Computers in Human Behavior 36 (2014) 308315

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Computers in Human Behavior

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Full Length Article

Damaged corporate reputation: Can celebrity Tweets repair it?

Nienke D. Van Norel a, Piet A.M. Kommers a,, Joris J. Van Hoof a, Joost W.M. Verhoeven b
a
b

University of Twente, The Netherlands

University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Available online 4 May 2014
Keywords:
Twitter
Tweet Impact
Tweet Design
Corporate Reputation
Celebrity Tweets

a b s t r a c t
These days, many corporations engage in Twitter activities as a part of their communication strategy.
Corporations can use this medium to share information with stakeholders, to answer customer questions,
or to build on their image. In this study we examined the extent to which celebrity Tweet messages can
be used to repair a damaged corporate reputation, and how this message should be designed and what
celebrity should be used.
In two experiments, a 2  2 (attractive celebrity versus intelligent celebrity)  (personal message versus general message) design was used. In total, 163 respondents rst expressed their feelings regarding
the two organisations in a baseline reputation measurement (M = 4.72 on 7 point Likert scale). After that
a news items was presented communicating a big fraud and mismanagement, resulting in a decreased
reputation score (M = 4.10). In the nal stage one of the four experimental Tweets was presented, aimed
at repairing the damaged reputation, which succeeded (M = 4.43). For both organisations, the crisis prime
signicantly decreased reputation scores, and the Tweet signicantly increased reputation score again.
The analysis of variance shows a main effect for type of celebrity. In our experiment the intelligent celebritys Tweet was best to use.
The study reveals that celebrities Tweets can restore a positive public opinion about corporations.
This study shows that when it comes to serious matters, an intelligent celebrity, who has the best
t with the topic, is of best impact. Consequences for corporate communication and future research
are discussed.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Twitter has an ever-growing impact on marketing and corporate image. Enterprises feel the pressure to anticipate to this new
medium as it is being used so widely. A great deal of research
has been devoted to this trend. Researchers monitor the ways in
which corporations analyse the information that emerges via Twitter, for example, by gathering marketing information, investigating
brand perception (Jansen, Zhang, Sobel, & Chowdury, 2009), and
spotting damaging rumours (Blackshaw & Nazzaro, 2006). Others
examine the ways in which corporations can actively use Twitter
themselves in responding to customer questions (Jansen et al.,
2009). They also use Twitter to share relevant information about
the corporation with stakeholders (Zhang, Jansen, & Chowdhury,
2011), engage in dialogues with stakeholders (Rybalko & Seltzer,
2010), or to strategically use Twitter as a tool to manage corporate
Corresponding author. Address: University of Twente, Postbus 217, 7500 AE
Enschede, NL, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 534895936.
E-mail address: p.a.m.kommers@utwente.nl (P.A.M. Kommers).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.056
0747-5632/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

reputation (Becker, Nobre, & Kanabar, 2013). The current study

examines the extent to which organization not only can use
Twitter to manage a corporate reputation over time, but whether
it is possible for a corporation to repair a damaged reputation via
Twitter messages, not by posting Tweets themselves, but rather
use others to do so. It is already known that information from secondary sources is regarded as more reliable than information that
comes from the corporations themselves (Allsop, Bassett, &
Hoskins, 2007). Corporations have already learned that they can
engage celebrities to promote their products and services via
Twitter. Can they also recruit the help of celebrities in order to
spread positive messages and repair a damaged corporate reputation? And if so, then how should these messages be framed?
In this paper, a study is presented regarding the inuence of
celebrities and their Tweets on damaged corporate reputations.
An experimental study was conducted to nd out the effect of
two variables on the perceived corporate reputation: (1) celebrity
type, (in terms of attractiveness versus intelligence) and (2) message type, (in terms of a personal experience versus a general
statement).

