{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,17]],"date-time":"2026-06-17T05:45:35Z","timestamp":1781675135748,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":63,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,5]],"date-time":"2019-08-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1564963200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["INTR"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the communication behaviour on Twitter during the rise of a preventable corporate crisis. It aims to contribute to situational crisis response strategies, and to broaden the authors\u2019 understanding of legitimacy management. In September 2015, Volkswagen\u2019s (VW) emission scandal became public and caused debates also in social media. By applying complementing tools of data analysis to the Twitter communication around the \u201cDieselgate\u201d crisis, this study unfolds a field of tension between corporate strategy and public perception.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The authors collected Twitter data and analysed approximately 2.1m tweets relevant to the VW crisis. The authors approached the data by separating the overall communication in peak and quiet phases; analysing the peaks with social network analysis techniques; studying sentiments and the differences in each phase; and specifically examining tweets from VW\u2019s corporate accounts with regard to the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) and legitimacy.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>VW\u2019s very few 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. The analysis suggests that VW followed a strategy not covered by SCCT, i.e. keeping silent.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The discovered strategy of keeping silent extends the SCCT and is linked to legitimacy management. Learnings from this study help decision makers to put social media response strategies into practice to swiftly recover from crises or refrain from certain strategies to avoid further reputational damage.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Social implications<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Examining the underlying communication patterns of a crisis case with societal magnitude such as \u201cDieselgate\u201d helps sensitising customers and executives to utilise social media channels more comprehensible in future crises.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The study uncovers the unconventional and yet barely addressed crisis response strategy of a global enterprise while devising unique realisations for practitioners and communication researchers. It contributes to existing knowledge about situational crisis response strategies, and broadens the authors\u2019 understanding of legitimacy management in times of social media ubiquity.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/intr-05-2018-0197","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,8,6]],"date-time":"2019-08-06T10:48:19Z","timestamp":1565088499000},"page":"921-939","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":31,"title":["\u201cSilence\u201d as a strategy during a corporate crisis \u2013 the case of Volkswagen\u2019s \u201cDieselgate\u201d"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"29","author":[{"given":"Stefan","family":"Stieglitz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Milad","family":"Mirbabaie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0618-8767","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tobias","family":"Kroll","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Julian","family":"Marx","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1111\/1468-5973.12169","article-title":"We\u2019re sorry but it\u2019s not our fault: organizational apologies in ambiguous crisis situations","volume":"26","year":"2018","journal-title":"Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management"},{"key":"key2019090214284412300_ref002","first-page":"249","volume-title":"The Social Construction of Reality","year":"1966"},{"key":"key2019090214284412300_ref003","article-title":"Secondary crisis communication on social media: the role of corporate response and social influence in product-harm crisis","year":"2014"},{"key":"key2019090214284412300_ref004","first-page":"1","article-title":"The use of Twitter hashtags in the formation of ad hoc publics","year":"2011"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref005","first-page":"51","article-title":"Social media as CRM? how two airline companies used Facebook during the \u2018ash crisis\u2019 in 2010","volume":"25","year":"2013","journal-title":"Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"52","DOI":"10.1108\/IntR-01-2014-0005","article-title":"Solving strategy for unintended criticism in online space: consumer response to firm crisis in online discussion forum","volume":"25","year":"2015","journal-title":"Internet Research"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"163","DOI":"10.1057\/palgrave.crr.1550049","article-title":"Protecting organization reputations during a crisis: the development and application of situational crisis communication theory","volume":"10","year":"2007","journal-title":"Corporate Reputation Review"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.1207\/s1532754xjprr0804_04","article-title":"Communication and attributions in a crisis: an experimental study in crisis communication","volume":"8","year":"1996","journal-title":"Journal of Public Relations Research"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref009","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1177\/089331802237233","article-title":"Helping crisis managers protect reputational assets: initial tests of the situational crisis communication theory","volume":"16","year":"2002","journal-title":"Management Communication Quarterly"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2019090214284412300_ref010","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"252","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pubrev.2008.04.001","article-title":"Comparing apology to equivalent crisis response strategies: clarifying apology\u2019s role and value in crisis communication","volume":"34","year":"2008","journal-title":"Public Relations Review"},{"key":"key2019090214284412300_ref011","volume-title":"The Handbook of Crisis Communication","year":"2010"},{"key":"key2019090214284412300_ref012","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Crawford, K. and Finn, M. 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