Crisis Management Research Research Articles

Compound crisis communication and household preparedness: Examining the effects of evidence type and crisis message fatigue

AbstractWhile existing crisis management research primarily approaches crisis communication from a single‐event perspective, this study provides initial evidence for communication about compound crises. To this purpose, we conducted a nationally representative survey experiment among U.S. residents (N = 670) to examine the effects of communication about compound crisis events on message fatigue and household preparedness. The study did not find support for the negative effects of communication about compound crises on message‐induced crisis fatigue and household preparedness intention. An additional analysis revealed that effects of the messages about compound crisis events are contingent upon the participants' level of past crisis experience, past crisis preparedness, accumulated fatigue from previous crises, and the type of evidence presented. Our findings revealed that individuals with higher past crisis experience exhibited higher crisis message fatigue and greater household preparedness intention. However, caution is warranted when interpreting these findings. The respondents' perceived distinction between compound and single crisis preparedness lacked conceptual clarity, possibly due to the ongoing influence of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

The opportunities and challenges of crisis cartel during demand disruptions: A game theoretic study

AbstractCrisis cartel refers to the collaboration between organisations during unprecedented conditions to counter the effect of disruption during an economic crisis. Despite its prevalence, scholarly attention to this phenomenon remains scant. Employing a dual‐channel framework involving manufacturers, online retailers (ORs) and traditional brick‐and‐mortar retailers (BMRs), the authors scrutinised the efficacy of crisis cartels in mitigating the impact of negative demand disruptions. Three distinct game theoretic frameworks were applied to model the interactive dynamics between the supply chain partners, namely, the horizontal Nash game, the Stackelberg game and the collusion game. It was observed that, during disruption under crisis cartels, the optimal price and profit of both the downstream channel partners increased, whereas the optimal order quantity decreased. Manufacturers and consumers are worse off in terms of profit and consumer surplus, respectively, during the crisis cartel engagement between BMR and OR. Nonetheless, a crisis cartel emerged as a potential solution to address negative demand disruptions. In evaluating post‐disruption cartels, the study finds the necessity of regulating crisis cartels. The findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, market regulators and practitioners, suggesting the need for strategic regulatory adjustments to effectively manage disruptions through the prudent utilisation of crisis cartel as a proactive management tool. The study expands existing theory by providing novel insights into the strategic interactions and dynamics within collaborative responses to demand disruptions, thus offering a pioneering approach to crisis management research.

Exploring the Interplay of Food Security, Safety, and Psychological Wellness in the COVID-19 Era: Managing Strategies for Resilience and Adaptation.

The global population surge presents a dual challenge and opportunity in the realms of food consumption, safety, and mental well-being. This necessitates a projected 70% increase in food production to meet growing demands. Amid this backdrop, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates these issues, underscoring the need for a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between food consumption patterns and mental health dynamics during this crisis. Mitigating the spread of COVID-19 hinges upon rigorous adherence to personal hygiene practices and heightened disease awareness. Furthermore, maintaining stringent food quality and safety standards across both public and private sectors is imperative for safeguarding public health and containing viral transmission. Drawing upon existing research, this study delves into the pandemic's impact on mental health, food consumption habits, and food safety protocols. Through a comprehensive analysis, it aims to elucidate the nuanced relationship among food, food safety, and mental well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting synergistic effects and dynamics that underpin holistic human welfare. Our study offers a novel approach by integrating psychological wellness with food security and safety. In conceiving this review, we aimed to comprehensively explore the intricate interplay among food security, safety, and psychological wellness amid the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our review is structured to encompass a thorough examination of existing research, synthesizing insights into the multifaceted relationships among food consumption patterns, mental health dynamics, and food safety protocols during the crisis. Our findings provide valuable insights and practical recommendations for enhancing food security and psychological well-being, thus supporting both academic research and real-world applications in crisis management and policy development.

Exploring Consumer Hoarding Patterns: A Case Study Social Networks on Consumer Hoarding Behaviour of Toilet Paper

This article investigated the impact of social networks on consumer hoarding behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing specifically on the global toilet paper hoarding phenomenon. Motivated by the pandemic's widespread fear and uncertainty, the study filled a research gap by stressing the relevance of network science in understanding hoarding situations. The study, which examined a case study of the toilet paper scarcity that began in Hong Kong and extended globally, identified three major issues: the unique characteristics of online networks, the herding mentality promoted by social factors, and the asymmetry in information availability. To overcome these difficulties, the study suggests strategic options. It was suggested that artificial intelligence be used for content regulation and information validation in order to proactively counteract the unique features of internet networks. Targeted psychological interventions, notably stress reduction programs, were recommended to counteract the herding mindset that drives hoarding. To mitigate the impact of asymmetric information, media literacy initiatives aimed at improving consumers' critical thinking skills were suggested. Finally, this study gave important insights into the complex dynamics of social networks and consumer hoarding behavior during crises. It emphasized the importance of a comprehensive understanding of online networks' roles, laying the groundwork for future research in network science, consumer behavior, and crisis management.