N.D. Van Norel et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 36 (2014) 308315

2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Reputation
Reputation refers to mental associations about the corporation
actually held by others outside to the corporation (Walsh,
Mitchell, Jackson, & Beatty, 2009, p. 189). Schultz, Mouritsen, and
Gabrielsen (2001, p. 24) dene: Reputation combines everything
that is knowable about a rm. Empirically, it is a judgment of the
rm made by a set of audiences on the basis of perceptions and
assessments. Reputation is an important criterion for corporations,
as public perception determines its success (Fombrun, 1996). A
positive reputation leads to favourable word of mouth as well as
loyalty (Walsh et al., 2009). As a consequence, a good reputation
has a positive impact on corporate nancial performance (e.g.,
Rindova, Williamson, & Petkova, 2005; Roberts & Dowling, 2002).
A bad reputation prevents the public from trusting corporate services and products (Groenland, 2002). It also complicates corporations to build a strong brand (Page & Fearn, 2005). Therefore, it is of
great importance for corporations to ensure that its reputation is
positive and to repair a damaged reputation, if necessary.
Berens and Van Riel (2004) distinguish various types of reputations: social expectations, corporate personality and trust. The concept of social expectations has been addressed in recent research
(Berens & Van Riel, 2004). One of the methods for measuring
reputation that is based on social expectations is the reputation
quotient developed by Fombrun, Gardberg, and Sever (2000). The
reputation quotient is based on the fact that people justify their
opinions about corporations with two factors: emotional appeal
and rational appeal. These factors are represented by the following
dimensions: emotional appeal, products and services, workplace
environment, vision and leadership, nancial performance and
social responsibility. More than a decade after the introduction of
the reputation quotient, Ponzi, Fombrun, and Gardberg (2011)
launched a shorter version of the measurement instrument: the
RepTrack Pulse. It is a simplied emotion-based measurement
tool for assessing corporate reputations. The tool was created as
prior reputation instruments were too time-consuming. Respondents complained that questions appeared to be redundant, and
this can lead to fatigue and non-response; a shorter measurement
instrument can enhance the willingness of respondents to
participate.
The measurement instruments show that reputation is a multidimensional concept that is based on different associations. These
associations have different sources. A corporations reputation can
be inuenced by peoples direct experience of a corporation. Trusting and being satised by a corporation are important ingredients
of a good reputation (Walsh et al., 2009). People can also base their
opinions about a corporation on what they receive via the media or
from persons in their direct environment (Highhouse, Brooks, &
Gregarus, 2009). The latter form of information is called word of
mouth, known in the digital environment as electronic word of
mouth. WOM is a channel of marketing that is dominated by consumers. Because of this, word of mouth is perceived as reliable
because the consumer decides for himself whether or not to say
something about a brand, product or service. He or she is independent from the corporation (Arndt, 1967 cited in Brown, Broderick,
& Lee, 2007, p. 7; Silverman, 1997). Additionally, WOM is perceived
as being more credible and trustworthy than messages that are
spread by corporations themselves (Allsop et al., 2007).
2.2. Electronic word of mouth
Due to the rise of the Internet, people can now engage in electronic word of mouth (eWOM). EWOM is dened as any positive
or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former

