, including (1) To what extent are the students involved in determining services being offered?, (2) How do student-run firms approach potential clients?, (3) How do student-run firms formulate fee structure?, and (4) What business process and protocols do student-run firms teach their members? The study included an online survey, followed by interviews with firm advisors at different universities in the U.S. A preliminary report from the online survey data revealed that students mostly suggested offering multimedia/digital media services, or expanding their scope of services beyond their traditional services. Word-of-mouth and referrals were the most popular ways to recruit new clients, while sales pitches were undertaken only occasionally. Fee structures were formed depending on the firm’s business objectives and learning opportunities for students. Teaching business processes and protocols was also discussed. Theoretical implications for experiential learning theory as well as practical implications to enhance learning outcomes from the business side of student-run firms are offered.
Chuka Onwumechili • The Sun (UK) Newspaper: Strategic Audience Choice in Crisis and Reputation Repair • Organizations and individuals depend on the mass media to transmit a transgressor’s apologia to the public. However, agenda setting scholars point out that such a transgressing party (Organization or individual) is forced to depend not only in its ability to choose effective apologia strategies but also on the media to frame the apologia in ways that the party may be successful. Unfortunately, with most studies focused on transgressors who rely on media as third party, little is known of what happens when that third party (media) is the transgressor. This study on the Sun newspaper explores media as transgressor. It investigates the following: (1) how do other media react when a competing medium transgresses? and (2) how is audience reaction shaped, considering that the transgressing mass medium has direct communication line to that audience?
Jo-Yun Queenie Li, University of South Carolina; Joon Kyoung Kim, University of South Carolina; Holly Overton, University of South Carolina; nandini bhalla, University of South Carolina; Won-ki Moon, University of South Carolina; Minhee Choi, University of South Carolina; Nanlan Zhang, University of South Carolina • What Shapes Environmental Responsibility Perceptions? Measuring Collectivistic Orientations as a Predictor of Situational Motivations and Communicative Action • “This study investigates individuals’ cognitive, motivational, and communication responses regarding an environmental CSR issue using arguments from the situational theory of problem solving (STOPS) with a cross-situational factor as an antecedent. Survey results provide empirical support for the application of the STOPS in a CSR communication context and suggest that a collectivistic orientation predicts individuals’ situational perceptions and cognitive reactions toward organizations’ environmental CSR efforts. Theoretical and practical implications for strategic communicators are discussed.”
Yufan Qin, University of Florida; Rita Men, University of Florida • Exploring Negative Peer Communication of Companies on Social Media and Its Impact on Organization-Public Relationships • This study examined whether and how the publics’ negative peer communication (NPC) about companies on social media could influence the quality of organization-public relationships through the theoretical lens of social learning theory. It also explored the sundry individual (i.e., social media dependency, tie strength) and corporate-level factors (i.e., perceived corporate reputation, public interactions with companies on social media) that could affect the publics’ engagement in NPC behavior about companies on social media. Through an online survey of 356 social media users in the U.S. who have discussed negatively about companies and brands on social media and a structural equation modeling analysis, results showed that NPC about companies on social media negatively influenced the quality of organization-public relationships. Publics who were more dependent on social media and who had stronger ties with their peers on social media tended to engage more in NPC about companies. Publics who perceived a favorable reputation of the company were less likely to engage in NPC about companies on social media. Further, perceived corporate reputation and public interactions with companies on social media positively predicted the quality of organization-public relationships.
