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The aim of this paper is to study the development of a smoldering crisis over time. The focus is on a nationwide news media and online news communication related to a smoldering crisis running in the Danish healthcare system since 2016: the problematic implementation of a large-scale electronic health record (EHR), technology entitled Sundhedsplatformen (SP), in the hospitals of the capital region of Denmark.

Based on insights from crisis communication theories and in particular rhetorical arena theory (RAT), traces of SP smoldering crisis and patterns of discursive strategies are identified and explained from a longitudinal perspective to explain the communicative complexity that characterizes this smoldering crisis. To build an understanding of how this smoldering crisis is perceived, followed and kept alive, an analysis of (de)legitimation discursive strategies employed strategically by various actors and voices in news articles is conducted in relation to four communicative themes: issue identification, warnings, blame attribution and potential solutions.

It has been found that a legitimacy deficit emerges communicatively through specific (de)legitimation strategies during this smoldering crisis. New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are also provided.

This study is not only of theoretical relevance, but it is also of practical relevance for public relation professionals who aim to identify characteristics of starting smoldering crises as well as to find strategic responses to the ongoing challenges and the developing over time of smoldering crises.

New insights into RAT (Frandsen and Johansen, 2017) are provided.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

When Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in September 2005, there was one organization that stood head and shoulders above the others in helping the communities survive the chaos and devastation that followed. Immediately after the hurricane struck, key Wal‐Mart employees acted instinctively and decisively by opening up their stores and giving out vital supplies of food, water and clothing to victims in the area. In addition, the company's CEO, Lee Scott, sent $3 million of supplies by haulage and contributed a further $17 million in cash to the relief efforts. Because they had an effective crisis management process in place, Wal‐Mart was able to re‐open 113 of its 126 stores affected by the hurricane just 18 days after disaster struck.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

This study aims to examine whether social capital contributes to service firms' resilience during crisis.

This study measures social capital via environmental and social (ES) ratings and firm performance via buy-and-hold-abnormal returns derived from Refinitiv ESG and CRSP databases. Using a sample of 404 US service firms, this study runs cross-sectional regressions to estimate the effect of social capital on service firms' crisis returns.

This study finds that high-social capital service firms outperformed in the first quarter of 2020. The crisis response is heterogeneous among service sub-sectors and diverges (i.e. calming or deepening) over time depending on social capital. Service sub-sector analysis notably posits that social capital impact is positively related to returns of Health- and Business Services and firms with utilitarian nature. The study also indicates that ES commitments targeting internal stakeholders contribute more to resilience. Overall, social capital might be a relevant value driver, generate real impact and provide insurance-like protection for service firms during turmoil.

The service industry is one of the most severely hit industries during COVID-19. However, there is limited knowledge about whether and when social capital creates value in the service industry during crises. This study makes two main contributions: first, it extends to the continuous efforts toward the role of social capital in firm performance, and second, it provides important insights related to the resilience search for service firms.

Crises of any type have become an integral part of business activity and responses to them could make the difference between survival and failure. This applies in particular to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Taking the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as a starting point, this study aims to investigate how Peruvian SMEs have been coping with COVID-19 so far. Based on that a conceptual framework is proposed which highlights the practice of SMEs trying to deal with a new type of crisis.

The study is based on an exploratory qualitative research design involving 25 semi-structured interviews conducted in Peruvian SMEs.

The findings demonstrate how the Peruvian firms studied to adapt to the new situation and initiate responses to increasing the chance of survival. Furthermore, the role of the companies’ decision-makers, as well as the role of crisis management and other related approaches in the companies are shown.

The paper expands the underdeveloped body of knowledge regarding crisis management in Latin America in general and crisis management in SMEs by providing insight into how Peruvian SMEs perceive and adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings presented in this paper have implications for both managers and managerial staff of SMEs but also for the people in charge of the curricula at universities and other teaching-focused institutes.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study of crisis management on the impacts of COVID-19 with a dedicated focus on SMEs from Latin America. It provides fresh insight into current reactions to the Pandemic.

Following a report released by the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, multinational corporations like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon found themselves in a firestorm of criticism for not paying or paying minimal taxes after earning significant profits in the UK for the past three years. Allegations of tax evasion led to a serious crisis for Starbucks in the UK, which played out in a public forum via social media. The researchers explored whether Starbucks’ corporate ethics insulated its reputation from negative media coverage of alleged tax evasion evidenced in its “hijacked” social media “#spreadthecheer” campaign. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using an exploratory case study analysis of news articles, Starbucks’ annual reports, #spreadthecheer Tweets, and David Michelli’s The Starbucks Experience, data collection helped to inform the discussion of authenticity and whether it helped to insulate Starbucks’ reputation during its crisis in the UK.

Authenticity is key when organizations face a turbulent environment and active publics and stakeholder groups. Findings from this study also suggested proactive reputation management strategies and tactics, grounded in the organization’s corporate culture and transparency, could have diffused some of the uproar from its key publics.

Authentic corporate cultures should align with corporate business practices in order to reduce the potential for crises to occur. It is possible that ethical core values and a strong organizational approach to ethics help to insulate its reputation among publics during a crisis.

Crisis management has developed as an established field of scholarly research in tourism over the last three decades. More recently, the concept of resilience has emerged within this body of literature as a longer-term planning process. However, important knowledge gaps remain, especially with regards to the strategic responses of small tourism businesses in destinations prone to repeated crises.

This chapter reviews the literature related to crisis management and resilience in tourism.

Key knowledge gaps are outlined and discussed in the context of tourism research related to crisis management and resilience, with a specific emphasis on research related to small tourism businesses.

Although crisis management and resilience are fields of research that continue to generate a considerable amount of scholarly enquiry in tourism, particularly with studies related to the impacts of terrorism on tourism destinations and, more recently, the short- and longer-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, there is very little research related to the role of small tourism businesses in this context, in spite of their key role in the tourism system of destinations around the world.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The study finds that service firms with high social capital outperformed other organizations during a global crisis. The impact of social capital on crisis varied across different service subsectors.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the danger period which extends before a crisis and to position issue management as an effective crisis prevention discipline.

The paper explores scholarship regarding the developing concept of active pre‐crisis management, the growing acceptance of crisis management as an integrated process and the implications of this holistic approach in providing opportunities for proactive intervention.

While crisis preparedness and prevention have become established as integral parts of organizational crisis management, there is no agreement on taxonomy and no accepted optimal process to formalize the methodology to deliver effective strategies.

After identifying and characterizing this gap in management research, the paper nominates issue management as an optimal option and identifies four broad areas where issue management can contribute to crisis prevention.