IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v58y2015i2p183-192.html

Corporate crises in the age of corporate social responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • Janssen, Catherine
  • Sen, Sankar
  • Bhattacharya, CB

Abstract

Many companies today believe that corporate social responsibility (CSR) acts as a reservoir of goodwill, insulating the firm from the negative impacts of a crisis. Yet, the impact of CSR on public reaction to corporate crises is more complex. Drawing on research on stakeholder reactions to CSR and—more specifically—corporate crises, we present a contingent framework for understanding the roles of CSR in corporate crises and how to manage it. This framework posits that CSR plays four important roles: it (1) increases stakeholders’ attention to crises, (2) affects blame attributions, (3) raises expectations, and (4) changes stakeholders’ evaluations of crisis situations. Several factors underlying these roles are also discussed. Overall, this article underscores that while CSR may insulate companies and mitigate stakeholders’ negative responses in some cases, in others it may actually lead to the opposite effect, amplifying the negative impact of a crisis. The article ends with a brief discussion of the implications of our framework for effective crisis management strategies in the age of CSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Janssen, Catherine & Sen, Sankar & Bhattacharya, CB, 2015. "Corporate crises in the age of corporate social responsibility," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 183-192.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:2:p:183-192
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2014.11.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681314001578
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2014.11.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen J. Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Corporate Reputation and Social Performance: The Importance of Fit," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 435-455, May.
    2. Meyers-Levy, Joan & Tybout, Alice M, 1989. "Schema Congruity as a Basis for Product Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(1), pages 39-54, June.
    3. Amy Sommer & Christine Pearson, 2011. "Infusing creativity into crisis management: An essential approach today," Post-Print hal-00575635, HAL.
    4. Laufer, Daniel & Coombs, W. Timothy, 2006. "How should a company respond to a product harm crisis? The role of corporate reputation and consumer-based cues," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 49(5), pages 379-385.
    5. John Balmer & Kyoko Fukukawa & Edmund Gray, 2007. "The Nature and Management of Ethical Corporate Identity: A Commentary on Corporate Identity, Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(1), pages 7-15, November.
    6. Paul C. Godfrey & Craig B. Merrill & Jared M. Hansen, 2009. "The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 425-445, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Loopamudra Baruah & N. M. Panda, 2021. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Reputation: A Study on Top 100 Companies Operating in India," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 20(2), pages 99-105, December.
    2. Yu-Muo Lee & Jin-Li Hu, 2018. "Integrated Approaches for Business Sustainability: The Perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Batty, Rachel J. & Gee, Sarah, 2019. "Fast food, fizz, and funding: Balancing the scales of regional sport organisation sponsorship," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 167-179.
    4. Zia ur Rehman & Asad Khan & Asim Rahman, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility's influence on firm risk and firm performance: the mediating role of firm reputation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2991-3005, November.
    5. Shao‐Chi Chang & Heng‐Yu Chang, 2015. "Corporate Motivations of Product Recall Strategy: Exploring the Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Stakeholder Engagement," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 393-407, November.
    6. Woon Leong Lin & Chin Lee & Siong Hook Law, 2021. "Asymmetric effects of corporate sustainability strategy on value creation among global automotive firms: A dynamic panel quantile regression approach," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 931-954, February.
    7. David Noack & Douglas R. Miller & Dustin Smith, 2019. "Let Me Make It Up to You: Understanding the Mitigative Ability of Corporate Social Responsibility Following Product Recalls," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 431-446, June.
    8. Uzma Bashir, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Philanthropy: A Case of Karachi Stock Exchange," International Econometric Review (IER), Econometric Research Association, vol. 9(1), pages 19-36, April.
    9. Uzma Bashir, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Philanthropy: A Case of Karachi Stock Exchange," International Econometric Review (IER), Economic Research Association, vol. 9(1), pages 21-38, April.
    10. Shu-Chen Hsu & Kun-Tsung Wu & Qing Wang & Yuan Chang, 2023. "Is capital structure associated with corporate social responsibility?," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-20, December.
    11. Emel Esen & Secil Tastan & Nihan Degercan, 2021. "The Impact of Perceived Corporate Reputation of Sport Clubs on Social Media Usage: a Study with the Lenses of Social Capital," Postmodern Openings, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 12(3), pages 350-383, August.
    12. Xiaoping Zhao & Audrey Murrell, 2022. "Does A Virtuous Circle Really Exist? Revisiting the Causal Linkage Between CSP and CFP," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 173-192, April.
    13. Patrick J. Callery, 2024. "Strategic motivations for corporate social responsibility: profitability or legitimacy?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 94(6), pages 947-974, August.
    14. Julia Lackmann & Jürgen Ernstberger & Michael Stich, 2012. "Market Reactions to Increased Reliability of Sustainability Information," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 111-128, May.
    15. Carola Hillenbrand & Kevin Money & Stephen Pavelin, 2012. "Stakeholder-Defined Corporate Responsibility for a Pre-Credit-Crunch Financial Service Company: Lessons for How Good Reputations are Won and Lost," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 337-356, February.
    16. Zheng, Qinqin & Luo, Yadong & Maksimov, Vladislav, 2015. "Achieving legitimacy through corporate social responsibility: The case of emerging economy firms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 389-403.
    17. Baobao Song & Jing (Taylor) Wen, 2020. "Online corporate social responsibility communication strategies and stakeholder engagements: A comparison of controversial versus noncontroversial industries," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 881-896, March.
    18. Francisco Javier Forcadell & Antonio Lorena & Elisa Aracil, 2023. "The firm under the spotlight: How stakeholder scrutiny shapes corporate social responsibility and its influence on performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1258-1272, May.
    19. Breeda Comyns & Elizabeth Franklin-Johnson, 2018. "Corporate Reputation and Collective Crises: A Theoretical Development Using the Case of Rana Plaza," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 159-183, June.
    20. Francesco Gangi & Lucia Michela Daniele & Nicola Varrone, 2020. "How do corporate environmental policy and corporate reputation affect risk‐adjusted financial performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1975-1991, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:58:y:2015:i:2:p:183-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.