Hyejoon Rim; Jisu Kim, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Chuqing Dong • A Cross-National Comparison of Transparency Signaling in CSR Reporting • This study examines the level of transparency signaling in CSR reports in three countries: the U.S., South Korea, and China. By analyzing 181 CSR reports from 2014 to 2017 with a computer-aided content analysis program, Diction 7.0, this study found that the three dimensions of transparency signaling – participation, substantial information, and accountability in CSR reports were varied across different countries. In CSR reports, companies in the U.S. and South Korea showed higher scores in the participation and accountability dimensions than China, while companies in China showed high scores in the substantial information dimension. In CEO letters, we discovered that the U.S. companies emphasized the participation aspects, while South Korea and China companies underscored the accountability aspect of transparency signaling. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Erin Schauster; Marlene Neill, Baylor University; Patrick Ferrucci, U of Colorado Boulder; Edson Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University Singapore • Public relations primed: An update on practitioners’ moral reasoning, from moral development to moral maintenance • To understand how professional identity influences moral reasoning and guided by theories of moral psychology and social identity, 153 public relations practitioners working in the United States participated in an online experiment. According to the results, moral reasoning scores have remained steady since the last time they were measured in 2009. Professional associations appear to be a valuable resource for socialization as members of PRSA who, in addition to engaging in higher levels of moral reasoning than the average adult, report they have access to regular ethics training, ethics resources and mentors, and are familiar with their industry’s code of ethics. In addition, socialization in later career stages appears to incorporate aspects of maintenance rather than development, helping to sustain levels of moral reasoning. Other communication disciplines should take note of public relations’ strong commitment to ethics education and implement similar professional development opportunities.
Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Yang Cheng, North Carolina State University • The Relationship Exchange Theory: Organization-Public Relationship (OPR) in the Big Data Age • With the expressive behavior on social media in the big data era, public relations researchers can easily track the information flows among organizations and their publics on common issues over time. Instead of examining organization-public relationships at a static point by using experiments or surveys, this study posited the relationship exchange theory, including an issue-stance-relationship phase framework and the operational six relationship modes aiming to provide a longitudinal approach to examining the relationship dynamics among two or multiple parties. Empirically, this study presents a case study on the conflicts between McDonald’s and its activist publics. By tracking the changing stances of the organization and its publics longitudinally, results show how the relationship exchange theory can help examine the intensity and direction of OPR over time.
Hongmei Shen, San Diego State University; Hua Jiang • Dedicated to Our Work? An Employee Engagement Model in Public Relations • Engagement has emerged as an important concept in public relations scholarship. Yet a theoretically-informed model with a clear and coherent explication of the construct is still lacking. By situating our study in the internal context, we provided an updated conceptualization and operationalization of employee engagement and proposed a strategy-engagement-behavior three-step employee engagement model. Results from an employee survey (n = 568) supported our conceptual model, showing that organizational engagement strategies positively predicted employee engagement, which in turn accounted for employees’ positive and negative messaging behavior as well as their contextual performance behavior. After controlling for significant demographics variables of gender, age, organizational size, number of subordinates, and level of management position, we identified a complete mediation effect of employee engagement in our two-step structural equation modeling analysis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Melissa Dodd; Hilary Sisco, Quinnipiac University; John Brummette, Radford University; William Kennan • Developing a Measure of Social Capital for Public Relations • This research synthesizes literature in order to propose a comprehensive conceptualization of social capital as a resource- and exchange- based function of public relations that provides an ontological argument for the discipline as a whole. More than conceptualization, this research proposes and empirically tests a disciplinary-specific measure of social capital among a random sample of public relations professionals. Findings suggest some relational factors of social capital shared a significant predictive relationship with public relations outcomes.
Diana Sisson, Auburn University • Control Mutuality and Social Media Revisited: A Study of National Animal Welfare Donors • Guided by OPR, relationship management, and social media literature, this study employs an online survey panel to examine national animal welfare donors’ (n = 1,033) perceptions of control mutuality and its role in social media engagement. Findings suggest that heightened perceptions of control mutuality may have positive implications for social media engagement on a national level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for strategy development.
Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Cheng Hong; Wanhsiu Sunny Tsai, University of Miami; Bora Yook, University of Miami • Publics’ Communication on Controversial Sociopolitical Issues: Extending the Situational Theory of Problem Solving • Capturing a unique moment within a particularly volatile political climate where various issues such as climate change, immigration, and healthcare are increasingly polarized, this survey examines the factors driving publics’s engagement and disengagement in communications on controversial sociopolitical issues. It applies and expands Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) by integrating the theoretical insights from the literature of information omission and avoidance. Results not only support the applicability of the STOPS model in explaining publics’ communication on controversial sociopolitical problems but also the viability of integrating two new behavioral outcomes of information omission and avoidance into the STOPS framework. Theoretical and strategic implications on social issue advocacy are provided.