A systematic literature review of crisis management in online public opinion: evolutionary path and implications for China

PurposeThis study aims to explore the dissemination and evolutionary path of online public opinion from a crisis management perspective. By clarifying the influencing factors and dynamic mechanisms of online public opinion dissemination, this study provides insights into attenuating the negative impact of online public opinion and creating a favorable ecological space for online public opinion.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs bibliometric analysis and CiteSpace software to analyze 302 Chinese articles published from 2006 to 2023 in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database and 276 English articles published from 1994 to 2023 in the Web of Science core set database. Through literature keyword clustering, co-citation analysis and burst terms analysis, this paper summarizes the core scientific research institutions, scholars, hot topics and evolutionary paths of online public opinion crisis management research from both Chinese and international academic communities.FindingsThe results show that the study of online public opinion crisis management in China and internationally is centered on the life cycle theory, which integrates knowledge from information, computer and system sciences. Although there are differences in political interaction and stage evolution, the overall evolutionary path is similar, and it develops dynamically in the “benign conflict” between the expansion of the research perspective and the gradual refinement of research granularity.Originality/valueThis study summarizes the research results of online public opinion crisis management from China and the international academic community and identifies current research hotspots and theoretical evolution paths. Future research can focus on deepening the basic theories of public opinion crisis management under the influence of frontier technologies, exploring the subjectivity and emotionality of web users using fine algorithms and promoting the international development of network public opinion crisis management theory through transnational comparison and international cooperation.

Consumer risk perception and behavior change intentions

This manuscript addresses behavior change intentions and consumer risk perceptions in the context of uncertainty and crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the theory of planned behavior and health behavior theories, a conceptual framework is developed that focuses on the role of attitudes toward the Covid-19 pandemic, their determinants in the context of the public campaign conducted, and the resulting behavior change intentions. The empirical study, based on an actual campaign and a representative nationwide sample in a developing country, is conducted to test the developed hypotheses. The results suggest that information search is relevant to predicting attitudes and intention to change behavior. At the same time, exposure to the campaign is directly relevant to motivating the target audience to change their behavior. There is also a gap between attitude and behavior, but it is bridged by perceived risk, which plays a vital moderating role when rated high or low. Finally, in the presence of this moderating effect, an indirect effect of information search on behavior change intention is confirmed by attitudes toward the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, this study provides valuable insights for research in health behavior and crisis management.

Assist or accuse? Identifying trends in crisis communication through a bibliometric literature review

AbstractCommunication has always been key to crisis management research, but even more so in recent years, from multiple disciplinary angles. In this bibliometric study and review of the literature, we aim to identify different clusters of crisis communication research in the literature and whether and how much these crisis communication research clusters overlap. With different fields taking an interest in crisis communication, we ask ourselves where the interests of these fields overlap, and to what extent the different communities are aware of each other's work. Apart from offering an overview of topical clusters in crisis communication research and connections between those clusters of studies on crisis communication, we identify and explain two main approaches to crisis communication: a political or accusatory approach, and a functional or assistory approach. We conclude in our study and discussion that these approaches may need to broaden their research horizons to ensure the applicability of crisis communication strategies beyond the countries, media platforms, and audience orientations that have predominantly shaped the existing research landscape.

What triggers tourists’ anxiety? The differential impacts of crisis information source types in social media on tourists’ cross-border travel anxiety

