Download Crisis communication through the years: A preliminary

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
 Risk and crisis communication researchers
can learn from each other’s literature
 Prevalence of crisis communication
function in leading PR agencies and college
programs
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?
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
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
Results: No. of articles by period





1981-1985:
1986-1990:
1991-1995:
1996-2000:
2001-2005:
2 articles
2
22
25
73
Results: Top subject terms
 ‘Crisis management’: in all 5 periods
 ‘Public relations’: in all but 1981-1985
 ‘Crisis communication’
Results: Most productive authors
 7 articles: Timothy Coombs (also most cited
author)
 3 articles: Laura Arpan, Alfonso GonzalezHerrero, Sherry Holladay, James Kauffman,
Cornelius Pratt, Timothy Sellnow, Robert Ulmer,
Kurt Wise
 Predominance of the U.S.
Results: Most common research
methods





Case study:
‘Expert opinion’:
Experiment:
Survey:
Theory:
54
32
9
7
6
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)
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)
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)
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)
Results: Most cited articles
 5. ‘Crisis communication plans: Poor
predictors of excellent public relations’.
Public Relations Review (by F. Marra)
Results: Most published journals






Public Relations Review:
Public Relations Quarterly:
Public Relations Tactics:
Risk Management:
Jnl of Public Relations Research:
Jnl of Business Communication:
27 articles
21
15
8
8
7
Results: Most published journals
 Neither Journal of Risk Research or Risk
Analysis had any articles
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
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
Contact
 To request this paper, please contact Mark
Chong at [email protected]