Analysis of the Interactive Relationship Between Apology and Product Involvement in Crisis Communication

Abstract

This study explores the interactive relationship between apology, as a crisisresponse strategy used in the current Toyota recall crisis, and product involvement in influencing the restoration of the organization's reputation Downloaded from and customers' future purchase intentions. The authors measured the impact of the interaction between participants' perception of an apology and their product-involvement levels using a 2 (perception of apology: high sincerity vs. low sincerity) Â 2 (product involvement: high vs. low) experiment design. The results showed that an apology was an effective strategy for repairing the organization's reputation for those participants who were highly involved and perceived the strategy as highly sincere, but it did not increase their purchase intentions.

Humour as a double‐edged sword in response to crises versus rumours: The effectiveness of humorously framed crisis response messages on social media

“…A crisis response that the public perceives as sincere may result in less negative perceptions among stakeholders (Claeys & Cauberghe, ; Claeys et al., ; Kim & Cameron, ). This may have a positive effect on organizational reputation repair and increase future purchase intentions (Choi & Chung, ). With regard to the effects of emotional message framing, Claeys et al.…”

“…Moreover, in crisis communication, sincerity is always expressed through showing one's regret or sorrow for wrongdoings in a serious message‐seeking forgiveness (Benoit, ; Choi & Chung, ). However, expressing humour is a rather playful reaction, which usually conveys a nonserious attitude (Sorensen, ).…”

“…A sincere message should be perceived as heartfelt and expressed with genuineness (Risen & Gilovich, 2007). Attributions of crisis responsibility may be affected by the degree to which the organizational response to the crisis is considered to be sincere (Choi & Chung, 2012;Risen & Gilovich, 2007). A crisis response that the public perceives as sincere may result in less negative perceptions among stakeholders (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2014a;Claeys et al, 2013;Kim & Cameron, 2011).…”

“…A crisis response that the public perceives as sincere may result in less negative perceptions among stakeholders (Claeys & Cauberghe, 2014a;Claeys et al, 2013;Kim & Cameron, 2011). This may have a positive effect on organizational reputation repair and increase future purchase intentions (Choi & Chung, 2012). With regard to the effects of emotional message framing, Claeys et al (2013) revealed that perceptions of sincerity positively mediate the impact of organizational emotional (sadness) message framing on postcrisis organizational reputation.…”

“…When a crisis response message is perceived as insincere, the message will be of little or no value to the public. It may even evoke counterarguments resulting in a damage of organizational reputation (Choi & Chung, ). Hence, we expect that using humour in crisis communication may lead to a decrease in the perceived sincerity of the organizational response, because humour can reflect a lack of concern and empathy for a serious situation (Sorensen, ).…”