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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/20

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Browsing School of Business by Author "Bapuji, Hari"

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    Corporate social 'irresponsibility': are consumers' biases in attribution of blame helping companies in product-harm crises involving hybrid products?
    (2015) Carvalho, Sergio; Muralidharan, Etayankara; Bapuji, Hari
    In recent years, there have been several high-profile recalls of hybrid products (those where organizations in multiple countries take part in the design, component sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing of a product). If consumers perceive a global firm to be responsible for the recall, then it will reduce their brand equity. Therefore, global firms may respond in ethically questionable ways to justify themselves to important stakeholders and avoid blame. Understanding how stakeholders attribute blame for crises involving hybrid products is important to shed light on the unethical manner in which global firms might avoid blame in such situations. The research reported here shows that in a hybrid product crisis, consumers show a bias in favor of the brand company and against the manufacturing company. This bias is more pronounced when the country of manufacture has an unfavorable image or when consumers lack familiarity with the recalled brand. Ambiguous recall announcements by companies that fail to provide a specific and clear reason for the product defect prompt consumers to assume that a manufacturing flaw caused the product defect. As a result, consumers reduce their attribution of blame for the brand company, and thus its brand equity is maintained.
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    Hazard severity and time to recall: evidence from the toy industry
    (2022) Muralidharan, Etayankara; Hora, Manpreet; Bapuji, Hari
    The time a firm takes to recall products that pose severe hazards has serious implications for the firm and its stakeholders. We examine the role of hazard severity and investigate how it influences the impact of recall experience, type of product defect, and product price on time to recall. Operationalizing time-to-recall as the number of days that elapsed from the time a product was first sold in the market to the date it was recalled, we test our hypotheses using data on 833 toy recalls issued by 445 firms in the U.S. during 1988-2018. We find that, under conditions of high hazard severity, time to recall is longer for (i) firms with past recall experience, (ii) recalls of products involving design defects, and (iii) recalls of high-priced products. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice.
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    Influence of institutional profiles on time to recall
    (2015) Muralidharan, Etayankara; Bapuji, Hari; Laplume, André
    This paper aims to understand why firms expedite or delay product recall decisions involving international sourcing. Design/methodology/approach: this paper combines US toy recall data from the Consumer Products Safety Commission database for the period from 1988to 2011 with World Economic Forum data on institutional environments to predict the effect the host country conditions have on recall timing decisions.
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    The more I err, the less I pay: effect of firm recall experience, firm type and recall severity on remedy to consumers
    (2019) Muralidharan, Etayankara; Bapuji, Hari; Hora, Manpreet
    Purpose- This study investigates the effect of firm characteristics and product-harm crisis characteristics on remedies offered to consumers by firms in the event of a product recall crisis. Design/methodology/approach- Published data on 868 product recalls in the U.S toy industry from 1988 to 2011 has been used to investigate the effects of firm experience in product recalls, type of firm (company versus intermediary, i.e. distributor/retailer) and product recall severity in predicting remedies offered to consumers in the event of a product recall. Findings- The findings show that firm recall experience, firm type (company vs. intermediary), and recall severity are negatively associated with recall remedies offered. Specifically, firms offer lower remedies if they have higher recall experience, if they are more upstream companies in the supply chain (farther from consumers), and the recall is more severe. Research limitations/implications- This study focuses on the toy industry and does not consider product complexity, firm reputation, and the role of external regulatory agencies in the prediction of remedies offered by firms. Future research may extend this study to other industries (such as automobiles and food) and factor the influence of product complexity, reputation, and the role of stakeholder pressures in remedial decision making by firms. Practical implication- Offering a high remedy to consumers of a recalled product may be a responsible decision by a firm, but it may also attract stakeholder wrath. The study has implications in managing multiple goals in product recall crisis management. Originality/value- Studies focused on issues of interest to consumers during a recall crisis, such as swift recalls and appropriate remedies, are limited. This study contributes to the understanding of the antecedents of recall remedies.
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    Product‐quality failures in international sourcing: effect of institutions
    (2016) Muralidharan, Etayankara; Wei, William Xiaojun; Zhang, Juan; Bapuji, Hari
    Increasing globalization has seen the emergence of hybrid products coming from different countries, which are the sourcing bases for multinationals. Such international sourcing decisions of multinational enterprises have been accompanied by concerns on product safety especially underscored by the increasing product failures leading to recalls from global supply chains witnessed in the recent past. While the past research has focussed largely on the consequences of recalls such as damage to the reputation of the firm and stock price erosion, the antecedents of such failures and recalls remain underresearched. We examine international sourcing through a multitheoretic lens to investigate how the unfavorability of institutions of the countries from where products are sourced increases the likelihood of product failures. We propose that international experience of the firm, supplier development initiatives, and the firm’s strategic nature of sourcing all moderate the relationship between institutional constraints and product-quality failures.