Search

Scandals are momentous events with far-reaching consequences for organizations and society, but we still know relatively little about the contextual conditions that enable them. In this paper, we develop and test a theory of the publicization of organizational misconduct—that is, of how an act of wrongdoing by an organization becomes widely publicized, thereby giving rise to a scandal; or receives little coverage, with little or no consequence for the offending organization. We argue that communities have structural features that affect the social cost of making information public as well as its dissemination, shaping the likelihood of organizational misconduct being publicized in the process. We test and find evidence in support of our arguments using data on sex abuse in the U.S. Catholic Church between 1980 and 2010, and exploring the heterogeneity in the publicization of patterns of misconduct by Catholic clergy across dioceses and over time. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for the scholarly understanding of organizational misconduct and scandals across settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrity endorsement is a common advertising strategy, yet, as well-known scandals show, it is not without risk. Studies at the marketing–finance interface investigate how negative publicity surrounding a celebrity endorser affects firm value, though without determining how such events might spill over to the sponsor firms' competitors and their stock prices. To address this research gap, the authors assess the impact of celebrity endorser scandals on competitor stock returns with an event study approach. The unique sample of 121 celebrity scandals over a 35-year period reveals a contagion effect, such that competitor firms experience negative stock returns on average, though not to the same extent. According to univariate and regression analyses, the more negative the event affects the sponsor company and the more homogeneous the industry, the stronger the negative spillover effect from a scandal. These findings show that a contagion effect is a likely scenario and offer recommendations for managers regarding how they should adapt their risk management processes and communicate with their boards and shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the formidable consequences for firms of having their misconduct publicized—and thus scandalized—we know little about why only some misconduct instances become scandals beyond the idea that high-status firms' transgressions are scandalized more often. Focusing on the media's essential role in scandalizing misconduct, we take a media routines perspective to theorize how the status of past transgressors inside and outside the focal transgressor's industry creates different contexts that shape the of scandalization likelihood. We argue that the prevalence of past transgressions by high-status firms within the industry leads journalists to scrutinize the misconduct more, amplifying the effect of the focal firm's status by highlighting its commonalities with past transgressors. Conversely, the prevalence of transgressions by high-status firms outside the industry attenuates the firm status effect on scandalization by directing media attention outside the industry, limiting the information that can be inferred from firm status. Past transgressors' status and their categorical proximity to current transgressors serve as boundary conditions for the scandalizing effect of status. Our contribution lies in elucidating contextual factors that influence how status acts as an antecedent of scandals, and explaining how status and categories feed media routines that influence the likelihood of firm misconduct being scandalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2021, numerous audio recordings dating back to 2006 through 2012 were leaked. In them, Real Madrid's President Florentino Pérez was heard insulting some of the most beloved legends of Real Madrid fans, including celebrity Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite his lack of manners, the seriousness of the president's insults, and the lack of a formal apology, the images of Pérez and Real Madrid barely suffered because of this incident. This scholarly commentary examines the variables of culture and country as well as the specific characteristics of the soccer industry and fandom that explain the lack of public accountability when a top executive of a soccer organization commits verbal excesses in form and substance, as in the Pérez case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charitable organisations are principled actors providing essential community services. However, due to some highly publicised charity scandals in recent years, they are under increased scrutiny today. This study explores the impact of negative publicity (i.e. publicly reported scandals) about charitable organisations on the contributions of regular donors and analyses the moderating role of email marketing communications as a key factor in counteracting the impact of negative publicity on donations. The results of analysing a sample of regular donors during the period 2013–2020 reveal that negative publicity about charities reduces the amount donated, and that this effect is stronger on the contributions of more frequent donors, who are potentially more sensitive to this publicity. This impact is softened by email marketing communications. The implications for the field of marketing management in charities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrity endorsements are a time-tested tactic, but marketers have added a twist: endorsements featuring not actors as themselves but as the characters they play in film or television. In two experiments, the authors investigate these "character endorsements." Study 1 establishes that a construct that is new to endorsement research, certainty of meaning, helps to advance understanding of how character endorsements operate. Study 2 shows that character endorsers buffer a paired brand against scandal. The authors conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial regulation is often adopted in the wake of scandals and crises. Yet political science has little to say about the political effects of corporate scandals. We break that silence, asking whether exposure to news coverage of bank scandals changes the preferences of voters for financial regulation. Drawing from the literatures on media influence and public opinion, we argue that news coverage of bank scandals should increase voters' appetite for regulation. We test our hypothesis with data from six countries, using original nationally representative panel surveys with embedded experiments (total N = 27,673). Our pooled and country‐specific analyses largely support our expectation that exposure to news coverage of scandals increases regulatory preferences. We reproduce this finding in a separate survey wave, using different scandals than in our original analysis. These results contribute to studies on media influence on public opinion, the political significance of scandals, and the political economy of regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Doomsday Book, a confidential collection of documents compiled by the legal department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, aimed at assisting central bankers in managing financial crises. Despite its secrecy, details about its contents were revealed during the Starr International Company, Inc. v. U.S. trial in 2014, highlighting its role in guiding decision-making during times of crisis.

