When organizational crises meet nationalism: Crisis communication of multinational corporations in the Chinese context

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how nationalism shapes the public perception of multinational corporations’ crises on Chinese social media. Using qualitative content analysis, this study examines 1000 public comments from the top 10 hashtag posts and explores the interaction between nationalist expression (i.e., content and sentiment of nationalism) and the public’s perception of the United Airlines crisis in 2017. The findings demonstrate how nationalist content impinged upon the interpretation of United Airlines’ misconduct. Six concrete emotions (anger, hared, amusement, pride, encouragement, and disgust) were identified from the sample comments, which were categorized into inward-directed and outward-directed nationalist sentiments. Given the findings, this study argues that nationalist expression has driven the evolution of the United Airlines crisis beyond the discussion of organizational misconduct. While inward-directed sentiment served to strengthen the Chinese public’s national identity, outward-directed sentiment was utilized to exclude multinational corporations as “out-groups.” The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.