ObjetivoEste estudio pretende revelar el mecanismo desencadenante y las condiciones límite de la ansiedad de los turistas ante los viajes transfronterizos (CBTA) a partir de diferentes fuentes de información sobre crisis (CIS).Diseño/metodología/enfoqueBasándose en el modelo heurístico-sistemático (HSM), este estudio construye una vía teórica de formación de la CBTA de los turistas. A partir de las crisis basadas en la competencia y en la moral, se examinaron las hipótesis mediante tres experimentos situacionales, dirigidos a turistas potenciales chinos y malayos.ResultadosLa información sobre crisis difundida por organizaciones desencadena una mayor CBTA de los turistas que la gubernamental, con la incertidumbre percibida como mediadora. Los recursos de los mensajes de comunicación de crisis (CCMA) (racionales frente a emocionales) moderan negativamente las relaciones anteriores. Los CCMA racionales funcionan para la comunicación de crisis gubernamental, mientras que los CCMA emocionales para las organizativas.Implicaciones prácticasLos resultados proponen que las organizaciones de gestión de destinos (OGD) deberían considerar estrategias heurísticas a la hora de difundir información sobre crisis turísticas transfronterizas. Prestar atención al efecto diferencial de las CCMA ayuda a prevenir crisis secundarias.Originalidad/valorEste estudio reexamina la causa-efecto y los mecanismos de intervención de las reacciones de los turistas a la información sobre crisis, lo que amplía la investigación sobre la gestión de crisis turísticas transfronterizas y la aplicación de la HSM en dicho contexto.

Research trends towards crisis management in social sciences: A bibliometric analysis

AbstractThis research aims to reveal the main trends, gaps and paradigm shifts in crisis management. Data from research dealing with crisis/crisis management in the social sciences literature were examined in this context. The Web of Science database was used to collect research data. The data were analyzed using bibliometric analysis, a quantitative research method. The findings show that crisis management, crisis planning, crisis actions, strategic management and crisis management in public relations were the most intensively studied topics until 2018. But after 2018, research, tourism, Covid‐19 pandemic have shown a trend towards social media. In general, there is an increase in empirical research on crisis management. In this body of research, the United States of America has the greatest weight numerically, however, European countries are better positioned in terms of interest levels and international cooperation. All in all, this research provides a good conceptual framework for future crisis management research.

An Exploratory Study to Understand Nonprofit Organizations’ Crisis Leadership Competencies: A Portuguese Analysis on COVID-19

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the Nonprofit Organization’s (NPO) competencies and leadership in a crisis situation, specifically in the Portuguese NPOs during COVID-19. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, this article integrates crisis management literature with leadership literature. Highlighting the leadership perspective of both intermediate employees (technical director) and top management (executive director), this research aims to advance knowledge on the main organizational leadership competencies that NPOs need to have to better cope with crises. One hundred and seventy-four (174) NPOs representatives voluntarily participated in the study which involved a survey questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale for 23 items included in the questionnaire. Principal component analysis using varimax rotation was applied to reduce the number of variables. Reliability tests were performed to assess the items included in the questionnaire. Tests included test-retest reliability, Cronbach alpha, and split-half reliability coefficients. Results show that the most important factors that improve the capability of a NPO to cope with a crisis are: respond to all stakeholders through accountability, plan based on identification of vulnerabilities, and build a foundation of trust through communication. Additionally, it is possible to suggest that staff and top management perceive crisis and leadership competencies differently. It is possible to conclude, that these factors can be used as important lines of action to structure the sustainable development and planning of NPOs’ strategies of other similar crisis to come in the future. Findings, the implications of this work, and avenues for future NPOs crisis management and leadership research are addressed.

Stakeholder salience: corporate responses during a public health crisis

Abstract Prior crisis management research mainly studied the context of accidental and preventable crises which are generally within the organization's control, while the COVID-19 pandemic presents a public health crisis in which corporations do not have control over the extent of the impacts. Built upon the stakeholder salience framework, we propose and test the hypotheses that are derived from societal stakeholders' power, legitimacy, and urgent claims during the pandemic and reveal several corporate responses that address multiple stakeholders' interests, including customers, shareholders, community, suppliers, and employees. Specifically, corporations with a larger number of employees and social media followers tend to adopt more corporate responses that address various stakeholders' concerns. Further, in highly impacted industries, there is an increased influence of social media followers on customer-related corporate responses as well as a decreased influence of employees on employee-related corporate responses.

Revealing the spatiotemporal characteristics of the general public's panic levels during the pandemic crisis in China.

