Crisis Communication on Twitter during a Global Crisis of Volkswagen - The Case of Dieselgate

In this study, we investigate the communication behaviour in Twitter during the rise of a corporate crisis. In September 2015, the emission scandal of Volkswagen (also known as Dieselgate ) became public. We collected Twitter data and analysed approximately 400,000 tweets regarding the Volkswagen crisis. We take different perspectives on the data, by 1) separating the overall communication in peak and quiet phases, 2) analysing the sentiment in each phase, 3) looking at specific tweet contents, and 4) using statistical analyses to determine the significance of differences. Furthermore, we mapped the publishing behaviour of official Volkswagen accounts to the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). The findings suggest that Volkswagen followed a strategy that is not covered by SCCT, i.e. keeping silent. Volkswagen’s tweets were not able to reduce the emotionality and sentiment of the ongoing Twitter discussion. Instead, even during quiet phases, the communication remained rather negative

May I offer you a gift card? An analysis of Volkswagen's crisis response strategy in the wake of its Dieselgate scandal

Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal represents one of the largest automotive crises in history. In the United States, approximately 500,000 cars were found to emit as much as 40 times the legal limits in pollutants after the company installed software to defeat emissions testing. This mixed methods case study examines owner and consumer opinions to determine the impact and effectiveness of VW’s choice of compensation strategy for its crisis response. The study’s conclusions are that consumer brand sentiment didn’t recover in the weeks following two separate compensation offers. In fact, factors including the company’s prior heavy advertising of the cars as “clean diesel” before the discovery, intensified the feelings of shock and betrayal. Strong prior reputation, long seen as a buffer against negative crisis reputational impact, is also examined. The study observes a corollary to reputation as a buffer – finding instead that Volkswagen’s strong prior reputation and heavy brand loyalty, coupled with its aggressive promotion of a false buying proposition, actually created a fall from grace that resulted in a stronger sense of betrayal and contributed to more negative brand sentiment

Unbundling the W’s: the interface between organisational crises, social media narratives, and image repair strategies

Organisations are susceptible and vulnerable to crisis situations. These organisations have been able to exert resilience, and manage reputational damage, through crisis management protocols that include stakeholder engagement. However, given the rise of social media, a new cohort of stakeholders has emerged. Organisations are therefore faced with the task of managing new stakeholder relationships. This paper applies recent advancements in social media and crisis management discourse to investigate the prevalence of new, undiscovered stakeholders in crisis communications surrounding six prominent crisis situations. The results indicate that online stakeholders are becoming more powerful, urgent and legitimacy; thus shifting dynamics

El gabinete de comunicación de Volkswagen España ante el fraude de las emisiones

En el estudio de la comunicación en situaciones de crisis se ha demostrado que seguir un plan adecuado puede resultar clave para conseguir superarla sin sufrir grandes daños e incluso aprovecharla y salir reforzado de ella. El principal objetivo de este trabajo reside en analizar la importancia de una buena actuación del gabinete de comunicación de una empresa para que una hipotética crisis no fulmine su imagen ni sus valores intangibles. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis cualitativo de las 25 notas de prensa emitidas por la sala de comunicación de Volkswagen y de los 246 tweets publicados por su perfil de Twitter. Las conclusiones revelan qué plan de gestión de crisis siguió Volkswagen, cómo actuó su gabinete y la diferente hoja de ruta que siguió en su sala de prensa y en el perfil de Twitter.Departamento de Historia Moderna, Contemporánea y de América, Periodismo y Comunicación Audiovisual y PublicidadGrado en Periodism

Dieselgate : estudi i anàlisi comunicacional de la crisi empresarial més important del sector automobilístic

La present investigació vol mostrar quina importància ha tingut la comunicació en la crisi dels motors dièsel de Volkswagen i esbrinar si aquesta ha estat una crisi de producte o de marca. Per això, aquest treball aborda, principalment, la comunicació empresarial i la comunicació de crisi. Aquests continguts han elaborat les bases per realitzar les entrevistes qualitatives a Joan Francesc Cánovas, Sara Blázquez, Sara Magallón i Alba Roig juntament amb Núria Picas. Per altra banda, també s'ha analitzat en clau qualitativa els comunicats facilitats per la mateixa Volkswagen i les notícies publicades per El País i El Periódico durant el primer mes de la crisi.La presente investigación quiere mostrar que importancia ha tenido la comunicación en la crisis de los motores diésel de Volkswagen y averiguar si esta ha sido una crisis de producto o de marca. Por eso, este trabajo aborda, principalmente, la comunicación corporativa y la comunicación de crisis. Estos contenidos han elaborado las bases para realizar las entrevistas cualitativas a Joan Francesc Cánovas, Sara Blázquez, Sara Magallón y Alba Roig juntamente con Núria Picas. Por otra parte, también se han analizado en clave cualitativa los comunicados facilitados por la propia Volkswagen y las noticias publicadas por El País y El Periódico durante el primer mes de crisis.This research wants to show how important communication in the Volkswagen diesel engines crisis have been and find out if this crisis have been a product or brand crisis. Therefore, this research deals mainly business and crisis communication. This contents have made the basis for carrying out qualitative interviews to Joan Francesc Cánovas, Sara Blázquez, Sara Magallón and Alba Roig with Núria Picas. On the other hand, we have analysed Volkswagen press releases comparing them with El País and El Periódico newspapers during the first month of the crisis

You are now an Influencer! Measuring CEO Reputation in Social Media

We know that reputation in organisational contexts can be understood as a valuable asset that requires diligent management. It directly affects how a firm is publicly perceived, and indirectly, how a firm will perform economically. The establishment of social media as ubiquitous tools of communication have changed how corporations manage their reputation. Particularly CEOs face novel responsibilities, as they deal with their personal image, which at the same time affects the reputation of their firm. Whereas CEO and corporate reputation have been researched isolated from each other, little is known about how a CEO’s social media reputation management affects corporate reputation. This research in progress paper aims to emphasise this research gap with a literature review on the current status of reputation management and measurement by means of social media. We further propose a research design that combines sentiment analysis, frequency detection, and content analysis and discuss further research prospects