Nike Crises Communication Case Study

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1 How did Nike manage the post crisis communication after the sweatshops scandal? Analysis of the image restoration strategy and the actions undertaken Introduction There is a word nowadays that labels any corporation. A word that gathers all the images projected in people’s minds during a time period and that should reflect a long time business result. That word is called reputation. Every company cares about its reputation and the image it projects externally. It is undoubtedly a door to the long-term profit. After a company’s image is threatened, it is hard to come back to the initial stage. That is why many organizations have included in their strategy a plan for crisis management which prevents any reputation issues that might arise along the way. There are even corporate attorneys who suggest that due to the risks of lawsuit, some strategies should be avoided to implement. However, because some companies are working in a turbulent environment, where the predictability is low, there is a big chance that at some point a company might fail to deal with a crisis. In this paper, I am not going to focus on the plan and series of actions an organization should take in order to prevent a crisis, but rather on how a company can and should manage its reputation after the damage has occurred. As we might have heard it many times before, “it takes a long time to build a reputation but it can be destroyed overnight in a single event”. To better illustrate this topic, I chose as a case study, the famous Nike sweatshops scandal that occurred during the 90’s. I chose Nike as a case study because it is the largest global company in the sports shoe and apparel industry with a powerful corporate identity that gained prominence due to its positive communication strategies (what has highly influenced the audience to associate its brand with positive social values).

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Transcript of Nike Crises Communication Case Study

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How did Nike manage the post crisis communication after the

sweatshops scandal? Analysis of the image restoration strategy and the

actions undertaken

Introduction

There is a word nowadays that labels any corporation. A word that gathers all the images

projected in people’s minds during a time period and that should reflect a long time business result.

That word is called reputation.

Every company cares about its reputation and the image it projects externally. It is undoubtedly

a door to the long-term profit. After a company’s image is threatened, it is hard to come back to the

initial stage. That is why many organizations have included in their strategy a plan for crisis management

which prevents any reputation issues that might arise along the way. There are even corporate

attorneys who suggest that due to the risks of lawsuit, some strategies should be avoided to implement.

However, because some companies are working in a turbulent environment, where the predictability is

low, there is a big chance that at some point a company might fail to deal with a crisis.

In this paper, I am not going to focus on the plan and series of actions an organization should

take in order to prevent a crisis, but rather on how a company can and should manage its reputation

after the damage has occurred. As we might have heard it many times before, “it takes a long time to

build a reputation but it can be destroyed overnight in a single event”. To better illustrate this topic, I

chose as a case study, the famous Nike sweatshops scandal that occurred during the 90’s. I chose Nike

as a case study because it is the largest global company in the sports shoe and apparel industry with a

powerful corporate identity that gained prominence due to its positive communication strategies (what

has highly influenced the audience to associate its brand with positive social values).

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While this paper will slightly refer to the implications the scandal had all around the media, the

main focus will fall on the actions Nike took in order to restore its image as well as the attempts of

keeping media’s attention away from all the past wrongdoings.

Therefore, the next chapter will concentrate on a more theoretical approach, whereas the third

chapter draws attention to more specific aspects of the image restoration strategy Nike embraced after

facing the crisis.

Conceptual framework

On reputation

By reputation we understand an intangible asset that holds immense importance for an

organization supporting the product quality, the staff recruitment, attraction of investors, accessibility

to more financial resources and the relationship with the stakeholders. All of these contribute to a

company’s ongoing success. In order to remain competitive and achieve business goals, a company must

constantly feed its reputation positively, especially in the present days when the market is so saturated

with so many brands (Tom Watson, 2007). A short definition says that a reputation is the collection of

images the publics hold about an organization over time.

One of the key factors for a company’s reputation is the CEO’s reputation, who is a chief

communicator along with the customers and the employees. Authors like Balmer and Greyser (2002)

also acknowledge the fact that the CEO together with the top managers should be the ones responsible

for the corporate identity and reputation in crisis situations. Of course there are aspects like

management, internal and external communication, feedback, quality of products/services,

organizational operation that also count significantly in defining a corporate reputation (Tom Watson,

2007).

One of the reasons why corporate reputation is becoming more prominent in the future is due

to the growth of markets, which brings along more consumers demand and a larger range of choices.

This implies also a larger range of product brands and services. It is considered that stakeholders have

increased their expectations considering the quality and reliability of their choices (Greyser, 2009).