The existing crisis management research mostly reveals the patterns of the public's panic levels from the perspectives of public management, sociology, and psychology, only a few studies have revealed the spatiotemporal characteristics. Therefore, this study investigates the spatial distribution and temporal patterns and influencing factors on the general public's panic levels using the Baidu Index data from a geographic perspective. The results show that: (1) The public's panic levels were significantly correlated with the spatial distance between the epicenter and the region of investigation, and with the number of confirmed cases in different regions when the pandemic began to spread. (2) Based on the spatial distance between the epicenter and the region, the public's panic levels in different regions could be divided into three segments: core segment (0-500 km), buffer segment (500-1300 km), and peripheral segment (>1300 km). The panic levels of different people in the three segments were consistent with the Psychological Typhoon Eye Effect and the Ripple Effect can be detected in the buffer segment. (3) The public's panic levels were strongly correlated with whether the spread of the infectious disease crisis occurred and how long it lasted. It is suggested that crisis information management in the future needs to pay more attention to the spatial division of control measures. The type of crisis information released to the general public should depend on the spatial relationship associated with the place where the crisis breaks out.

A novel approach to conducting business research after COVID-19: incorporating crisis elements in the study frameworks

PurposeTo understand how to deal with high effect situations, like that associated with COVID-19, in the future, many economists, academics and business leaders are drawing parallels between the 2008 financial crisis and the current pandemic. This study aims to explore how crisis elements can be considered while strategizing for business research despite the minimal possibility of an emergency occurring. Also, research in crisis management is fragmented, resulting in isolated components guiding businesses through crises. This research emphasizes the relative scarcity of a comprehensive crisis management framework.Design/methodology/approachCOVID-19 has been the biggest crisis the world has ever confronted, and businesses require an innovative strategy to address it. Towards keeping the data set involved in this study targeted and manageable, articles are selected from peer-reviewed journals based on a purposive sampling method. In addition, the research used reports from consulting firms and government and nongovernment organizations to understand current trends in business research.FindingsThe findings revealed that for a firm to survive a crisis, it must ensure its plans are aligned with the trends that would allow it to grow during the crisis. Rather than entirely changing the track, strategies should be guided by the company's existing resource availability and capabilities. The techniques used must ensure the company's profitability or limit losses, thus ensuring long-term viability. Real-life examples from the current pandemic have shown how firms who recognized crisis characteristics could survive the pandemic and profited multiple times.Originality/valueIt presents an integrated, sector-agnostic crisis management framework based on literature, business managers' insights and lessons from the current pandemic. Precrisis, crisis arrival, crisis management and crisis experience are the four phases of the framework. The study proposes future research directions to scholars in applying the framework and its enhancement concerning the upcoming crisis possibilities.

The role of capital structure management in maintaining the financial stability of hotel firms during the pandemic—A global investigation

Due to the detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hotel sector, pandemic crisis management research has received lots of academic attention, from studies in sales-marketing to human resource management. However, financial management has been largely overlooked in the agenda of pandemic crisis management and hotel resilience. Therefore, this paper aims to address the research gap by exploring the role of capital structure management in maintaining financial stability and resilience capacities of hotel firms during this evolving and unpredictable Covid-19 pandemic. Using a database of 1882 firm-quarter observations of 196 hotel firms in 30 countries from Quarter 3 2018 to Quarter 2 2021, it is found that low debt capital structure mitigates the adverse impact of the pandemic on hotel firms’ financial stability during this turbulent time; particularly the negative impacts caused by government restrictions on both domestic and international travel. The benefit of low debt levels is more pronounced for more vulnerable hotels such as small, less diversified, and slow growing hotel firms. Also, hotel firms that have less long-term debt are more financial stable and resilient during pandemic period. Research outcomes suggest that financial management, in particular capital structure policies should be a critical part of hotel resilience building and crisis management strategy for hotel firms.

Crisis-as-practice: Conceptualizing the role of everyday work practices in crisis management

Although research on organizational crisis management is vast, it is sometimes insubstantial, particularly in understanding how an organization's routine practices are utilized in crisis management. This article presents a conceptual framework of crisis-as-practice to complement the ‘traditional’ crisis-as-event and crisis-as-process perspectives of crisis management research. By turning to practice theory, it is possible to emphasize the importance of apprehending crisis management as an accomplishment shaped by socially shared practices routinely performed in organizations. This article outlines a framework based on two theoretical constructs: (1) the three-element model of practice, and (2) the distinction between integrative and dispersed practices revealing crisis management capabilities generally invisible in other research. The article concludes with a discussion of how the practice-based framework can widen the understanding of what crisis management is, who is viewed as a crisis manager, what crisis managers do, and what can be grasped through an analysis of crisis managers and their practices.

