Fixing the barn door before the horse bolts: Effects of pre-crisis engagement and stealing thunder in crisis communication

This research reports on the buffering effects of two proactive crisis communication strategies: pre-crisis engagement and stealing thunder. Pre-crisis engagement is an organization's strategy to engage with stakeholders’ petitions before a negative event escalates into a crisis while stealing thunder is an organization's voluntary revelation of a crisis before it is revealed by a third party such as new media. The results showed that the effectiveness of pre-crisis engagement with stakeholder petitions was moderated by stealing thunder such that the effects of pre-crisis engagement were stronger when the organization stole the thunder. A moderated mediation model explored the underlying mechanism in which crisis responsibility mediated the interaction effects between pre-crisis engagement and stealing thunder.