Moreover, the stakeholders are different and they have different expectations, which makes it even

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harder for a company to satisfy all the requests and expectations. That is why, it is imperiously necessary

that corporations watch their behavior by establishing the so-called “corporate brand covenant” which

equals with the long-term promise they engage in. If the promise is not respected, the organizations are

likely to meet a point of trouble. In the present times, it is far easier for a reputation failure to occur and

this is mainly because of the Internet. The speed of online communication and the possibility of activists

groups to form via Internet has become a serious reason to potential reputation attacks (Greyser, 2009).

On crisis

A simple but clear definition of a crisis says that it is a threat to the reputation and a disruption

in the overall image stakeholders hold about an organization, which effects are revealed in the

withdrawal of reputational capital (Coombs, 1999).

Thinking about a crisis in terms of “failure” brings along the argument that an organization can

learn from a failure as long as it is part of the learning process an organization is engaged in. This

increases the organization’s awareness of a risk and the motivation for change (Sitkin, 1996, cited in

Ulmer, 2007). Furthermore, a failure is necessary for a company’s success because it highlights the fact

that the company is anchored in the reality and it can turn mistakes into a positive approach. By not

being able to accept a failure, a company is actually unable to recognize and deal with a crisis. And this

eventually will lead to a longer term crisis. Of course, as the author Sitkin claims, “not all failures are

equally effective in fostering good risk management.” Correlating this argument with Nike’s case study

chosen for this paper, I can argue that in the beginning the company wasn’t able to recognize the high

risk it was suddenly exposed to once the media had informed the public about the sweatshops. That is

already obvious in the first reaction Nike had- unwillingness to admit their fault and recognize the risk

they were about to face. Therefore, the risk turned into a deeper “full-blown crisis” for which they are

still paying today.

There are several arguments stating why a break in the corporate reputation may occur. Greyser

(2009) succeeded in making a categorization:

1. Product failure

2. Social responsibility gap – the case of Nike when it came to labor and poor conditions of

work

3. Corporate misbehavior

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4. Executive misbehavior

5. Poor business results

6. Spokesperson misbehavior and controversy

7. Death of symbol of company

8. Loss of public support

9. Controversial ownership

All these points take into consideration the issues that generate the crisis, as well as all the

stakeholders/publics involved.

The liaison between reputation and crisis

By using the word “liaison” in this particular case, I try to highlight the fact that a crisis is a

phenomenon that impacts a company as a whole. Even if we would talk about a crisis in a particular

department or concerning a particular person inside the company, once the media gets in, we are

talking about image’ threat and eventually about reputation, as a perception of the company in people’s

minds along a time period. Therefore, I consider that reputation should be an implicit subject when

dealing with a crisis because of the extreme importance the crisis effects’ evaluation holds together with

the implementation of image restoration strategies.

Most experts agree on the idea that a crisis affects an organization’s reputation. They also argue

that having a powerful prior reputation is highly important when the crisis occurs. Moreover, there are

managers who believe that a positive prior reputation acts as an insurance policy when a company faces

for the first time a crisis. In other words, a company like Apple for example, would afford to lose

reputation capital and still manage a favorable post-crisis reputation. As the authors Coombs and

Holladay (2006) claim, a favorable reputation acts as a halo effect which has the power to overprotect a

company during a crisis. According to their experiments, there is a higher chance of an organization to

be less affected by a crisis if it has a favorable prior reputation. This means that the halo effect is seen as

a benefit of doubt because the stakeholders who have an overall positive opinion about an organization

will also be influenced by the way that organization is responsible for a crisis. This results in a less

reputational damage (Coombs and Holladay, 2006). In this situation, Nike can also be set among the

powerful corporations with a high positive reputation on the market before the crisis occurred.

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Although people still remember the sweatshops and child labor even today, it didn’t stop them to buy

Nike’s products around the world and to associate their image with Nike.

On image restoration

Benoit is the author that managed to develop a typology of image restoration strategies that

companies appeal to when in crisis. The two most important ones that should be the right way of

dealing with a crisis are the Corrective Action and the Mortification. By corrective action we understand

that the accused accepts the blame and takes responsibility for its misbehavior by promising to correct

the problem. In this situation, the company clearly tries to restore the image it had before and promises

to prevent the recurrence of any such behavior again. This is an attitude which normally increases

credibility in publics’ eyes only if the promises are kept. It is the type of strategy that usually goes hand-

in-hand with the mortification approach, which is a way of confessing and apologizing for misbehavior. If

the audience finds the apology sincere and authentic then the company might buy their credibility.

