Timing and congruence effects of corporate social responsibility practices on social media crises in the tourism industry

Abstract

Purpose

Corporate reputation is one of the key intangible assets of a company and is commonly influenced by negative posts on social media, such as customer complaints. Up to date, no known research investigates the pre- and post-social media crisis corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on corporate reputation in the tourism context. This study addresses this research gap. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of CSR practices on corporate reputation in social media crises. The congruence of CSR practices was examined in this study in relation to social media crises using the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) theory.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental vignette method was used. Respondents were randomly divided into four experimental groups and a control group. Data was collected from 435 respondents in Hong Kong through quota sampling, in which age and gender are control variables.

Findings

The findings indicated that social media crisis recovery needs CSR practices to restore the corporate image. CSR practices are more impactful immediately after, rather than before, a social media crisis. Furthermore, the business scope of the company should be taken in the planning and enforcement of CSR practices.

Originality/value

This study extends the situational crisis communication theory in social media crises by using CSR practices. The CSR practice provides a unique role in crisis management. It could belong to a bolstering category that can be used together with other corporate crisis responses. Corporations in the tourism industry increase their exposure to sustainability both within and beyond social media. This research shows that this can be effectively accomplished through CSR practices that are congruent with the tourism industry.

企业社会责任实践的时机和一致性对旅游业社交媒体危机的影响

研究目的

企业声誉是公司的关键无形资产之一, 通常会受到社交媒体上负面帖子的影响, 例如客户投诉。迄今为止, 尚无已知研究调查社交媒体危机前和社交媒体危机后的企业社会责任实践对旅游企业声誉的影响。本研究解决了这一研究缺口。该研究的目的是调查企业社会责任实践对社交媒体危机中企业声誉的影响。本研究使用刺激-有机体-反应 (SOR) 理论检验了与社交媒体危机相关的企业社会责任实践的一致性。

研究设计/方法/途径

使用实验性小插图方法。受访者被随机分为四个实验组和一个对照组。通过配额抽样从香港的 435 名受访者那里收集数据是, 其中年龄和性别是控制变量。

研究发现

调查结果表明, 社交媒体危机恢复需要企业社会责任实践来恢复企业形象。企业社会责任实践在社交媒体危机之后立即产生影响, 而不是之前。此外, 在企业社会责任实践的规划和实施中应考虑公司的业务范围。

研究原创性/价值

这项研究通过使用企业社会责任实践扩展了社交媒体危机中的情境危机传播理论。 CSR 实践在危机管理中发挥着独特的作用。它可能属于可以与其他企业危机应对措施一起使用的支持类别。旅游业公司在社交媒体对内和对外增加了对可持续性的曝光。我们的研究表明, 这可以通过与旅游业一致的企业社会责任实践有效地实现。

Citation

Wut, T.M., Xu, J.(B). and Wong, S.-M.H. (2023), "Timing and congruence effects of corporate social responsibility practices on social media crises in the tourism industry", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 154-171. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-02-2022-0043