A Comparative Study On Strategies Of Corporate Image Repair Between China And The U.S.

Customer online reviews via Internet spreading greatly influence consumers' perception of trustworthiness and shopping will,and they have become electronic word-of-mouth and affect corporate image.However,corporate apology,as a way to repair corporate image,has seldom been studied from comparison between China and the U.S.This study will systematically analyze the discourse tactics employed by Chinese and American corporations at online review platform through a comparative analysis established in relevant language theories and based on self-built databases.The present study systematically analyzes 108 apology texts from 27 Chinese hotels and 27 American hotels based on the apology pattern raised by Blum Kulka et al.(1989)and image repair theory.Among the three cities in both China and the U.S.,three hotels are selected from each star from three to five with 2 responses to online customer review.The findings suggest that,both American and Chinese hotels have shared the same apology pattern with specific differences in their efforts of image repair.On the one hand,as a whole,companies used quite similar apology patterns to respond online reviews.To get rid of the threat of “take responsibility” to corporate image,companies from both countries do not apply this pattern.On the other hand,as for the specific apology pattern,discrepancies have been found in the use of image repair tactics.Under the pattern “explanation or account”,Chinese hotels would not leverage “defeasibility” tactics to repair image so as to avoid the damage to their corporate image for a lack of required information or ability.While for “provocation” tactic,hotels in China tend to make the reasons governmental provisions and sector policies for their appropriate response to the accused offense.As for American hotels,they would not defend themselves for accused offenses with proper explanation plus “transcendence” and “differentiation”,but resorted to “accident” tactics to avoid them.The reasons lie in the discrepancies among Chinese and American cultural dimensions,such as high/low context,power distance and individualism/collectivism.Image repair as a necessary step after damaged image,is of great importance to individuals and organizations.Through a comprehensive analysis of apology speech act and image repair strategies,the study can deepen understanding apology's role in image repair,and conduct better cross-cultural communication for Chinese companies.