Explaining the misconduct: Meaning-making of legitimation strategies in corporate apologies on Weibo

Abstract Using a selected corpus of 20 corporate apology texts and 11,766 user comments on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like Chinese social media, this study first evaluates the effectiveness of legitimation strategies underpinning these apologies offered by examining their distribution patterns based on frequency, percentage of use, and user reactions. It then employs textual analysis to discuss several apology cases that demonstrate both successful and unsuccessful applications of different legitimation strategies, revealing how cultural values influence the meaning-making process in the Chinese context and affect the effectiveness of corporate apologies. The findings suggest that appeals to role models, analogies, and the combined use of goal- and explanation-based strategies can justify corporate misconduct and evoke positive feedback. This meaning-making process shows how corporations leverage lexical, rhetorical, and cultural power to legitimize their misconduct, while audiences exercise agency in evaluating these apologies through specific socio-cultural norms.