Data Breaches and Effective Crisis Communication: A Comparative Analysis of Corporate Reputational Crises

Sanneke Kuipers () and Michael Schonheit
Additional contact information
Sanneke Kuipers: Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs
Michael Schonheit: Deloitte

Corporate Reputation Review, 2022, vol. 25, issue 3, No 2, 176-197

Abstract: Abstract Online data breaches are recurrent and damaging cyber incidents fors organizations worldwide. This study examines how organizations can effectively mitigate reputational damages in the aftermath of data breaches by hacking, through situational crisis communication strategies. Comparable data breach crises do not have an equally negative impact on organizational reputation. Base responses such as comprehensive and exhaustive guidelines, and detailed explanations about the incident to consumers helped to reduce the damage. Corporations responding to data breaches by hacking benefit from admission of responsibility in spite of the initial characterization of such crises as victim crisis types. Organizations that primarily relied on one single strategy, performed better than those that inconsistently blended strategies. Particularly denial was ultimately detrimental to organizational reputation. Self-disclosure allowed companies to positively influence media reporting. Social media communication did not play an important role in the response of the organizations involved. The consistent and timely adoption of compensation, apology, and rectification strategies, combined with reinforcing strategies such as ingratiation and bolstering, positively influenced reputational recovery from the crisis.

Keywords: Crisis communication; Data breach; Cybersecurity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41299-021-00121-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:crepre:v:25:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1057_s41299-021-00121-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41299

DOI: 10.1057/s41299-021-00121-9

Access Statistics for this article

Corporate Reputation Review is currently edited by Guido Berens

More articles in Corporate Reputation Review from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().