Crisis and Africa's tourism industry: A comprehensive review and agenda for future research

Although several studies have investigated crisis and crisis management in tourism, knowledge, and scholarship are limited in this field, especially in third-world nations like those in Africa. This paper presents a comprehensive review and synthesis of crisis management literature in Africa to address the gap in current understanding. The content-based analysis of 77 published articles from 29 journals provides a deeper understanding of Africa's tourism crisis research and scholarship trends. A three-stage integrative framework classifying crisis management literature/approaches was developed: pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis. This paper examines Africa's current and emerging tourism crisis issues identified in the analysis. It also discusses the implications of existing studies on crisis management research and outlines new research directions and implications concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

Small and medium-sized enterprises response to Covid-19: The effect of external openness and procedural management

Crisis management research is strongly influenced by the behaviour of large multinationals with few insights into how small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) mitigate the negative effects of exogenous shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Inspired by the capability-based view on crisis management, we postulate that management openness and degree of interactivity determine SME crisis response. We test our theoretical model with an original dataset of 902 Swedish SMEs compiled from a telephone-based survey conducted in June 2020. We find that formalised procedures for crisis management and openness to input from others, particularly external actors, enhances an organisation’s ability to make a decisive rapid response. We discuss our findings and suggest that formalised procedures and openness are important components of an SME’s rapid response capability.

Resign or carry-on? District and principal leadership as drivers of change in teacher turnover intentions during the COVID-19 crisis: A latent growth model examination.

During the COVID‐19 pandemic, teachers in the United States, an already at‐risk occupation group, experienced new work‐related stressors, safety concerns, and work‐life challenges, magnifying on‐going retention concerns. Integrating the crisis management literature with the unfolding model of turnover, we theorize that leader actions trigger initial employee responses but also set the stage for on‐going crisis response that influence changes in teachers' turnover intentions. We apply latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses based on a sample of 617 K‐12 teachers using nine waves of data, including a baseline survey at the start of the 2020–2021 school year and eight follow‐up surveys (2‐week lags) through the Fall 2020 semester. In terms of overall adaptation, teachers on average, experienced an increase in work‐life balance and a decrease in turnover intentions over the course of the semester. Results also suggest that district and school leadership provide unique and complementary resources, but leader behaviours that shape initial crisis responses do not similarly affect employee responses during crisis, contrary to theory. Instead, teachers' adaptive crisis response trajectories were triggered by continued resource provision over the semester; increasing provision of valued resources (i.e., continued refinement of safety practices) and improvements in work‐life balance prevented turnover intentions from spiralling throughout the crisis. Crisis management theory and research should continue to incorporate temporal dynamics and identify factors that contribute to crisis response trajectories, using designs and analyses that allow for examination as crises unfold in real time.

Knowledge Trajectories on Public Crisis Management Research from Massive Literature Text Using Topic-Clustered Evolution Extraction

Current research has ignored the hiddenness and the stochasticity of the evolution of public crisis management research, making the knowledge trajectories still unclear. This paper introduces a combined approach, LDA-HMM, to mine the hidden topics, present the evolutionary trajectories of the topics, and predict the future trends in the coming years to fill the research gaps. We reviewed 8543 articles in WOS from 1997 to 2021, extracted 39 hidden topics from the text using the LDA; 33 remained by manual labeling. The development of the topics over the years verifies that the topics are co-evolving with the public crisis events. The confusion and transition features indicate that most topics are confused or transferred to the others. The transition network and the direction of the topics show that six main transfer paths exist, and in the evolution process, the topics have become more focused. By training the HMM, we predict the trends in the next five years; the results show that the heat of the topic that focuses on traditional crisis issues will decrease while the focus on non-traditional issues will increase. We take the average error to test this model’s prediction effect by comparing it with the other approaches, concluding that it is better than the others. This study has practical implications for preventing crisis events, optimizing related policies, and grasping key research areas in the future.

Social support to mitigate perceived risk: moderating effect of trust

ABSTRACT During a crisis period, the transmission of travel information is faster than ever via social media (Wut, T. M., Xu, J. B., & Wong, S.-m. (2021). Crisis management research (1985–2020) in the hospitality and tourism industry: A review and research agenda. Tourism Management, 85, 104307). Social media influencers provide opportunities to mitigate perceived risk and rebuild travel confidence. Based on both customer socialization theory and dual-process theory of cognitive reasoning, we propose that trust would moderate the relationship between social support from social media influencers and perceived risk. The research model was tested using 738 questionnaires collected from Chinese social media users. Findings from statistical analyses have shown significant relationships among the research variables, and the moderating role of cognitive and affective trust was supported. Our findings could provide implications regarding how to utilize social media influencers wisely to mitigate perceived risk in the post-COVID-19 period.