309

customers about a product or company, which is made available

to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet
(Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004, p. 39). As a
social media platform, Twitter can be used for eWOM (Wolny &
Mueller, 2013). Before the rise of eWOM, customers were only passive receivers of marketing actions. There was a unidirectional
relationship in which corporations had a large amount of control
over the shaping of brand messages (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010).
These days, the relationship is multidirectional. According to
Deighton and Kornfeld (2009), corporations now provoke interactions among customers. The reasons for people to engage in eWOM
include the desire for social interaction, the concern for other consumers and the potential to enhance their own self-esteem. EWOM
is an important type of word of mouth because of the characteristics of the Internet and the immediate nature of microblogging.
EWOM reaches many people for an indenite period of time and
can even be anonymous (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004).
EWOM has different effects on consumers. It is already known
that conventional word of mouth has an inuence on both the attitude (e.g., Fitzgerald Bone, 1995; Giese, Spangenberg, & Crowley,
1996) and the behaviour (e.g., Godes & Mayzlin, 2009) of stakeholders towards corporations and their products and services.
Based on previous research, Cheung and Thadani (2010) show that
the effects of WOM are similar to EWOM. They both inuence consumers, their beliefs, attitudes and their purchase intentions. Other
researchers, for example, Chu and Kamal (2010), found a relationship between positive WOM on blogs and favourable brand attitudes. EWOM can be a predictor of sales according to both Davis
and Khazanchi (2008) and Chevalier and Mayzlin (2003). This is
also conrmed by Forman, Ghose, and Wiesenfeld (2008), who
argue that positive online product reviews lead to an increase in
product sales. Unfortunately, corporations cannot easily control
such external factors, especially with the rise of online platforms
where everyone can share his or her opinion (Blackshaw &
Nazzaro, 2006). Nevertheless, it seems that the research into
eWOM has mainly focused on marketing effects such as purchase
intention. Hardly anything is known about the effects of eWOM
on the reputation of a corporation. In addition, most of the research
addresses the effects of eWOM through product review websites
and blogs. There has not been much research into eWOM in other
platforms where people can share their opinions, such as Twitter.
Yet, eWOM seems to occur quite often on Twitter, as Jansen
et al.s (2009) research shows that brands are mentioned in 19%
of microblogs. Twenty per cent of them contain some expression
of brand sentiment: Half of those tweets were positive; 33% were
negative.
2.3. Celebrity endorsers
Twitter is used by many types of people, from students to businessmen. Among the many users, celebrities constitute quite a
large group (Kwak, Lee, Park, & Moon, 2010; Lipsman, 2009). There
has not been much scientic research on the topic of celebrities
use of Twitter. Wu, Hofman, Mason, and Watts (2011) found that
although mass media generate most of the information, celebrities
are being tracked even more. They also found that a relatively
small group of elite users, including celebrities, post 50% of the
Tweets that contain URLs. Hessert (Greenberg, 2009) argues that
celebrities share their stories through Twitter because people want
to know about them as people. In this way, celebrities can please
their fan base and enhance themselves as their own brand.
In the ofine world, celebrities have a substantial impact on
peoples opinions. Many corporations engage in celebrity endorsement as a marketing tool for creating brand awareness (Premeaux,
2005), a positive brand image (Hakimi, Abedniy, & Zaeim, 2011), a
positive brand attitude (Amos, Holmes, & Strutton, 2008) or to

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increase purchase intention (Kahle & Homer, 1985). Celebrities are

often seen as opinion leaders: people who inuence the opinions,
attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and behaviours of others (Valente &
Pumpuang, 2007, p. 881).
Celebrities can also be inuential in the online world. An example that demonstrates the inuence of celebrities is the case of
Dutch comedian Youp vant Hek and the telecom provider TMobile. In October 2010, Vant Hek used Twitter to post negative
reports about the telecom provider. Because of his Tweets, Tmobiles poor service gained wide public attention (Nu.nl, 2010).
As a result of Vant Heks Tweets, negative reporting about Tmobile increased from 42% to 64%. In addition, it was found that
T-mobile incurred reputational damage costs of 200,000300,000
euro (Buzzcapture, 2010). Nevertheless, celebrities also have a
positive inuence on people and can therefore be useful in marketing. Corporations have already learned that celebrities can be
important marketing tools in the world of Twitter. More and more
corporations are willing to pay celebrities to promote their brands
through endorsed Twitter messages (Daily Mail, 2011; Yue &
Xuecheng, 2010). US celebrities such as Kim Kardashian are getting
paid over 10,000 dollars per Tweet to promote certain products
(Daily Mail, 2009). Until recently, this phenomenon did not exist
in the Netherlands. However, Dutch celebrities are now also
approached for marketing on Twitter, for example, for the promotion of lms (Van Stein Callenfels, 2012).
Nevertheless, it is not yet known if celebrities can exert an
inuence that is sufcient to repair a damaged corporate reputation through their Tweets. What is already known is that in the
Twitter environment, the effective senders are those who disproportionately invest in the spread of information or some related
behaviour of interest (Bakshy, Mason, Hofman, & Watts, 2011:
2). The number of followers (Bakshy et al., 2011; Kwak et al.,
2010), the page-rank (Kwak et al., 2010) and the number of retweets (Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto, & Gummadi, 2010; Kwak
et al., 2010) are important indicators of inuence on Twitter. These
characteristics are mainly found among celebrities who use Twitter. Hence, tweeting celebrities can have a large inuence on peoples opinions.
2.4. Credibility
For celebrities who exert inuence through Twitter, it is also
important to maintain their status of credibility. Credibility is especially important in the Twitter environment because everyday
users are exposed to many extreme opinions (Li & Li, 2011).
Murray (1991) explains that personal sources, such as friends,
are viewed as being more credible than impersonal sources.
Because celebrities are not real friends of their followers, the question is if they are viewed as credible and hence able to exert
inuence.
When it comes to the credibility of celebrity endorsement, one
can make a distinction between messenger credibility (characteristics of the source) and messenger credibility (characteristics of the
message itself) (Roberts, 2010). First, messenger- or source credibility refers to the extent to which the recipient believes that
the information source provider himself has considerable knowledge, skills and experiences, and that the information provided
by him is objective without bias (Ho & Chang Chien, 2010, p.
396). A literature review of Erdogan (1999) shows mixed results
when it comes to choosing the right type of celebrity. It is for
example known that the credibility of an endorsed message of a
celebrity depends on the physical attractiveness of the celebrity
(Amos et al., 2008; Jaschinski & Kommers, 2012; Ohanian, 1990).
Aside from attractiveness, it is argued that source expertise
(Ohanian, 1990; Till & Busler, 2000) and source trustworthiness
(Hovland & Weiss, 1951; Ohanian, 1990) are important indicators