The article focuses on the escalating defense costs in the U.S. over several decades, which have outpaced overall economic inflation. It examines how public choice theory can explain the incentives within the military-industrial complex (MIC) that drive defense spending increases, highlighting how political institutions incentivize politicians, bureaucrats, and contractors to pursue policies that benefit them personally, leading to higher costs for national security provision.

Police accountability has long been deemed an essential component of democratizing reform. Reformist administrations in Latin America and other developing regions have consequently created oversight agencies to monitor police misconduct. However, the literature has not yet explored how these institutions operate and the politics that undergird them. This paper examines how police accountability institutions work in developing democracies. I focus on the police of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, using an untapped database of more than 6400 expelled police officers. I find that the extent to which reformist ministers expel police officers and thus exercise greater control of the police peaks during their first year in office. Contrarily, it is not bolstered by mid‐term electoral victories or factors such as scandals or violent crimes. The paper extends our knowledge of the politics of police accountability in developing democracies, outlining the incentives and obstacles for politicians to control the police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2018 Windrush Scandal prompted widespread condemnation of the British government's treatment of older Caribbean migrants. Yet broader questions pertaining to the effects of the scandal on the wider Caribbean community remain underexplored. Given the salient position that Caribbean mothers occupy in the British nation, this article examines narrative interviews with five Caribbean mothers living in London, addressing how the scandal affected their sense of belonging and subsequent mothering strategies. The findings indicate that the scandal is part of a broader repertoire of racialized exclusion instigated by the state, and identifies three mothering strategies deployed as tools of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tax havens are often connected to growth in tourism, as finance and tourism conveniently share infrastructural prerequisites. This paper addresses the detrimental impacts of a tax haven development strategy adopted by small open economies in relation to the development of their tourism industry. Utilizing the synthetic control method, we find that since the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, Panama's tourism exports have fallen relative to an estimated counterfactual level that would have otherwise been attained. Moreover, based on an analysis of panel data drawn from 20 small open economies, we find that in the long run, the growth of the financial industry crowds out the tourism industry. Our findings warn tourism practitioners, based in tax havens, that they face an additional risk linked to potential tax scandals. Furthermore, the tourism industry may suffer reputational harm due to tax haven blacklisting and the crowding out of productive resources by the financial industry. JEL classifications: F43, H26, O57, Z32 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to make a qualitative analysis of the intensifiers used in the Spanish and American opinion columns. The topic chosen has been Weinstein's scandal and the publications during next weeks by different sources. The method followed will be Albelda Marco (2014) in which she divides intensifiers into lexical, semantical and expressions. Euphemisms will also be considered due to the relationship it has in the corpus with intensification. Conclusions try to explain the uneven number of examples in both nations and the reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 8 June 2023, the European Commission published a long-awaited proposal for the establishment of an interinstitutional ethics body, meant to restore the public's faith in the European Union's administration following the Qatargate corruption scandal. Alas, the Commission's proposal outlines a body that lacks investigative and sanctioning powers, has minimal administrative capacity and for the most part relies on the institution's own policing. Put simply, it falls short of the promises made by the Commission's President in her 2019 political guidelines, and much shorter of what was expected as a remedy to the European Union's recent ethics-related scandals. In this short piece, we reflect on the Commission's proposal for an inter-institutional ethics body in light of the overall ethics framework in the Union and provide a brief analysis of the Commission's missed opportunity and of what could have been. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the twentieth century, many Catholic authorities prioritized the suppression of scandal over the punishment of criminal priests, and the church now faces an even greater scandal as the extent of this coverup becomes known. While the specific situation may be new, the church's aversion to scandal is not. This article connects the contemporary situation to the struggles faced by the Counter-Reformation Church regarding scandal. Applying sociological and anthropological theories of scandal, it argues that an institution whose authority is threatened (like the church in both eras) will almost inevitably become scandal averse. Building on the work of Dyan Elliott using theology and legal history, it argues that in Reformation Europe, the church had a particular need to suppress scandal, using methods Elliott demonstrates had been developed over centuries. Finally, using social historical methods it examines the disciplinary