Open research questions in Public Relations and Crisis Communication
262 gap statements mined from Public Relations and Crisis Communication papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,748 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.
Choosing where to publish on Public Relations and Crisis Communication? See the ranked Social Science journals.
What the literature leaves open
Future research should examine whether, and under what conditions, these roles can prevent escalation, mitigate consequences, or facilitate timely repair after harm has occurred.
Roles in Media Lynching: Extending the Bystander–Upstander Framework Through an Analysis of Jason Arday’s Case · 2026 · DOILegitimacy is a critical condition for the viability of megaprojects, yet little is known about how it is constructed and contested within digital arenas.
Understanding legitimacy construction through online community discourse in megaprojects: evidence from the Lyon–Turin megaproject · 2026 · DOIWhile there is robust literature on the topics of crisis communications and leadership, this training is lacking in healthcare circles.
This study addresses a gap in understanding science communication dynamics by conceptualizing it as a complex adaptive system of actors.
Due to the limited research on this topic, this study aims to use an exploratory qualitative approach to examine how crisis management strategies impact reputational risks in sports clubs facing racism-related incidents and the stakeholders’ perception of clubs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Beyond the game: racism, crisis management and social responsibility in professional football · 2025 · DOIHowever, research on leaders’ distinct social media communication remains scarce.
The different effects of crisis communication on different negative emotions induced by tourism crisis news remain under-explored.
Will you forgive it? The interactive effects of crisis news framing and crisis communication message framing on tourists’ forgiveness · 2024 · DOIHowever, little is known about the social support embedded in the social-mediated communication process to assist passengers in coping and building resilience.
A social media analysis of quarantined passengers’ social-supported coping and resilience-building experiences · 2024 · DOIFurther research is needed on the ethics, control, and balance between the roles of humans and technology in public communication governance. In addition, the number of technology studies in government communication studies is still limited, therefore it is hoped that further research on similar studies can be increased and deepened further.
Technological Determinism in Practice: A Case Study of Media Monitoring Tools in Government Public Relations · 2026 · DOIIn this work, we aimed to address the limitations existing sentiment analysis systems in the context of disaster response, where social media plays a crucial role in real-time situational awareness.
For future work, it would be beneficial to expand the analysis to include a wider range of speeches from various advocates, allowing for comparative studies that can identify broader trends in effective communication strategies.
Analyzing Humanitarian Advocacy: A Machine Learning Approach to Sentiment Analysis of Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan's Speech · 2026 · DOIFuture research should investigate the implementation, ethics, and long-term impacts of GenAI in PR. Empirical investigations into the effects of GenAI on PR practices and the future of corporate communication are necessary. The study suggests that future research should explore the technical intricacies of AI model development and its application in other communication disciplines.
The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Public Relations Strategies: A Shift in Practitioner Roles and the Future of Corporate Communication · 2026 · DOIThey must consider not only the management of communication activities and the production of outputs, but also the entire process through which organizational, wider stakeholder, and societal value is formed.
Leadership development programs focusing on crisis leadership, decision-making under uncertainty, and strategic foresight can significantly enhance banks’ crisis response capabilities.
THE IMPACT OF STRATEGIC PLANNING (SP) ON CRISIS MANAGEMENT (CM) IN THE LIBYAN BANKING SECTOR, A FIELD STUDY OF PUBLIC COMMERCIAL BANKS IN THE WESTERN REGION · 2026 · DOIFuture research should investigate the specific leadership styles and strategies that are most effective in different administrative subfields, administrative continents, crisis types, and hierarchy levels. Future research should explore the mechanisms by which leadership styles influence crisis management outcomes.
Leadership in public administration amid crisis: a meta-analysis of leadership styles and crisis management related outcomes · 2026 · DOIThe literature on leadership in public administration remains fragmented, with studies focusing on different leadership styles, crisis contexts, and outcome constructs. There is a need for a more integrated understanding of the relationship between leadership styles and crisis management outcomes in public administration.
Leadership in public administration amid crisis: a meta-analysis of leadership styles and crisis management related outcomes · 2026 · DOIPrior CERC studies have largely focused on developed countries with relatively high institutional capacity and public trust. There is a need to examine the implementation of CERC in developing countries like Indonesia.
Revisiting Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) in Disaster Governance: Evidence from Indonesia · 2026 · DOIPrior research on public panic during infectious disease pandemics has not adequately theorized the transmission dynamics of public panic. There is a need for a comprehensive framework to understand the factors influencing public panic.