of credibility. Nothing is known yet about the inuence and credibility of celebrities that are perceived as intelligent. The current
research will focus on the difference in inuence between attractive and intellectual celebrities, as many different types of celebrities (with qualities that range from attractiveness to intelligence)
are active on Twitter.
Second, message credibility refers to the extent of believability
(Roberts, 2010), accuracy, trustworthiness and completeness of the
information (Flanagin & Metzger, 2003). The credibility of a message is for example dependent on the structure of a message, and
its language intensity and attractiveness (Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal,
Lemus & McCann, in Roberts, 2010). Flanagin and Metzger (2000)
argue that credibility of internet information differs among the
type of information. It was found that commercial information is
perceived less credible than news, reference and entertainment
information. Therefore, in the current research the inuence of
the type of message will be examined, in addition to the type of
celebrity. We argue that it is important that endorsement Tweets
do not stand out from other Tweets, otherwise these Tweets might
be perceived as less credible. Based on a content analysis including
Dutch celebrities Tweets, it will be determined which two types of
Tweets will be most useful for our research. It is already known
that Twitter is used for various purposes, such as daily chatter;
most of Twitters participants talk about what they are doing. Furthermore, people also like to share information and URLs and
report news. The latter types of Tweets often also include mentioning corporations and brands (Java, Song, Finin, & Tseng, 2009). In
addition, Naaman, Boase, and Lai (2010) found that 41% of Tweets
contain personal information, such as describing what one is doing
in the present. People also like to post random statements and
thoughts (25%), provide opinions (24%) or share general information (21%).
In summary: Reputation is an important factor for the success
of corporations. Repairing a damaged reputation is therefore essential, although it is not easy to accomplish. Peoples perceptions of a
corporation are based, among other things, on the stories they hear
from other people. Celebrities can exert inuence on the public and
serve as opinion leaders. Their opinions can now be spread easily
through online platforms such as Twitter. Many corporations
already hire celebrities to promote their products through Tweets.
However, celebrities might also be engaged to spread positive messages to repair a damaged reputation. This leads us to the following
research question: To what extent can a corporation use Twitter and
make use of a celebrity to repair a damaged corporate reputation?
2.5. Method
In order to examine the effects of the type of celebrity and the
type of message, for two existing Dutch organisations (KLM; royal
Dutch airline and NS; Dutch national railroad), a 2  2 (attractive
celebrity versus intelligent celebrity)  (personal message versus
general message) experimental design was developed. As a dependent variable, on three moments (baseline, after crisis prime, and
after the Tweet intervention), reputation towards the specic organisation was measured.
2.6. Design
Respondents were randomly assigned to one of the two organisations and subsequently to one of the four intervention Tweet
conditions. First, all respondents judged the organisation involved
on reputation (O1; baseline measurement), then a crisis prime was
showed (see Fig. 1 for explanation), again the reputation was measured (O2; after crisis), then one out of four celebrity intervention
Tweets was shown, and nally reputation was measured (O3; after
intervention).

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Fig. 1. Study design.

