Set fire to the rain: can empathetic crisis communication help when CSR signalling backfires?

Abstract

This study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) signalling and empathetic crisis communication shape stakeholder backlash during externally constrained market exits. Drawing on expectancy-disconfirmation and attribution theories, it explores whether strong CSR signalling, traditionally viewed as reputationally protective, can become a liability during crises in which external conditions constrain firm actions, and whether empathetic communication mitigates negative stakeholder reactions. Evidence from 182 multinational corporations’ exits from Russia following Ukraine-related sanctions indicates that firms with higher levels of CSR signalling experienced greater company-directed public outrage, suggesting that CSR signalling elevates stakeholder expectations and intensifies backlash when externally constrained actions generate expectancy disconfirmation among stakeholders. Empathetic crisis communication is associated with lower negative reactions overall but does not moderate the effect of CSR signalling. These findings extend expectancy-disconfirmation theory to externally constrained victim crises by demonstrating that empathetic communication operates independently of CSR signalling in shaping stakeholder reactions.