Responding in a crisis situation: The effects of crisis message timing and crisis message framing on consumers with different cultural background

Understanding crisis situations and developing appropriate crisis strategies is nowadays one of the most important actions to undertake for companies. Crises can not only affect a company’s image but also its financial assets and thus its whole existence. This research investigated to what extent the timing of the communicated crisis message and the framing of the communicated crisis message, which can either be emotional or rational framed, influence the customers' emotional response, the trust in the company, purchase intention and their word-of mouth intentions. Another very important aspect of this research was also whether the effects were dependent on cultural differences.