Jiun-Yi Tsai, Northern Arizona University; Janice Sweeter, Northern Arizona University; Elizabeth Candello, Washington State University; Kirsten Bagshaw, Northern Arizona University • Examining Efficiency and Effectiveness in Online Interactions Between United States Government Agencies and Their Publics • Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., email) has become indispensable for U.S. state agencies to respond to requests and engage with citizens, thereby contributing to build public trust in local governments. Despite the essential role of digital communication in enhancing public engagement, there is limited understanding of how government agencies manage generic queries to maintain relationships with publics. By synthesizing chronemics research and organization-public relationship (OPR) scholarship, we introduce an original Response Engagement Index (REI) consisting of response speed, communicated commitment, and conversational voice to measure various levels of communication engagement. We conduct a field experiment encompassing emailing a request for information to 438 state agencies based in New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Rhode Island. A total of 293 organizational responses were manually analyzed to reveal the usages of engagement strategies. Results show the interactive potential of e-government communication is largely underutilized as the average scores of response engagement remain low. Human responses are less engaging than auto-reply messages, and require one-day waiting period, if not longer. Response types and gender significantly differ in response time and engagement strategies. Findings advance the OPR literature and identify best practices for government communicators to promote citizen engagement.
Michail Vafeiadis, Auburn University; Denise Bortree, Penn State University; Christen Buckley, Penn State University; Pratiti Diddi, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY; Anli Xiao • Combatting fake news: Examining the role of crisis response strategies and issue involvement in refuting misinformation on social media • The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both nonprofit organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the current study attempts to shed light on the effectiveness of the crisis response strategies of denial and attack in addressing rumors on social media. Through an online experiment, users were first exposed to a fake news Facebook post accusing the American Red Cross of failing to protect its donors’ privacy because of an alleged data breach, and then participants were exposed to a version of the nonprofits’ rebuttal. Results show that highly involved individuals are more likely to centrally process information and develop positive supportive intentions toward the affected organization. In addition, low involvement individuals who were exposed to a denial response rather than an attack response rated fake news as less credible. Finally, the attack response was more effective for high involvement individuals (for whom privacy was important) than those with low involvement. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Rachel Deems, Moroch Partners; Jan Wicks, University of Arkansas School of Journalism & Strategic Media • Exploring Tweeting at the Top: Do Goods-Producing and Service-Producing Firms Appear to Set Different CSR Agendas on Twitter? • This exploratory content analysis examined how 33 Global 2000 companies portray corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Twitter, and whether the agenda firms appear to present varies by industry category. Goods-producing firms appear to set an environmentally-friendly agenda, tweeting about sustainable development and using interactivity to promote their agenda widely. Service-producing firms appear to set a customer-friendly agenda, tweeting about philanthropy topics affecting many people, perhaps to transfer salience to the largest number of stakeholders.
Chelsea Woods, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) • Responding to Product (Mis)Placement: Analyzing Crock-Pot’s Paracrisis Management • Social media can breed publicly visible threats, known as paracrises. In 2018, an emotional television episode sparked online chatter surrounding Crock-Pot, which effectively managed the threat, turning the event into a public relations opportunity for the brand. This case extends our knowledge of effective paracrisis management by describing how humor can be used alone or with denial, altering our perception of ‘credible’ sources during these unique threats, and introducing two new paracrisis management strategies.
Xiaohan Xu; Maria Leonora Comello, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Suman Lee, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Richard Clancy • Exploring Country-of-Origin Perceptions and Ethnocentrism: Implications for PR Efforts to Introduce U.S. Dairy Products to China • American dairy producers face an unprecedented opportunity to export products to China. This study examines the influence of country-of-origin effect and ethnocentrism (COO) in purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products by conducting an online survey of 505 Chinese urban consumers. Results suggest that purchase intentions of U.S. dairy products are positively associated with higher levels of affective and cognitive COO, as well as lower ethnocentrism. Implications for PR efforts are discussed.