strategies of Gregorio Barbarigo, bishop of Padua from 1664 to 1697, chosen because of his unusually lengthy tenure, devotion to reform, extraordinarily detailed records, and sainthood. By examining over a thousand investigations undertaken by Barbarigo, analyzing his responses to a wide range of abuses, and presenting four case studies of repeat offenders, the article demonstrates both the rationale for and the weaknesses of the Catholic Church's preferred disciplinary strategy. From a historical perspective, this demonstrates that scandal and its management was yet another obstacle to early modern Catholic Reform. Connecting this to the contemporary church can help us better understand the complex motivations and moral ambiguities of institutions like the Catholic Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an exploratory qualitative study into how tribunals of inquiry act as instruments of legitimacy and hegemony for the State. Focusing on a case study of two consecutive tribunals of inquiry into the biggest health scandal in the history of the Irish State, the paper draws on ritual theory to offer a view of the tribunal as a process of ritualization, a strategic way of acting by the State in times of crisis. Through this process of ritualization, an authoritative, structured and structuring ritualized environment is created with schemes of ritualization imposed on participants directed toward creating ritualized bodies, hoped-for acceptance of the tribunal's projection of reality and the re-legitimation of the role of the State in undertaking its core functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role which corporate and financial secrecy vehicles play in enabling transnational corruption has justifiably received growing scholarly and policy interest. Less attention, however, has been given to the enabling role played by political secrecy vehicles. Political secrecy vehicles denote arrangements that allow individuals to clandestinely exercise public authority, which is concealed by a formal bureaucratic façade. This article develops analytical categories for deconstructing political secrecy structures and pinpointing the threat they pose to anti-corruption enforcement. These structures and threats are then empirically explored through an investigative case study. The case study plots how shadow political space in Uzbekistan and the simulacra of impartial public administration, was utilised by a kleptocratic syndicate to conceal an international bribery scheme, and then weaponised by the conspirators to successfully frustrate enforcement efforts in Europe. Drawing on key lessons from the case study, proposals are made for how the threats posed by political secrecy structures can be jurisprudentially and practically counteracted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversations regarding moral values are increasingly becoming a pivotal dimension of public discourse. This paper presents a new approach to unacceptable discourse. Drawing on René Girard's cultural anthropology and Luciano Elizalde's dissent management theory, this work develops a scale of situations of dissent, such as controversy, polemic and public discourse scandal. It offers a detailed study of the polemic raised by the book Marry Him and Be Submissive, a process of dissent which was generated in Spain in November 2013 on the occasion of the publication of this Italian bestseller and lasted until January 2014. The book was written by the Italian journalist Costanza Miriano and translated and edited by the Archdiocese of Granada. The case study uses a triangular approach to discourse analysis, which aims to comprehend the enunciator's legitimacy and social positioning, the communication context in which the debate takes place, and the characteristics of the public discourse. A central element regards how reactions are organized around the signifier 'submissive' and the different frames of interpretation assigned to this word, in what will be called 'feminist' and 'post-feminist' paradigms. Mechanisms of dissent and consensus are explained, and takeaways and actors' strategies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Scandal of Adaptation," edited by Thomas Leitch, offers a new perspective on the processes of adaptation by exploring the concept of scandals in adaptation. The book examines individual adaptations and the scandalous elements within them, as well as the scandalous nature of adaptation as a field of study. The chapters cover a range of topics, including the evolution of adaptations over time, the influence of censorship on adaptations, and the controversies surrounding adaptations of war memoirs. The collection provides a unified and thought-provoking examination of adaptation and its potential to challenge ideas of originality. [Extracted from the article]

Classic theories of public opinion suggest that negative shocks can undermine system support in weak democracies, but scant work has systematically assessed this thesis. We identify Peru's explosive Vacuna-gate scandal as a most-likely case for finding a connection between corruption and political support. The scandal's unexpected revelation in the middle of the 2021 AmericasBarometer Peru survey created conditions for a natural experiment. Applying an unexpected-event-during-survey design, we consider the consequences of the scandal for perceptions of corruption, system support, and support for democracy. We find robust evidence that the scandal increased even already high perceptions of corruption and lowered system support. Contrary to expectations derived from prior theories, we find no effect on explicit support for democracy. In the conclusion, we discuss the nuanced ways that scandal may shape democratic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Former MPs Nick Harvey and Paul Tyler discuss the state of British democracy and propose ways to restore it. They highlight the erosion of parliamentary democracy, citing examples such as Boris Johnson's attempts to prorogue Parliament and his disregard for the Ministerial Code. The authors also address issues with political finance, calling for tighter rules on donations and greater transparency. They emphasize the need for constitutional rehabilitation, including changes to election law, government processes, parliamentary time allocation, and the role of parliamentary committees. Additionally, they advocate for reforming the House of Lords, improving standards in public life, and enacting stronger ethics regulations for government ministers. The authors stress the importance of political reform alongside other national agendas to ensure long-term renewal and avoid potential disasters in the future. [Extracted from the article]

