A New Framework for Managing ‘Crisis Spillover’ as a Type of Sticky Crisis: Initial Insights from a Crisis Communication Expert Panel

Taylor S. Voges (Grady PhD alum), Yan Jin, Christen Buckley, LaShonda L. Eaddy (Grady PhD alum), and Xuerong Lu (Grady PhD alum). (Forthcoming). “A New Framework for Managing ‘Crisis Spillover’ as a Type of Sticky Crisis: Initial Insights from a Crisis Communication Expert Panel.” Public Relations Review.

Abstract: Organizational crises have often been examined from the perspective of the crisis origin organization. Depending on the crisis type, other organizations might experience impacts because of the initial crisis. This emerging type of crisis—the crisis spillover—one that affects organizations along with the crisis origin organization, is under researched. The current research refines the “crisis spillover” concept and proposes a new perspective for this challenging crisis communication phenomenon by arguing in favor of a relationship between the crisis spillover and sticky crises, developing a conceptual framework, mapping out multi-layer characteristics of crisis spillover and delineating new directions for advancing research and practice for managing industry-wide complex crisis challenges. The framework, further refined based on feedback and evaluation from an expert panel composed of crisis communication executives, provides unique insights into the crisis spillover.