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Crisis communication through the years: A preliminary analysis of articles in the Business Source Premier database (198

Crisis communication through the years: A preliminary analysis of articles in the Business Source Premier database (1981-2005). Mark Chong, Singapore Management University. Introduction. Emerging importance of crisis communication

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Crisis communication through the years: A preliminary analysis of articles in the Business Source Premier database (198

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  1. Crisis communication through the years: A preliminary analysis of articles in the Business Source Premier database (1981-2005) Mark Chong, Singapore Management University

  2. Introduction • Emerging importance of crisis communication • Risk and crisis communication researchers can learn from each other’s literature • Prevalence of crisis communication function in leading PR agencies and college programs

  3. Objective of Study • To offer a preliminary/timely temperature reading of crisis communication literature • RQ: What do keywords reveal about the nature of crisis communication literature?

  4. Method • Business Source Premier: database with over 1,100 scholarly publications • “Crisis communication” as search phrase • Scholarly (including peer-reviewed) journals • Book reviews, editorials & bibliographies excluded • 124 articles returned

  5. Method • Data collected Feb-Mar 2006 • Five periods: 1981-1985, 1986-1990, 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005 • No. of articles • Top subject terms • Most productive authors • Most common research methods • Most cited articles • 5 most published journals

  6. Results: No. of articles by period • 1981-1985: 2 articles • 1986-1990: 2 • 1991-1995: 22 • 1996-2000: 25 • 2001-2005: 73

  7. Results: Top subject terms • ‘Crisis management’: in all 5 periods • ‘Public relations’: in all but 1981-1985 • ‘Crisis communication’

  8. Results: Most productive authors • 7 articles: Timothy Coombs (also most cited author) • 3 articles: Laura Arpan, Alfonso Gonzalez-Herrero, Sherry Holladay, James Kauffman, Cornelius Pratt, Timothy Sellnow, Robert Ulmer, Kurt Wise • Predominance of the U.S.

  9. Results: Most common research methods • Case study: 54 • ‘Expert opinion’: 32 • Experiment: 9 • Survey: 7 • Theory: 6

  10. Results: Most cited articles • 1. ‘Communication and attribution in a crisis: An experiment study in crisis communication’. Journal of Public Relations Research (by T. Coombs & S. Holladay)

  11. Results: Most cited articles • 2a. ‘Information and compassion in a crisis response: A test of their effects’. Journal of Public Relations Research (by T. Coombs) • 2b. ‘Consistent questions of ambiguity in crisis communication: Jack in the Box as a case study’. Journal of Business Ethics (by R.R. Ulmer & T. Sellnow)

  12. Results: Most cited articles • 3a. ‘Helping crisis managers protect reputational assets’. Management Communication Quarterly (by T. Coombs & S. Holladay) • 3b. ‘Reining in rumors’. Organizational Dynamics (by N. Difonzo, P. Bordia & R. Rosnow)

  13. Results: Most cited articles • 4a. ‘Effective crisis management through established stakeholder relationships’. Management Communication Quarterly(by R.R. Ulmer) • 4b. ‘An extended examination of the crisis situations: A fusion of the relational management and symbolic approaches’. Journal of Public Relations Research (by T. Coombs & S. Holladay)

  14. Results: Most cited articles • 5. ‘Crisis communication plans: Poor predictors of excellent public relations’. Public Relations Review (by F. Marra)

  15. Results: Most published journals • Public Relations Review: 27 articles • Public Relations Quarterly: 21 • Public Relations Tactics: 15 • Risk Management: 8 • Jnl of Public Relations Research: 8 • Jnl of Business Communication: 7

  16. Results: Most published journals • Neither Journal of Risk Research or Risk Analysis had any articles

  17. Limitations & Recommendations • No database is complete, including this • Potential inconsistencies in database classification • Does not identify how crisis communication has evolved through the years • Future research: meta-analysis

  18. Conclusions • Crisis communication dominated by just a few writers and journals • Case studies and ‘expert opinion’ are the preferred methods • Rapid increase in scholarly interest in last 10 years • Likely internationalization of research in the field • Potential for applying crisis communication theories to risk communication

  19. Contact • To request this paper, please contact Mark Chong at markchong@smu.edu.sg

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