Usually it is the top managers, i.e. the CEO, that accepts responsibility for the offensive act and asks

directly for forgiveness to all those involved and affected by the crisis. It is also advisable that a company

admits its malpractice because it is not only morally correct, but denying accusations can lead to

backfire. Moreover, lying about the responsibility for that act will double the side effect on its

reputation (Benoit, 2004).

By analyzing Nike’s case, one can drag the simple conclusion that Nike’s first reaction was one of

denial, or to be more specific, one of victimage, which is a related option. This means that the accused –

Nike- tried to shift the blame on someone else – the suppliers from Southeast Asia (Benoit, 2004).

However, this topic will more debated in chapter III- where I go more in deep with analyzing how Nike’s

first reaction ended up attracting negative reply from the media.

As a corrective perspective, Greyser (2009) advocates the idea that when a company deals with

a huge visible issue, the organization should recognize its fault and deal with the truth. Moreover,

immediate actions through credible communications together with change of the corporate behavior

should be taken. By saying credible communications, the author refers to the message delivered to the

media and wide publics with the purpose to rehabilitate the brand. However, this is assumedly hard to

achieve especially when the critics in the media are everywhere (i.e. the seriousness of legal implications

of sweatshops and child labor). Sometimes, undertaking actions (by using for example a series of CSR

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campaigns like Nike did) to restore an image could create the opposite effect, and that is to feed public’s

awareness about the current problem the company is dealing with. However, the communication

delivered though CEO’ statements should be supported by visible evidence and should provide

credibility to all the stakeholders involved (Greyser, 2009).

Since I talked about the importance of the CEO and the top management in responding to a

crisis, I am going to summarize one of the leadership’ strategies proposed by Shaun O’Callaghan (2011)

in his article “Leading after a crisis”, which addresses five major actions to be taken after a crisis:

1. Make the right promises in a balanced way by taking into consideration all the stakeholders.

2. Have in mind different perspectives on the problem in order to make the right decisions for

a valuable change.

3. Appeal to people with different expertise as you might need to focus on specific areas of a

crisis recovery.

4. Deliver results by relying on the relationships with people within and outside the

organization.

5. Authenticity during the crisis communication to increase trust and credibility.

Research design

Research question

After going through the previous chapters, one can get an idea of what is to have a reputation,

the importance of a reputation before and after a crisis and how a company can deal with a crisis after it

occurred. The purpose was not to analyze the prior plan each company should have in order to be ready

to face a crisis, but to get an overview of a more generic post plan that a company should immediately

incorporate and which can vary according to the specificity of the crisis and its magnitude.

One of the questions that make the topic of this paper is the strategy used for image restoration

within Nike’s. So far, the attempt was to make a parallel between some authors’ expertise in the field

and where Nike fits into their approach of the strategies companies adopt after a crisis. However, in this

chapter I will go more in deep with analyzing Nike’s response to the crisis and try to answer the most

important question of this research: What actions did Nike take in order to restore its image? In order

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to be more precise, I will make a sum-up of all the most important events since the crisis in the 90’s took

place, with a transcription of online media releases embedding corrective actions.

Data collection

In search for solving the main problem statement, I collected data from some of the most

relevant and meaningful online sources about Nike - websites exposing and analyzing the company’s

strategy of image restoration. That is why the case study is approached through the use of documents

including different articles about Nike, news releases, press releases, and other sources of information

exposing the company’s actions of managing the post crisis reputation. Furthermore, I made use of

Nike’s official web-site to analyze the CSR practices underlining the company’s attempts to reconstruct

its image and position itself as a socially responsible brand in media’s eyes. In this sense, the virtual

identity plays a key role in collecting data for the case study. Daymon and Holloway (2002) are some of

the authors who argued “that these data are more comprehensive than the evidence you might acquire

from interviews and questionnaires conducted for a short time period, especially if you are focusing on a

case study organization or industry”. Nevertheless, this information proves to be valuable due to the

fact it has been already verified, which substantiates both the analysis and its results, whereas the

questionnaires for instance, may gather either misunderstandings or errors, which can bring the case

study on a wrong path. With the main purpose of studying Nike’s image after the crisis, I consider that

the use of these documents together with press releases and websites will provide this paper with

relevant information and resources for enhancing the problem statement.