2.7. Sample and randomisation

Following the users of Twitter (Schoonderwoerd, 2010), the 163
respondents that participated were men (47%) and women (53%) in
their twenties: college students from a university (67%) or higher
vocational education (33%). All 163 respondents were familiar with
Twitter, and 34% is an active user as a sender of Tweets, and 25%
only reads Tweets without sending.
Chi-Square analysis shows that the gender ratio in the eight
groups (as also depicted in Table 1) is good, v2(7,
N = 163) = 3.818, p = .800), and also the average age of the respondents in the eight conditions is equal, F(7, 155) = 9.172, p = .162).
3. Experimental treatments
3.1. Crisis prime
After the baseline reputation measurement, both for KLM and
NS, a crisis scenario was given. A pre-tested news article (the same
article for both organisations in which only the name of the organisation was changed), about either KLM or NS, reported that a big
nancial scandal had been found, that the corporations management had conducted long-term and serious fraud and that the
CEO had been arrested (which only occurs in very serious cases
in the Netherlands).
3.2. Celebrities
Based on the literature, we wanted to use an intelligent and a
physically attractive (Dutch) celebrity. First, making use of a qualitative round, we selected 23 Dutch male celebrities (aged between
30 and 50), who were, according to the people in this pre-study,
attractive, intelligent, or attractive and intelligent, and likely to
use Twitter. Second, we conducted a Q-sort study that was aimed
at selecting one Dutch attractive celebrity and one Dutch intelligent celebrity. Sixteen respondents were asked to sort photographs

(same sized) on a normal distribution grid ranging from beautiful

to intelligent. In addition, participants were asked to indicate to
what extent they think it would be likely that the celebrities
involved would make use of Twitter. This was measured on a 5point Likert scale (from 1 = very unlikely to 5 = very likely).
The Dutch actor and TV show host Chris Zegers scored highest
on attractiveness, and the Dutch news anchor and political expert
Frits Wester scored highest on intellect. On the Q-sort beauty
brain scale (from 3 to 3), the rst celebrity scored an average of
M = 2.31 (SD = 1.01) and the latter M = 2.12 (SD = .66). As a control procedure, as the recent behaviour of celebrities can inuence
the effect of celebrity endorsements (Amos et al., 2008), it was analysed whether both celebrities recently appeared negatively in the
news. It was found that both celebrities were not negatively
reported on the news website NU.nl, the largest news website in
the Netherlands (STIR, 2011) (see Fig. 2).
In the main study, both celebrities were judged as being likely
to participate in Twitter, with M = 5.27 for the beautiful celebrity
and M = 5.00 for the intelligent celebrity, making use of a 7 point
Likert scale (1 = very unlikely and 7 = very likely), which is equal
amongst both celebrities, t(161) = 1.203, p = .231.

3.3. Tweet messages

Preliminary research has been conducted to determine the
ways in which Twitter is used by Dutch celebrities. The analysis
was conducted in May 2011 and included the last 25 Tweets of
the 25 most followed Dutch celebrities. It was found that Twitter
is mainly used as a direct communication channel, for example,
between celebrities and their fans; 35% of the Tweets contained
some form of conversation. Furthermore, 14% of celebrity Tweets
contained statements and random thoughts. In addition, the
Tweets involved describing what one is doing in the present
(13%) or sharing information (11%). Accordingly, it can be concluded that there is a distinction between personal and general
messages. Therefore, for both celebrities, two identical Tweets

Table 1
Randomization among the conditions.

Gender
Male
Female
Average age

KLM1
n = 21

KLM2
n = 20

KLM3
n = 20

KLM4
n = 21

NS1
n = 20

NS2
n = 21

NS3
n = 20

NS4
n = 20

TOTAL
N = 163

52%
48%
23.1

45%
55%
24.9

40%
60%
24.7

52%
48%
23.2

35%
65%
23.5

48%
52%
23.2

40%
60%
23.7

60%
40%
23.5

47%
53%
23.7

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Fig. 2. Celebrity endorsers used.

were designed, either reecting a positive personal experience or a

general positive remark regarding the organisation in crisis. In line
with the Twitter layout, two identical shaped pictures were used to
accompany the text. The Tweets did not contain more than 140
characters (Twitter, 2011a). Additionally, they included a mention
of the Twitter accounts of the corporations via the often-used @sign (Twitter, 2011b).
The positive personal experience Tweet read as follows (in the
Dutch language):
Left my coat
address within
Left my coat
address within

on a train yesterday. Delivered to my home

one hour by @NS_Online. Great service! #NS.
on a plane yesterday. Delivered to my home
one hour by @KLM. Great service! #KLM.

The general positive remark Tweet read as follows (in the Dutch
language):
@NS_Online wins most customer-friendly-organisation
award! #NS.
@KLM wins most customer-friendly-organisation award!
#KLM.