Research on influencing factors of public panic during infectious disease pandemics: a structural equation modeling study in five cities · 2026 · DOIAccess to information is a powerful but poorly understood social determinant of health.
Restoring trust in public health: communications lessons from person-centered health care · 2025 · DOIBut the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that it does not build trust through situations that are chronic, poorly understood, and impact society beyond the expertise of public health leaders.
Restoring trust in public health: communications lessons from person-centered health care · 2025 · DOIThe study does not provide a comprehensive review of prior research on public panic during infectious disease pandemics. The study's findings may be limited by the sample size and selection criteria.
Research on influencing factors of public panic during infectious disease pandemics: a structural equation modeling study in five cities · 2026 · DOIUnderstanding the role of social media in emergency management: Integrating social media analytics with organisational disaster response policies helps bridge the gap in understanding the role and potential use of social media in disaster management.
There's a tweet for that: Assessing interorganisational social media‐based communication during Hurricane Irma · 2026 · DOIThe need for adapting conflict data collection models to balance timeliness and credibility, - The importance of addressing disinformation and increased political control over media…
The study identifies a gap in the existing literature regarding the impact of GenAI on PR practices and the future of corporate communication. The integration of GenAI signifies a potential paradigm shift, moving beyond incremental automation to fundamentally altering traditional methods of message development, stakeholder engagement, and strategic analysis.
The Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Public Relations Strategies: A Shift in Practitioner Roles and the Future of Corporate Communication · 2026 · DOIWhile GPT-5.5 performs closely among models relying on provided disaster posts, our ablation study highlights a key limitation: without sufficient grounding evidence, even advanced models rely on internal priors to generate plausible but unverified causal links.
Large Language Models for Causal Relations Extraction in Social Media: A Validation Framework for Disaster Intelligence · 2026
Most-cited papers in Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- ENACTED SENSEMAKING IN CRISIS SITUATIONS[1] · Journal of Management Studies · 1988 · 1,495 citations
- Reframing Crisis Management · Academy of Management Review · 1998 · 1,417 citations
- Unbundling the Structure of Inertia: Resource Versus Routine Rigidity · Academy of Management Journal · 2005 · 1,040 citations
- Image repair discourse and crisis communication · Public Relations Review · 1997 · 948 citations
- Crises and Crisis Management: Integration, Interpretation, and Research Development · Journal of Management · 2016 · 933 citations
- The novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) outbreak: Amplification of public health consequences by media exposure. · Health Psychology · 2020 · 929 citations
- Helping Crisis Managers Protect Reputational Assets · Management Communication Quarterly · 2002 · 922 citations
- Toward a dialogic theory of public relations · Public Relations Review · 2002 · 893 citations
- Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis · American Political Science Review · 1969 · 846 citations
- Sensemaking in Crisis and Change: Inspiration and Insights From Weick (1988) · Journal of Management Studies · 2010 · 814 citations
Most recent work
- Large language models and AI agents in disaster-resilient infrastructure: concepts, applications, pathways, and challenges · Reliability Engineering & System Safety · 2026
- Managing emergencies and shaping images: how swift crisis interventions affect public perception of local government reputation · Public Management Review · 2026
- Review article: Social media for managing disasters triggered by natural hazards: a critical review of data collection strategies and actionable insights · Natural hazards and earth system sciences · 2026
- A knowledge-formalization and vision-language-model system for fire emergency decision support · Advanced Engineering Informatics · 2026
- Emotions as social information in CSR communication: pathways to online brand advocacy · International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management · 2026
- Code Pink: Leverage Social Media Platforms to Bypass Traditional Media Gatekeepers and Construct Alternative Public Narratives · Journalism and Media · 2026
- Social Media and Organizations: An Integrative Review and Future Research Directions · Journal of Management · 2026
- Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Public Emotion on Social Media During Earthquake Disaster—A Case Study of Jishishan Earthquake in 2023 · Risk Analysis · 2026
- What constitutes an organizational crisis? A scoping review and a conceptual model of crises as stakeholder perceptions (CASPER Model) · Public Relations Review · 2026
- Learning from crisis: how crisis volunteering fosters resilience and change-oriented behaviors · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · 2026
Find a gap in your own Public Relations and Crisis Communication sub-topic
This page shows what the Public Relations and Crisis Communication literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, search the Research Gap Finder: the search is free with a free account and lists the papers closest to your topic first. Unlocking that topic (50 credits, charged once) fills the comparison table from our 7.9M-paper local library and writes the gaps from its rows.
Open the Research Gap Finder →