By adopting a document analysis approach, I managed to gather information that reveals Nike’s

actions along the years until the current days. Apart from this, the selection was made with reference to

the criteria of CSR strategies and actions undertaken by the company in order to restore its image. So

that to get a balanced overview of Nike’s crisis, I also referred to sources that have a less positive

perspective on the company’s practices. As already mentioned the official website was also important in

the analysis of how Nike discloses itself virtually and constructs its identity of a socially responsible

company in the online world.

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Data Analysis

As a natural order in the research design, the further step was to undertake the data analysis,

which according to Daymon and Holloway (2002), is a “process of bringing order, structure and meaning

to this mass of unstructured data”. In other words, it is in this section that I puzzle out all the

information collected.

For analyzing the data I appealed to the qualitative method as “a general approach (…) that is

initially inductive but which becomes deductive at a later stage, organizing the data prior to analyzing

them, coding and categorizing the evidence, finding patterns and working propositions, interpreting the

data, evaluating the interpretation and demonstrating that it is reliable and valid and some specific

analytical issues, including analyzing multiple sources and documents” (Daymon and Holloway, 2002).

The analytical procedures acted as a guide for organizing and interpreting the data. The advantages

these techniques hold is to usually help the researcher to “dissect, reduce, sort and reconstitute data

and also to manipulate data in order to gain understanding, clarify problems and test hypotheses”

(Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2010).

The qualitative method contributed to the gain of valuable information and conclusions that

other methods wouldn’t have been that suitable for this research. Moreover, the qualitative method is

in a way considered to be superior to the quantitative data because it offers “density of information,

vividness, and clarity of meaning “(Jick, 1979), which helps the research better evaluate the case study.

As one can suspect, the qualitative data analysis is a complex and dynamic method which helps identify

information and details that cannot be found by using the quantitative method. In consequence, by

going through a deep analysis of the post crisis corrective actions, the qualitative inductive approach

contributed to gaining a clearer overview about Nike’s image restoration strategy from 1996 until today.

Case study – Nike Inc.

One of the main aforementioned reasons why I chose Nike as a case study resides in the idea

that it is as one of the most controversial cases on crisis management from which many companies and

interested publics have a lot to learn. That is why I believe it should be considered an all-time studied

topic due to its past and current problems that deserve ongoing attention.

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Needless to say Nike is a preferred case because it was the first company for which Internet

played a big role in bringing the truth to light and producing chain reactions all over the world. It was

also the first company who set new rules and regulations about the labor practices all over the world

(McHale, Zompetti & Moffitt, 2007). That is why I truly believe it is an outstanding case of crisis

management and despite having academic research and media publications that approached this topic a

repeatedly, it is still worthwhile to bring it to the public’s attention and consider it a guideline on how to

deal with a crisis and what a company should not do when a crisis occurs (a guideline of what a

dominant ideology should be for all the companies).

Moreover, the literature hasn´t offered us so far a tracking of annual events and CSR practices

since the Nike´s crisis occurred. Consequently, I will shed light on the major events that stood for

correcting the mistakes Nike made with regard to its labor practices in Southeast Asia.

One of the topics that caused many debates around the world is the Nike Sweatshop case study

which raised one of the most controversial questions: can Nike be held accountable for the working

conditions in foreign factories they subcontracted in Southeast Asia? Among the pro reasons stands the

argument that as long as Nike doesn´t own these factories, they are not responsible for all the wrong

going on, despite having their subcontractors making products for Nike. On the other side, there are

many voices claiming that Nike should have taken actions to improve the working conditions, impose a

minimum age limit and assure the minimum wage for all the employees around the world. That is why,

back in the 90´s when the scandal took place, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Nike has broken the

law by having its public relation personnel denying the fact about its employees in developing countries

like Vietnam or China. This seems to be the start for building a new model for business communication

crisis management, called the hegemonic model which attempts to reflect on the use of corporate

power through public relations in this case, to shape the reality and reinforce a company’s position on

the market (Ibid.).

It is claimed that among the main problems that led to Nike’s crisis reputation was the fact that

mainly its whole strategy was built on image as its competitive advantage. As to put it differently, the

business was not only about know-how, but about being cool no matter what. Having outsourcing

manufacturing and a high marketing focus, were in fact signs of a storm coming. The labor conditions in

Vietnam and Southeast Asia were soon spread by the media and everyone got to be familiar about

Nike’s workers. However, Nike’s immediate response was one of denial, blaming it on their vendors. In

reverse, the employees’ reaction was one of embarrassment as they had no idea about these

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happenings. They only knew about how to make the coolest shoes in the world and build a cool

corporate culture.