3.4. Measures
In each experiment, all respondents lled out three computerbased questionnaires that included reputation measures and background variables. The dependent variable in the study, the reputation of KLM and NS, had been measured with the recently
developed RepTrak Pulse of Ponzi et al. (2011).
The RepTrak Pulse consists of the following statements:
1.
2.
3.
4.

[Company]
[Company]
[Company]
[Company]

is a
is a
is a
has

company I have a good feeling about.

company that I trust.
company that I admire and respect.
a good overall reputation.

Respondents were asked to give their opinion about the corporations by assessing the above statements three times (at baseline,
after the crisis prime, and after the intervention Tweet) on 7-point
Likert scales (1 = totally disagree to 7 = totally agree). Reliability
analyses were performed for all three reputation constructs, and
showed high reliability in all measurements (KLM: respectively,
a = .76, a = .84, and a = .84 and NS: respectively, a = .89, a = .87,
and a = .93).

The demographics section included questions about gender, age

and education. Also two control variables were included: the likelihood that the celebrities involved would make use of Twitter and
would say something about the corporations on Twitter were measured on a 7-point semantic differential scale (1 = very unlikely to
7 = very likely).
4. Results
First, as can also be seen in Table 2, we analysed the reputation
for the two organisations at baseline (O1), after the crisis prime
(O2) and after the tweet intervention (O3). Although at baseline
the reputation scores between the two organisations signicantly
differ, t(121.655) = 15.67, p = .000, a paired samples T-test shows
that, after the crisis prime the reputation score signicantly
dropped both for KLM, t(81) = 11.79, p = .000, and for NS,
t(80) = 5.42, p = .000.
Subsequently, after giving the respondent on of the four tweet
interventions, on average, the corporate reputation recovers significantly both for KLM, t(81) = 7.11, p = .000, and for NS,
t(80) = 5.95, p = .000. Finally, when we compare O1 and O3, for
KLM the reputation does not reach the pre-crisis level,
t(81) = 6.71, p = .000, but for NS this level is (statistically) back at
the baseline reputation, t(80) = 1.88, p = .064.
Second, as has also been depicted in Table 3, we have analysed
the effect of both the type of celebrity and the type of message on
reputation recovery making use of a 2  2 analysis of variance,
with the organisation as a covariate. Within this analyse, we see
a main effect for the celebrity, F(1, 163) = 4.65, p < .05, in favour
of the intelligent celebrity we used. The tweet message send by
this intelligent celebrity recovered reputation with 0.40, and the
tweet message from the attractive celebrity only with 0.26. The
likelihood that the specic celebrity would send out a Tweet for
the specic organisation also shows a difference in the same direction, for the beautiful celebrity this is 4.02 (on 7-point scale), as
this is 4.70 for the intelligent celebrity, t(153.27) = 2.94, p = .004.
Furthermore, the analysis shows no effect for type of message,
F(1, 163) = 1.88, p = ns, nor did we observe interaction affects for
celebrity and message type.
4.2. Discussion
In this study, the inuence of celebrity endorser Tweets on
corporate reputation was examined. More specically, the research
focused on the extent to which Tweets that are posted by

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Table 2
Corporate reputation, the three measurements, on a 7-point Likert scale (SD in parentheses).
Baseline (O1)
a

Organisation KLM (n = 82)

Organisation NS (n = 81)
Attractive celebrity (n = 82)
Intelligent celebrity (n = 81)
Informative message (n = 82)
Personal message (n = 81)
Average (N = 163)
Independent sample T-test.
Paired sample T-tests: values with equal letters (a
**
p < 0.01.

After crisis prime (O2)

After intervention (O3)

**

5.92 (0.62)
3.50a (1.16)**
4.74 (1.40)
4.70 (1.65)
4.67 (1.61)
4.77 (1.44)
4.72 (1.53)

5.48c (0.67)
3.36a (1.16)
4.37 (1.37)
4.48 (1.48)
4.42 (1.52)
4.43 (1.32)
4.43 (1.42)

5.09 (0.75)
3.09b (0.98)
4.11 (1.28)
4.08 (1.38)
4.14 (1.41)
4.05 (1.25)
4.10 (1.33)

b c

) in superscript are equal.

Table 3
Dependent variable: reputation recovery.