Aimei yang, University of Southern California; Yi (Grace) Ji, Virginian Commonwealth University • The Quest for Legitimacy and the Communication of Strategic Cross-Sectoral Partnership on Facebook: A Big Data, Social Network Study • Nowadays, many wicked problems such as environmental issues require organizations from multiple sectors to form cross-sectoral alliances. Cross-sectoral alliance networks can transfer resources and they can also signal affiliations and value alignment between strategic partners. The communication of cross-sectoral alliances is a form of CSR communication that serves organizations’ strategic goals and objectives. Drawing on the literature on digital CSR communication and legitimacy theory, this article examines what legitimacy needs shape the formation of cross-sectoral ties on Facebook in addressing environmental issue and sustainable development issues in the United States. Combining data-mining, text-mining, social network analysis, and exponential graph modeling, this research investigates the structure of a network among 3071 organizations across multiple sectors. Findings show that organizations’ cross-sectoral tie formation is mainly driven by social legitimacy and alliance legitimacy needs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Su Lin Yeo, Singapore Management University; Augustine Pang, Singapore Management University; Michelle Cheong, Singapore Management University; Jerome Yeo, Singapore Management University • Emotions in Social Media: An Analysis of Tweet Responses to MH370 Search Suspension Announcement • Considered one of the deadliest incidents in the history of aviation crises and labeled a “continuing mystery”, the ongoing search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 offers no closure. With endless media attention given to the crisis and negative reactions of stakeholders to every decision made by the Airlines, this study investigates the types of emotions found in social media posted by publics to the MH370 search suspension announcement. It content analyzed 5.062 real-time tweet messages guided by the revised Integrated Crisis Mapping Model. Our findings indicated that, in addition to the four original emotions posited, there was a fifth emotion because of the long-drawn crisis and only two dominant emotions were similar to the Model. A redrawn version to better encapsulate all the emotions is offered for one quadrant in the Model. Implications for both crisis communication scholarship and the importance of social listening for organizations are discussed.
Xiaochen Zhang, Kansas State University; Jonathan Borden, Syracuse University • Linguistic Crisis Prediction: An Integration of Linguistic Categorization Model in Crisis Communication • Through two experiments, this study examines the relationship between linguistic choice and attribution perception in organizational crises. Results showed that abstract (vs. concrete) language in crisis news elicited higher attribution and lower purchase intentions. High (vs. low) attribution crisis led to higher usage of abstract language and that language mediates crisis types’ effect on purchase intentions. The findings empirically connect two Attribution Theory-rooted theories: Linguistic Categorization Model and the Situational Crisis Communication Theory.
Ziyuan Zhou; Xueying Zhang; Eyun-Jung Ki, The University of Alabama • Were These Studies Properly Designed?: An Examination of 22 Years of SCCT Experimental Research • This study examines the current state of the application of experiment method to studies investigating SCCT published between 1995 and 2017. Through a content analysis of 55 experiments in 50 articles published in 16 journals, the results revealed that the use of manipulation checks is questionable in the field. One-fourth of the published experiments failed to provide any information about manipulation checks, which poses a serious challenge to the validity of the experiments. The generalizability can be significantly improved if researchers set up crisis scenarios in diverse situations, such as a different way of presenting the stimuli, a different medium of the stimuli, a different industry the organization belongs to, etc.
Student
Sarah Aghazadeh, University of Maryland • “Recovery warriors”: The National Eating Disorder Association’s online public and rhetorical vision • This paper explores how organizations facilitate shared meaning with publics in an online context. I used Bormann’s symbolic convergence theory to identify rhetorical vision on the National Eating Disorder Association’s (NEDA) Facebook page. The results suggest that NEDA facilitated rhetorical vision of eating disorder “recovery warriors” by extending its rhetorical community and encouraging the “chaining” process. Lastly, I argue for theoretical and practical implications of NEDA’s efforts.
Brooke Fowler, University of Maryland, College Park • The internal angle of police-worn body cameras: A hommo narrans approach to understanding patrol officer perceptions of body cameras • Relatively little research is available on how patrol officers perceive body cameras. This paper conceptualizes patrol officers as an internal public and utilizes the homo narrans approach known as the theory-behavior complex, which combines symbolic convergence theory and situational theory of publics (Vasquez, 1993, 1994). Twenty six semi-structured interviews were conducted. This study adds to the limited number of homo narrans pieces in PR and proposes a new type of covert internal activism, under-the-table activism.
