Prescribing Versus Describing: An Original Test of All Image-Restoration Strategies Within a Single Crisis Situation.

Image restoration theory has become the dominant paradigm for examining corporate communication in times of crises. However, much insight gleaned from scholarly research in this area remains descriptive rather than prescriptive. Therefore, the current experimental study provided the first empirical test of Benoit's (1995; 1997) five image restoration strategies vis-à-vis each other simultaneously within the context of a single crisis situation. Results indicated that the strategy of reducing the offensiveness of the crisis consistently led to higher reputation-related perceptions of a company than did the other four strategies when implemented during a product-harm (food recall) situation. Such inquiry accelerates the transfer of image restoration theory from the realm of retrospection and description to that of prescription and inference, while simultaneously providing clearer guidelines to practitioners regarding crisis-response communication strategies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]