Corrected model
Intercept
Organisation (KLM versus NS)
Celebrity (Attract. versus Intell.)
Message (Inform. versus Personal)
Celebrity * Message
Error
Total
Corrected total

Sum of Squ

df

Mean square

sig.

Eta squared

1.996
3.977
0.491
0.926
0.375
0.178
31.445
51.000
33.440

4
1
1
1
1
1
158
163
162

0.499
3.977
0.491
0.926
0.375
0.178
0.199

2.507
19.983
2.468
4.654
1.883
0.893

.044
.000
.118
.032
.172
.346

.060
.112
.015
.029
.012
.006

R2 = .060 (adjusted R2 = .036). Analysis of variance in which 03 minus 02 was used as the dependent variable.

celebrities could repair a damaged corporate reputation and, if so,

which type of celebrity and which type of message would be more
effective. It was found that, in general, celebrities Tweets have a
signicant inuence on peoples perceptions of corporations. These
Tweets can be used by corporations to inuence people to think
more positively about them, and hence, corporations can use
Tweets to repair a damaged reputation. This study offers important
insight into brand perception and reputation via Twitter. The study
shows that corporations have the opportunity to repair a damaged
corporate reputation through celebrities Tweets. Existing research
has already shown that Twitter is a platform that may affect brand
perceptions. More and more users are mentioning brands in their
Tweets. Consumers also increasingly trust social networking systems as sources of information (Jansen et al., 2009). In addition,
this research can be seen as a rst step towards a better understanding of the use of celebrities for spreading positive messages
through Twitter and their inuence on corporate reputation. As
celebrities belong to the group of elite Twitter users (Wu et al.,
2011), and they are perceived as inuential due to their large number of followers (Bakshy et al., 2011; Kwak et al., 2010) and their
high page-rank (Kwak et al., 2010), their Tweets can be employed
to inuence peoples perceptions of corporations. More research is
needed to explore this topic more intensively.
We found a main effect was found for type of celebrity; the
Tweet from the intelligent celebrity could better repair the reputational damage than the Tweet from the attractive celebrity. The
explanation might be found in the answers to the question to what
extent it was likely that the specic celebrity would Tweet about
the specic organisation in real life; for the intelligent celebrity
(the news anchor) it appeared more likely that he would Tweet
about a corporate reputation issue than for the attractive celebrity
(the actor and TV show host). Apparently, also in this study, the
perceived t with the issue is relevant. This nding is in line with
traditional studies on endorser and product/topic t. In the eld
of endorsers in sport marketing the t between the sport, the
endorser, and product is a common ground (e.g., Fink, Parker,
Cunningham, & Cuneen, 2012), and also when endorsers are used

in the learning context it has been established that a good t

between the endorser and the product exposed is of signicant
importance (e.g., Till, Stanley, & Priluck, 2008). Although attractive
celebrities might seem the best choice in an intuitive process, a
more systematic evaluation should be taken into account.
No differences were found between the personal and informational message, neither did we nd interaction effects. We can conclude that, in this specic study, the endorser himself was of the
strongest inuence. However, we suggest to design follow up studies in which the specic content of Tweet messages will be studied,
notwithstanding the specic sender of the message.

4.3. Limitations and suggestions for future research

Despite the careful design of the study that is presented here,
there are limitations to mention. First, this research included an
experimental method in which reality was simulated. Although
high efforts were made in order to replicate reality as much as possible, it is nevertheless conceivable that in the real world, people
would respond differently to the tweets of celebrities. The study
included an isolated experiment, and therefore, stimuli were
reduced to a minimum. In real life, people are inuenced by many
external stimuli, in which case the effect of Tweets would be
weaker. It was found by Herr, Kardes, and Kim (1991) that consumers base their judgments on diagnostic pieces of information.
When this information is more available than that which is communicated only by word of mouth, for example, in the case of peoples own opinions, the opinions of others will be trusted less. It
can be concluded then that when consumers have already formed
an opinion about a corporation, for example, because they have
had a bad experience, they will not be as easily inuenced by the
opinions of others. In addition, this experiment was conducted in
one session within a brief time span. When celebrities are engaged
in real life to repair a damaged reputation, for example, one that
was caused by a negative news message, the time between the
appearance of the negative message and the sending of the Tweet

