The Strategic Use of Scandals

Abstract

authors are very grateful to Bradley Ruffle, Eli Spiegelman and several other colleagues for their useful comments and suggestions. They also thank Shannon Harvey for editorial assistance.

How fine wine producers can make the best of counterfeiting

“…Conti.” This nickname was drawn from the prestigious Burgundy vineyard, Romanée Conti. Widespread media coverage can generate a particular form of succès de scandale (success from scandal) that can ultimately benefit genuine producers, beyond the publicity that is conventionally accessible (Grolleau et al, 2020). The negative publicity related to the media coverage of a counterfeiting scam can increase product awareness and purchase likelihood in crowded markets.…”

The Necessity of Conducting Teambuildings as a Prevention Response to Pandemic and War Times

“…• The opportunity to try a seemingly dangerous (Grolleau, Marciano and Mzoughi, 2021) action (for him) in an atmosphere of understanding and help;…”

How research institutions can make the best of scandals – once they become unavoidable

“…All transgressors are not created equal and a violation by a high-profile researcher is more likely to feed the scandal process than the same violation by an unknown researcher (see several relevant arguments in Graffin et al, 2013). For instance, a Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, broke ethical boundaries by creating the world's first gene-edited babies in 2018, perhaps to generate something similar to 'success from scandal' in the artistic or corporate worlds (Grolleau et al, 2020). While the outcome was a disastrous scandal, Cohen (2019) argues that peer disapproval was not so firm and clear before the scandal eruption as claimed after the event.…”

“…Put differently, rather than denying the misbehaviour, hiding it, minimizing accusations, containing consequences, transferring responsibility or even attempting to recast it as 'honest errors', or similar strategies, research institutions could learn from corporations that have made the best of scandals (e.g., Jory et al, 2015;Grolleau et al, 2020; see also Berggren and Karabag, 2019). Of course, we are aware of the many companies that have suffered and even disappeared because of scandals.…”

“…Third, we go beyond the traditional recommendations on how to manage scandals and restore trust. Rather, we develop four mechanisms by which scandals can be used to bring positive change (Grolleau et al, 2020;Septianto, 2020) in research institutions and scientific communities. These scandal-driven mechanisms remove the high-status protection of almost untouchable researchers, reset the system that was conducive to scandals, change the reference point upon which the entity is judged to emphasize progress and offer a learning opportunity for the involved parties.…”