Abstract
In intercultural crisis communication, the globally adopted framework SCCT (Situated Crisis Communication Theory) should be adapted to meet the local contexts. By collecting online posts concerning D&G’s crisis communication from major Chinese social platforms including Sina Weibo, Zhihu (408 posts), WeChat official account (23 posts) as well as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube (344 posts), and with 10 semi-structured interviews (3 university professors and 8 students of different majors) for triangulation, this study analyzes the online posts concerning D&G’s crisis response strategies in China. We find that the public regard denial strategy as being outdated, demonstrating superiority and lack of responsibility; victimage strategy reflecting arrogance and self-centered mindset; moreover, the apologies are analyzed in terms of the manner and content of apology. Effective intercultural communication presupposes equality, mutual respect and empathy; therefore, it is necessary to uphold a glocalization approach to crisis communication.
Highlights
Crises involving multinational enterprises in global contexts have been occurring regularly (Dhanesh and Sriramesh, 2018), and the specific problems that can arise have been amply demonstrated in the case of McDonald‘s company in Japan in 2014 where its decisive and quick responses to food safety violation turned out to be disastrous and the case of Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) in China in 2018 where the company‘s promotional video and responses led to a loss of more than RMB 8 million Yuan.The success of crisis communication depends on what an organization says and does immediately after a crisis occurs (Benoit 1997)
We ask: (1) What are the crisis communication strategies adopted by D&G according to Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) framework, and (2) what are the local interpretations of the globally adopted framework in the Chinese context? This study contributes to intercultural crisis communication literature in that the stakeholders‘ perspectives and a glocalization approach are employed to adapt the globally accepted crisis communication framework to this specific Chinese context by investigating the perspectives of the public
D&G does not mention the damage brought to Chinese people.‖ A Zhihu user 瞎扯乱谈 (Note 18) says, ―The statement is more likely to show that D&G is seeking international sympathy and support for itself, while ignoring the harm it has done to Chinese consumers.‖ Liu Run, former director of Microsoft, 2021, Vol 13, No 2 says, ―The essence of crisis communication is public sentiment management.‖ In many cases, the public is very concerned about whether enterprises care about their feelings
Summary
Crises involving multinational enterprises in global contexts have been occurring regularly (Dhanesh and Sriramesh, 2018), and the specific problems that can arise have been amply demonstrated in the case of McDonald‘s company in Japan in 2014 where its decisive and quick responses to food safety violation turned out to be disastrous and the case of D&G in China in 2018 where the company‘s promotional video and responses led to a loss of more than RMB 8 million Yuan. Investigation into crisis communication in the Chinese context is still a nascent endeavor Studies in this field in China focus on two important issues: the contextual factors that affect the crisis communication and distinct crisis management strategies deployed (Wang and Laufer 2019). Hu and Pang (2018) explored indigenous corporate response strategies in the context of China‘s crisis response strategies Methodologically, these studies ignore content analysis of attitudes from different stakeholders. This study contributes to intercultural crisis communication literature in that the stakeholders‘ perspectives and a glocalization approach are employed to adapt the globally accepted crisis communication framework to this specific Chinese context by investigating the perspectives of the public We ask: (1) What are the crisis communication strategies adopted by D&G according to SCCT framework, and (2) what are the local interpretations of the globally adopted framework in the Chinese context? This study contributes to intercultural crisis communication literature in that the stakeholders‘ perspectives and a glocalization approach are employed to adapt the globally accepted crisis communication framework to this specific Chinese context by investigating the perspectives of the public
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