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N.D. Van Norel et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 36 (2014) 308315

will be longer. Therefore, the effects of the Tweets can be weaker in

real life.
Future research can also focus on the use of female celebrities
for spreading Tweets about corporations. Our study only included
male celebrities. It is possible that female celebrities would have a
different inuence on both genders. Previous research has already
revealed that attractive female models have a more positive impact
than attractive male models, especially among the male public
(Debevec & Kernan, 1984), which was not the case for the male
endorsers, for the serious topic, in our study. Another question that
has not been examined is how often Tweets should be sent before
having an inuence. Perhaps the same message should be repeated
by the same celebrity or by other celebrities. In addition, the current research has measured the inuence of the celebrity by examining the change in reputation scores. However, there are also
other ways to measure inuence via Twitter. Bakshy et al.
(2011), for example, argue that reposting is an indicator of inuence. If a Tweet is reposted by another user, this means that the
sender has had an inuence on the receiver.
Furthermore, this research included a negative news message
regarding the crime of fraud that was committed by the president-CEO of a corporation. Other researchers could focus on other
types of news messages that can harm corporate reputation. Perhaps celebrities Tweets cannot always have an inuence on peoples perceptions when they are being exposed to negative news.
In addition, future research can focus on using other types of messages aside from personal experience and general information
messages. It is possible that signicant differences in the types of
messages will then be found more clearly.
Finally, this research only included respondents who were in
their twenties because this age group uses Twitter most often in
the Netherlands (Schoonderwoerd, 2010). It might also be interesting to investigate other age groups because they also seem to make
use of Twitter, often when looking at worldwide gures. According
to the Touch Agency (2011), the largest group of users (42.3%) is
between 30 and 49 years of age, followed by the age group of
1829 years (41.5%). Furthermore, this research only included
Dutch respondents; future research should focus on other countries as well. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is ranked number
one worldwide in terms of Twitter representation. In March
2011, 26.8% of the Dutch population visited the Twitter.com website, which is higher than for both Ireland and the United States
(ComScore Data Mine, 2011).

5. Managerial recommendations
The outcomes of this study show that celebrities Tweets can
have a substantial inuence on peoples perceptions of corporations. Hence, corporations can use Twitter to repair corporate reputations to a certain extent. Corporations wishing to make use of
this knowledge should bear a few issues in mind. First, our
research shows that an intelligent celebrity is better able to repair
a damaged corporate reputation. Corporations should also take
into account that it is important that there is a t between the
celebrity and the organisation, as otherwise, the message might
not be seen as credible. Prior research has shown that this is important for celebrity endorsement (Hakimi et al., 2011; Pringle &
Binet, 2005).
Second, it is important to consider that celebrities need to be
trained to be successful spokespersons. Valente and Pumpuang
(2007) argue that celebrities need to be educated about the message they are supporting; they need to know enough about the
topic. In addition, any negative personal behaviour of the celebrity
is not desirable. If people hear negative information about the
celebrity, this can be harmful for the corporation (Amos et al.,

2008), and the positive effect of the endorsement will decrease

(Zhou & Whitla, 2012). Finally, respondents in this research
showed a negative attitude towards the idea of celebrities being
paid for spreading positive Tweets about corporations. This might
be a concern because it can result in celebrities Tweets being less
persuasive. In the Netherlands, it is not compulsory to indicate
whether a Tweet is sponsored. However, when the Dutch market
expands, and it is expected that this will happen, as Twitter itself
is already anticipating this trend by referring to the possibilities
of promotional Tweets (Twitter, 2012), it is possible that celebrities
will be obliged to disclose this information. In the United States,
this is already the case. The US Federal Trade Commission has
decided that it is forbidden to not clearly indicate a relationship
with a brand. Celebrities are required to indicate whether they
are sponsored for a Tweet by adding #spon, or #ad to their Tweet
(Topping, 2011).
While keeping the aforementioned concerns in mind, Twitter is
a suitable medium for corporations to repair their damaged reputations. Beyond the possibilities of using Twitter for gathering market information or engaging in stakeholder dialogue, corporations
can also use this medium to inuence peoples perceptions of
them. As the group of Twitter users is growing every day, the
opportunities for corporations to inuence these people through
the use of Tweets are promising.
Acknowledgement
This study was only possible after all of the teaching staff of the
Communication Science Department did their great work in their
courses
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