How sorry are you? Intensified apologies and the mediating role of perceived remorse in corporate crisis communication
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Public Relations Review
Publication Date
11-1-2023
Abstract
This article reports the results of a between-subject experiment investigating the direct and indirect effects of intensified apologies on purchase intent. The study adopts a linguistic approach to apologies and operationalizes them based on Blum-Kulka and Olshtain's (1984) apology framework. The study compares the effectiveness of a simple apology (‘We're sorry’) to four intensified apologies which - in addition to expression of remorse - contain one of the following apology strategies: a) intensification through adverbials, b) admission of guilt, c) offer of repair or d) promise of forbearance. In addition, the study examines the role of perceived remorse as a mediating factor between intensified apologies and purchase intent. Intensified apologies containing adverbials and offer of repair are found to have a positive effect on perceived remorse which, in turn, leads to higher purchase intent. The experiment is the first one in the field of corporate crisis communication to examine the mediating role of perceived remorse in intensified apologies.
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
49
Issue
4
Disciplines
Business
Keywords
Corporate crisis, Intensified apologies, Linguistics, Perceived remorse, Purchase intent
Scopus ID
Recommended Citation
Georgiadou, Effrosyni, "How sorry are you? Intensified apologies and the mediating role of perceived remorse in corporate crisis communication" (2023). All Works. 5945.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/5945
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
no