Eventually, the CEO, Philip Knight, went to the National Press Club in Washington to hold a

discourse in order to assume responsibility and promise to act in that sense. He admitted that Nike’s

corporate identity became “synonymous with slave wages, forced overtime and arbitrary abuse”

(Dionne, 1998, p. A7 cited in Knight & Greenberg, 2002). The speech was hold also due to activists and

labor groups like Oxfam's NikeWatch and the Clean Clothes Campaign, which started campaigns around

United States and elsewhere against poor labor conditions, forced overtime and below average wages

(http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-01.htm).

One of the first actions undertaken by Nike was to bring the famous politician of that time,

Andrew Young, to see their plants and their struggle to get things better (Peter Schwartz, 1999).

Furthermore, Philip Knight made six promises to improve the working conditions. These

promises were announced on May 12 1998, during CEO’s speech at the National Press Club, in

Washington DC:

“1st Promise: All Nike shoe factories will meet the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health

Administration’s (OSHA) standards in indoor air quality.”

2nd Promise: The minimum age for Nike factory workers will be raised to 18 for footwear

factories and 16 for apparel factories.

3rd Promise: Nike will include non-government organizations in its factory monitoring, with

summaries of that monitoring released to the public.

4th Promise: Nike will expand its worker education program, making free high school

equivalency courses available to all workers in Nike footwear factories.

5th Promise: Nike will expand its micro-enterprise loan program to benefit four thousand

families in Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand.

6th Promise: Funding university research and open forums on responsible business practices,

including programs at four universities in the 1998–99 academic year.”

(http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/NikeReport.pdf )

However, different sources claim that Nike has done some change, but not enough from all the

promises that were made. One specific source that approaches subjects on CSR in China, talks about the

fact that “…more than 20% of Nike’s original equipment manufacturers have asked their employees to

work excessive overtime hours and this number is still on the increase“

(http://www.chinacsr.com/en/2010/01/28/7060-nike-admits-poor-labor-practice-by-oem/). For a better

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understanding, this source is also self-explanatory: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1020-

01.htm.This report shows that Nike hasn’t learned from its mistake, on the contrary, it doesn’t keep its

promises and still practices excessive overtime hours (40-72 hours per week). By stating the six promises

and launching CSR campaigns worldwide, it is claimed that, on the principle of “wag the dog”, the

company’s first intention was to distract media’s attention from the sweatshops and child labor in

Southeast Asia, (http://www.amalficoreblog.com/2010/04/nike-and-crisis-management/).

Moreover, different labor activists that have been keeping a close eye on Nike ever since the

first crisis occurred, have been mainly preoccupied with shedding light on any kind of misbehavior and

wrongdoing.

Another valuable source that addresses different case studies on issues regarding human rights,

labor rights or environment, has given useful insight into Nike’s crisis by offering a less supportive

perspective on Nike’s practices back in the 90’s (http://www1.american.edu/ted/nike.htm).

On a positive side, Nike has been struggling to regain its credibility and correct its misbehavior

by adopting a socially responsible attitude concerning its global practices. Therefore, one of its most

important actions was the incorporation of the CERES principles1 in November 2000. This implied a

launch of a program called “Transparency 101” which aimed to monitor the factories in every country

where Nike operates, with an increased attention on its practices to be in accordance with the code of

conduct. This program also involved investigation of the work conditions worldwide. Regarding the

safety of its products, Nike has been trying to eliminate PVC or any other harmful chemicals. All these

actions were recognized this time by other groups that ranked Nike as number one in the apparel

industry on its annual list of “America's Most Admired Companies”. Nike was also ranked among its top-

ten best multinational corporations in Asia for corporate leadership and issue-specific leadership, by

another group called Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), noting that Nike had improved in almost

every category in the previous year. Apart from this, Nike was also on the list of the 226 companies

recognized for sustainability efforts on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

(http://www.iisd.org/business/viewcasestudy.aspx?id=81).

By navigating on its official website, the reader can get a broader idea of the social and

environmental policies Nike has been engaged in (http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/).

1 Ceres is a non-profit, American network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups

working with companies and investors to addresssustainability challenges, such as global climate change. –

www.wikipedia.com

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A final point on the list of restorative actions to which Nike has been widely devoted ever since

the crisis, is their online strategy, http://www.nikebetterworld.com/ that speaks for itself. Besides being

an online tool that encompasses smart audio-visuals, it presents a sum of CSR actions that are well

explained and designed in such way as to highlight their strivings to make this world a better world.

