Before crisis : How near-miss affects organizational trust and industry transference in emerging industries

Journal article


Mehta, Amisha M., Tam, Lisa, Greer, Dominique A. and Letheren, Kate. (2020). Before crisis : How near-miss affects organizational trust and industry transference in emerging industries. Public Relations Review. 46(2), pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101886
AuthorsMehta, Amisha M., Tam, Lisa, Greer, Dominique A. and Letheren, Kate
Abstract

A near-miss, such as a narrowly avoided collision between vehicles, evades a full-scale accident but can generate media attention that threatens trust. In emerging industries, the effects of near-miss may extend beyond organizational boundaries and influence trust in the industry and technology. This study empirically tests these assertions by examining how media reports of near-miss affect organizational trustworthiness and how trust repair strategies after a near-miss influence organizational and industry trust and technology acceptance in the emerging commercial industry of unmanned aircraft. Notwithstanding parallels to paracrisis, near-miss communication is understudied in public relations research. Further, studies of trust in the context of crisis are recent (see Brühl et al., 2018; Fuoli et al., 2017), and have produced unexpected results that warrant continued exploration in public relations. Underpinned by attribution theory, this study adopts a 2 (near-miss cause: external, low controllability; internal, high controllability) x 3 (trust repair strategy delivered via news story: denial, excuse, apology) scenario-based experiment. This study found that near-miss reduced organizational trustworthiness regardless of whether the event was controllable or not, indicating that when it comes to trust perceptions, near-miss can operate similarly to crisis. Further, apology was the only strategy that arrested a fall in organizational trustworthiness. The study signaled a trust transfer effect where organizational trust influenced industry trust, which led to the acceptance of unmanned aircraft technology. In the context of emerging industries, these findings have implications for organizations that experience near-miss, highlighting the potential for a standardized initial strategy to acknowledge a reduction in trust in order to support trust beyond the organization.

KeywordsNear-miss ; Industry trust ; Trust repair ; Organizational trust
Year01 Jan 2020
JournalPublic Relations Review
Journal citation46 (2), pp. 1-7
PublisherElsevier Ltd. (UK)
ISSN0363-8111
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101886
Web address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811120300072?via%3Dihub
Open accessOpen access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range1-7
Publisher's version
License
All rights reserved
File Access Level
Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online28 Jan 2020
Publication process dates
Accepted18 Jan 2020
Deposited01 Oct 2024
Additional information

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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