Diana C. Sisson and Shannon A. Bowen
Following a report released by the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, multinational corporations like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon found themselves in a firestorm of…
Abstract
Purpose
Following a report released by the UK Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, multinational corporations like Starbucks, Google, and Amazon found themselves in a firestorm of criticism for not paying or paying minimal taxes after earning significant profits in the UK for the past three years. Allegations of tax evasion led to a serious crisis for Starbucks in the UK, which played out in a public forum via social media. The researchers explored whether Starbucks’ corporate ethics insulated its reputation from negative media coverage of alleged tax evasion evidenced in its “hijacked” social media “#spreadthecheer” campaign. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an exploratory case study analysis of news articles, Starbucks’ annual reports, #spreadthecheer Tweets, and David Michelli’s The Starbucks Experience, data collection helped to inform the discussion of authenticity and whether it helped to insulate Starbucks’ reputation during its crisis in the UK.
Findings
Authenticity is key when organizations face a turbulent environment and active publics and stakeholder groups. Findings from this study also suggested proactive reputation management strategies and tactics, grounded in the organization’s corporate culture and transparency, could have diffused some of the uproar from its key publics.
Originality/value
Authentic corporate cultures should align with corporate business practices in order to reduce the potential for crises to occur. It is possible that ethical core values and a strong organizational approach to ethics help to insulate its reputation among publics during a crisis.
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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some…
Abstract
Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.
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A number of developments and activities in the British Library arereviewed. Developments in the field of copyright are outlined and thedevelopment of internal networking is…
Abstract
A number of developments and activities in the British Library are reviewed. Developments in the field of copyright are outlined and the development of internal networking is described in some detail. A number of recent exhibitions in the Library are briefly reviewed and significant additions to the collections are described.
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THE new library building has been open for six months now. It is pleasantly situated in an area of new buildings, and occupies a prominent island site just on the edge of the…
Abstract
THE new library building has been open for six months now. It is pleasantly situated in an area of new buildings, and occupies a prominent island site just on the edge of the shopping centre. The old library was in the middle of a shopping area, and it has been interesting to note that our removal from that site has had a more considerable effect on the traffic pattern than one would have thought.
Discusses how the fierce competition for instant news and the inter‐relationship of news dissemination channels, from print to broadcast to Internet, can take a poorly…
Abstract
Discusses how the fierce competition for instant news and the inter‐relationship of news dissemination channels, from print to broadcast to Internet, can take a poorly authenticated story and magnify it to the point of spawning conspiracy theory, only to end up ridiculed. In such an environment the role of the information manager becomes central, as someone who understands the labyrinth trails of information, its iterations through the media and its evolution into objective facts which can be archived for the use of researching journalists. Thus information professionals add value to information far more than intelligent agents.