Virginia Harrison • “I Don’t Consider Myself a Corporate Fundraiser”: Understanding the Nonprofit Perspective in CSR Relationships • Taking an often-neglected viewpoint, this study examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships from the perspective of nonprofit beneficiaries. In-depth interviews with corporate relations officers at public research universities across the U.S. revealed three main factors have contributed to a rapidly evolving climate for corporate partnerships: CSR partnerships help universities build their reputations rather than endowments; feature new preferences in communication-based stewardship practices; and raise questions about university autonomy and authority. These findings contribute new understandings to how CSR-related communication creates mutually beneficial relationships.
Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Exploring Publics’ Expectations for Crisis Outcomes: A Communication Mediated Psychological Mechanism in Social Media Era • The study conceptualizes consumer publics’ expectations for outcomes, in times of a preventable crisis, as a construct with three dimensions—organizational accommodation responses, punishment of the organization, and societal level regulations. The study also develops a reliable and valid scale to measure the construct. Using an online survey in Beijing China, this work empirically investigates the degree to which publics’ crisis blame and varied communication behaviors (i.e., information seeking and online expression) serially mediates the relationships between publics’ causal attribution and various publics’ expectations. The simple mediation results of crisis blame indicate that the largest mediation effects were on the psychological mechanism leading to publics’ expecting the organization to be punished. Moreover, the findings regarding serial mediation—crisis blame and communication behaviors as two mediators—suggest that active information seekers expect organizational accommodations and societal level interventions. Active online expressers, in contrast, expect to see the organization punished.
Yingru Ji, The Chinese University of Hong Kong • Moderating Effects of Perceived Government Controllability over Crisis Outcomes and Consumer Collective Efficacy on Responsibility Attribution and Demands for Regulatory Interventions • Through an online survey of Beijing consumer publics, the study empirically examined a moderated mediation model of public demands for regulatory interventions. The findings revealed that as issue involvement improved, publics—who perceived both high levels of government controllability over crisis outcomes and consumer collective efficacy—attributed less responsibility to the in-crisis company and were less likely to demand regulatory intervention. The study also found that perceived government controllability had larger impacts on public demands for regulatory interventions than responsibility attribution did in China. By delineating the relationships among issue involvement, responsibility attribution, perceived government controllability over crisis outcomes, and consumer collective efficacy, the study outlines a comprehensive psychological mechanism of public demands for regulatory interventions in times of crisis.
Keqing Kuang; Sitong Guo, University of Alabama • Being honest to the public: Lessons from Haidilao’s crisis responses in China • On August 25th, 2017, the news was reported by Legal Evening News in terms of a restaurant in China named Haidilao Hot Pot’s irresponsibility to its kitchen hygiene and it went viral on social media and online news websites. Facing the scandal, Haidilao uses several crisis-response strategies to win back public support as well as to save its reputation and image. The purposes of this study are twofold: (1) understanding publics’ responses regarding Haidilao’s crisis communication, and (2) examine whether publics think the organization being honest or not. A content analysis is conducted through collecting publics’ comments and reposts on Weibo, a popular social media platform in China. The results indicate that publics respond to Haidilao and its crisis communication strategies positively and favorably in general, and results of perceived organizational performance of Haidilao are mixed.
Ejae Lee, Indiana University • Authenticity in Public Relations: The Effects on Organization-Public Relationships • This study aimed to explicate an organization’s authenticity, develop the authenticity measurement, and investigate the effects of perceived authenticity on OPR outcomes to address the implication of perceived authenticity of an organization in public relations. The study examined the validity and reliability of the proposed authenticity measurement with two constructs, awareness and consistency. The results of SEM found the direct and indirect effects of authenticity on transparency, trust, distrust, commitment, and switching intention.
Jungkyu Rhys Lim, University of Maryland • How Public Relations Builds Mutually Beneficial Relationships: Public Relations’ Role in Creating Shared Value (CSV) • Public relations strives to build mutually beneficial relationships. However, public relations scholarship has not clearly developed strategies for mutually beneficial relationships. Creating Shared Value (CSV) is one answer, as CSV strengthens the company’s competitiveness and improves the communities simultaneously. While public relations scholars have studied Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSV is understudied. This paper examines how public relations contributes to CSV and mutually beneficial relationships, through a case study on a multinational company’s CSV program.
