Provocative products, the boomerang effect, the shooting star crisis and the panacea of workforce diversity

Abstract

Purpose

The present article focuses on crises that arise from provocative advertisement images and products and introduces the shooting star crisis. Moreover, it aims to shed some light on the interconnection between the boomerang effect, crisis, crisis management and workforce diversity.

Design/methodology/approach

By examining the cases of two leading organizations of the fashion industry that found themselves involved in crises and how they confronted them, it seeks to explore whether investments in workforce diversity is a solution for these problems.

Findings

Sometimes provocative products and images that intend to spark customers' imagination can backfire and initiate a crisis. Based on the findings, organizations that admit their wrongdoing and react promptly to their stakeholders' demands tend to overcome a crisis relatively faster than organizations with passive behavior. By understanding the need for a proactive approach, fashion organizations can evade future crises and avoid creating products or images that can be perceived as racist and invoke public outrage. Additionally, the study revealed that workforce diversity initiatives can mitigate a crisis and its aftermath.

Originality/value

Its novelty is that it deals with the interrelationship between boomerang effect, crisis, crisis management and workforce diversity. Moreover, it introduces a new type of crisis, the shooting star crisis, in order to capture new crises that emerge in modern era, as a result of the extensive power of modern social media.

Citation

Nizamidou, C. (2023), "Provocative products, the boomerang effect, the shooting star crisis and the panacea of workforce diversity", EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 248-269. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-05-2021-0067