Coping with the COVID-19 crisis: an analysis of Twitter communication of companies

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how New Zealand listed companies communicate COVID-19 related concerns on Twitter during the pandemic through various coping expressions and strategies. Design/methodology/approach A thematic content analysis was conducted to analyse COVID tweets based on Gaspar et al.’s (2016) coping strategy framework. Findings Six major COVID-19-related concerns communicated by New Zealand companies were found, with product/service being the most tweeted concern. Various coping expressions and strategies were demonstrated by the companies to address these concerns. Information sharing strategy was found to be the most common coping strategy implied in all six of these concerns. Research limitations/implications The paper contributes to the scant literature in crisis communication by providing empirical evidence on how COVID-19-related concerns, coping expressions and strategies were communicated by New Zealand companies. Originality/value While extant coping research generally examined coping expressions and strategies in Western countries and at an individual level, this paper examines coping communication at organisational level in an Asia-Pacific country. As per the researchers’ knowledge, this is a novel attempt that provides empirical evidence on corporate coping communication in an Asia-Pacific country during the COVID-19 pandemic.