The Foreign Language Effect in International Crisis Communication - The influence of language of the message, proficiency in L2, comprehension of the message and crisis response strategy on consumer perceptions and behavioural intentions during an organizational crisis.

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2020-08-19
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en
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This study aimed to explore the effects of language of the message and crisis response strategy on consumer perceptions (emotional intensity of the message, crisis severity, organizational responsibility, organizational reputation) and behavioural intentions (intention to spread negative word-of-mouth, intention to boycott, loyalty to the organization). Since research has found that the processing of messages in an L2 can reduce emotional bias and stimulate more rational decision making (the Foreign Language Effect), it was assumed that a crisis communication message in L2 (English) would lead to more beneficial post-crisis outcomes for the organization (H1-H3). The possible moderating effects of proficiency in an L2 and comprehension of the message on the FLE were also explored (H4) by including two nationalities of participants with significantly different levels of English proficiency in the research, namely Dutch (high proficiency) and Hungarians (low proficiency). Possible effects of crisis response strategy were examined by employing either a diminish or a rebuild strategy from Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory in the message (H5a / H5b). While H1-H3 and H5 yielded very few significant results, H4 was partially supported, confirming that FLE is indeed moderated to an extent by proficiency in an L2 and comprehension of the message.
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