Keonyoung Park, Syracuse University • Sharing the Problem-Solving Experience with Corporations: How Brand Activism Creates Brand Loyalty • Brand activism is a corporations’ advocacy on social issues. Although corporations’ social engagements have been already popularized phenomena, there are only limited academic attention on brand activism. Building on social identity theory, this study investigated brand activism as a shared problem-solving experience between publics and a corporation. The current study tried to suggest a comprehensive social media brand activism model showing the relationships between individuals’ activism engagement triggered by a corporation, brand trust, and brand loyalty. In doing so, this study conducted an online survey adopting the case of #AerieREAL campaign. Results showed that brand activism has impacts on mobilizing public engagements, which increase brand trust and loyalty. Practical implications of the study were discussed, considering both activism- and business-perspectives.
Patrick Thelen • Supervisor Humor Styles and Employee Advocacy: A Serial Mediation Model • This study examines how supervisor humor styles influence employee advocacy by building the linkage between affiliative humor, aggressive humor, supervisor authenticity, employee-organization relationships, and employee advocacy. Through a quantitative survey with 350 employees who work for a variety of organizations, this study’s results indicated that the relationship between supervisor humor style and employee advocacy is fully mediated by supervisor authenticity and employee-organization relationships. Significant theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Teaching
Gee Ekachai, Marquette University; Young Kim, Marquette University; Lauren Olson, Marquette University • Does your PR course syllabus excite, intrigue, and motivate students to learn? • The purpose of this study is to examine how a format of a syllabus influences student motivation and engagement in a public relations course and impression on the course and course instructor. The course syllabus functions as a pivotal role in evaluating initial course perceptions by students that could lead to student motivation to engage in classroom activities. However, there has been a lack of research that examines how a format—design or length—of a course syllabus can affect or promote student engagement in PR courses. To fill the research gap, two studies, focus group interviews (Study I, N = 10) and a lab experiment (Study II, N = 84), were conducted with undergraduate students. Results from the two focus group interviews revealed that students preferred the long version of the visually appealing syllabus. However, findings in the experimental study indicate the importance of a visually-appealing and short syllabus as an initial point of positive impressions on the course and instructor in a public relations classroom.
Hong Ji; Parul Jain; Catherine Axinn • Perceptions of Guest Speakers in Strategic Communications Courses: An Exploratory Investigation • Using linkage beliefs theory and focus group methodology, we conducted a systematic investigation to understand students’ perceptions of having guest speakers in strategic communications courses. Our findings suggest that students prefer speakers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences with whom they could relate and prefer to hear about tips related to networking, job search, and career advancements. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.
Carolyn Kim, Biola University; Karen Freberg, University of Louisville • Online Pedagogy: Navigating Perceptions and Practices to Develop Learning Communities • With the maturation of online education, there has been increased attention given to standards, motivations and best-practices within online education. This study is designed to explore the intersections between perceptions and practices that educators who teach online hold in relation perceptions and practices of students who are taking online courses. Implications from the findings on online education and ties to the recommendations from the Commission of Public Relations Education Report are noted.
Christopher J. McCollough, Columbus State University • Visionary Public Relations Coursework: Assessing Economic Impact of Service Learning in Public Relations Courses • Literature in public relations education on service learning offers strong examples of a wide variety of benefits, yet little is said about the potential long-term benefits for economic development. Given the obvious connection between public relations functions and successful businesses, this paper dis-cuss the course development, execution, and subsequent early indicators of economic impact of a collaborative project to promote a visionary arts venue and the community that neighbors it.
Amanda Weed, Ashland University • Is advertising and public relations pedagogy on the “write” track?: Comparing industry needs and educational objectives • Writing skills are paramount to the success of entry-level employees in the fields of strategic communication, yet sparse pedagogical research has been published in the past decade that specifically address methods to teach unique writing skills in the strategic communication curriculums. This study examines three unique categories of written communication—business writing, creative writing, and writing pedagogy—to provide a set of pedagogical recommendations that address the needs of the advertising and public relations industries.
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