Results

So far, one could have observed how Nike engaged itself in a rich and ample plan of image

restoration which has been both positively and negatively regarded by the media. The different online

resources I chose offer relevant and valuable information concerning Nike’s practices and CSR actions,

but in the same time they reveal information concerning the less visible practices that groups of activists

have been displaying.

In a nutshell, the above data analysis is a selection of some relevant sources of information

concerning Nike’s image after the crisis in the 90’s and what actions the reputation management

strategy has revealed until the present days. The data I appealed to in order to attest the problem

statement, gives insight into the Nike’s way of dealing with the crisis. There is evidence of the promises

made back in 1996 by the CEO, Philip Knight, but there is also evidence about the promises that weren’t

kept along these years with reports trying to prove this aspect (although there are publics who may

value other media resources that keep them in doubt about these reports). Just by going through all the

possible existent media press release on how Nike’s actions impacted the audience, I can infer the fact

that there is still a huge deal of a debate going on around this topic and it probably won’t stop too soon

since we are talking about a big reputation damage with high and wide media coverage.

In retrospect of the first chapters where the attempt was to offer the reader an understanding

of what reputation is, what impact a crisis has on a company’s reputation and what would be the ideal

strategy to restore the reputation, this last part of the paper comes to complete and pinpoint the idea of

this research by trying to respond to two major questions: first, “what was the strategy Nike used for

image restoration?”, and second, “what actions did Nike undertake to correct its misbehavior and

position itself again as a socially responsible company?” By appealing to Benoit’ (2004) list of possible

strategies, as previously stated, Nike’s strategy fits in a combination of denial (victimage) with corrective

action (the first reaction of the CEO when accusations came and the afterwards response to the

expansion of the crisis).

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Discussion

From my point of view, the results I arrived to are hardly revealing results because this paper

was conveyed more as a literature review and press release revision that seeks to answer to the

research’s main questions.

As probably most of the analysis made on crisis reputation, it is really hard to obtain inside

information from the affected company and also, it is very hard in this case particularly, to get in contact

with former executives that would provide me real information about the crisis. Therefore, this paper is

based mostly on the media coverage, discussions addressed and analysis of the CEO discourse, which is

why I consider it a limitation of the research.

Another limitation can be also the time as a determinant factor for resuming this research to the

content/website analysis. This also stays for the argument why this research lacks a more rooted

approach like the comparison with other big international brands and their reputation management

strategies. Another possible approach could have been the tracking of different press releases or

scientific articles to see the evolution of Nike with its changes and ups and downs. This would have

helped to measure the audience awareness and perception about the brand and how it affects the

company’s whole image and sales strategy. These are just some examples of the path this paper might

have taken so as to detail and elaborate more around the problem statement.

Nevertheless, I believe this topic makes room for further research in the area of image

restoration strategies and the actions companies should take to solve the damaged reputation.

Conclusion

A crucial starting point for this paper was the introduction to concepts such as reputation, crisis,

image restoration, which helped in getting an inceptive understanding of the research’ selected case

study. These concepts underlined the importance of having a prior positive reputation before a crisis

occurs. Other ideas spoke about potential reasons why a break may occur in an organization or why the

ability of recognizing and dealing with a crisis equals with a company’s ability to accept a failure.

As one could have noticed, Nike is a powerful example of a company that managed to stand up

even after the famous Sweatshop Crisis, by engaging in a program of intense reputation management

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which took the shape of various CSR actions. The reason for choosing Nike as a case study has been

already mentioned several times during this paper, but as a final assertion, I consider it a high relevant

case of crisis management with many dynamic and controversial aspects from which companies and

people can learn without cease.

According to various and multiple sources (press releases, media reports), the results that I

arrived to after analyzing all the collected data, show that Nike did try hard to restore its image, but

despite all the effort, there are still voices in the media that claim its misbehavior and possible current

malpractices in Southeast Asia. That is why, although knowing that Nike has a powerful corporate

identity and despite having a prior good reputation, this hasn’t stopped the media from criticizing the

company with the very first opportunity.

In the article written by Peter Schwartz, at some point he states one proposition that is highly

relevant for any company that is concerned about its long term success and reputation. He says that a

business is not about “know-how or integrity, it is about know-how and integrity”. I believe this should

stand at the core of any organization that wants to survive on the market: to engage in good

relationships with all the stakeholders and to consistently get involved in the world community.