Corporate crime is often misrepresented in crime media as individual wrongdoing with minor consequences. Despite considerable research on corporate crime in news, there has been no examination of quality media sources, upon which this paper focuses. This paper presents an exploratory study of the first week of framing corporate crime in UK-based online quality press outlets: The Guardian, The Independent, and The Telegraph. It does so by examining three major corporate crimes of the last decade: the Grenfell Tower fire, the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) manipulation, and Volkswagen emissions manipulation. Methodologically, the paper is based upon an adapted version of Robert Entman's media theory of framing by using the framing elements of perpetrator, cause of crime, victimization and punishment to explore what and how frames are being used in each outlet. It is found that even the most critical mass media outlets resort to accidental narrative frames that fail to address criminal (in-)justice. I conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for an understanding of the variance in quality press outlets' frames of corporate crime that warrants further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholders' decisions regarding whether to continue to support a firm after it has been perceived as culpable for socially irresponsible behaviour is "coin of the realm" in selecting which firms (or which parts of a firm) will be able to survive a corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) scandal. Our empirical setting is an embedded polar case of audience support, the Parmalat case, following a severe CSI scandal. The scandal represented a "trigger event" that ignited an active reevaluation of the firm on behalf of its stakeholders. We show that, while the firm's cognitive legitimacy was not harmed by the CSI scandal, two dimensions of legitimacy played a key role in stakeholder evaluations: moral and pragmatic legitimacy. The capacity to manage the interplay between these two dimensions emerged as a key factor underlying stakeholders' support. Finally, we argue that if pragmatic legitimacy is feeble it is unlikely that the firm is able to maintain stakeholders' support. Our study suggests that possessing a sound source of competitive advantage in one (or more) of the businesses in which the firm operates is decisive to maintain the support of independent stakeholders following CSI scandal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research reveals the original medieval forms of the Convent of Poor Clares while contextualising the spatial interventions after the scandalous year 1433 that led to the urban transformation of the broader neighbourhood. The research methodology addressed historical visual sources analysed in the context of the information provided by archival documents, starting with the Ordo from 1433 and including all the City Councils' deliberations until 1450. Linking these two sets of information resulted in the schematic and hypothetical visualisation of the disposition of the convent's medieval buildings and the identification of all the changes in neighbouring public and private buildings and spaces implemented to achieve the perfect clausura inside the densely built urban fabric. Along with the prison sentence to be served inside this very convent, the nobility of the Republic of Dubrovnik ensured that the social values were preserved for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asen Georgiev was a Bulgarian lawyer and diplomat who confessed to working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) between 1957 and 1963. In a show trial staged in 1963 in Sofia Bulgaria, prosecutors alleged that he had been paid nearly $200,000 for his services and accused him of undermining the interests of the entire socialist camp by handing over Soviet secrets to the Americans. This article offers a comprehensive de novo analysis of the Georgiev case based on the extensive records of the Bulgarian State Security Service and individual declassified CIA documents. This study demonstrates that Georgiev's intelligence about Nikita Khrushchev was crucial for calling the Sino–Soviet split in 1960 and raises the possibility that he played unacknowledged roles in other international crises in 1961 and 1962. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Butte's State Savings Bank affair, a scandal involving corruption and fraud that implicated architect Fred E. Willson and his boss Charles S. Haire. The scandal had far-reaching consequences and changed Willson's life. The text describes Butte, Montana as a unique city with a reputation for strikes, fights, and corruption, as well as its wealth from copper mining. It also mentions the architectural landmarks in Butte, such as the Hirbour Block and the State Savings Bank. The State Savings Bank building, now known as Metals Bank, still stands in Butte as a prominent architectural centerpiece. [Extracted from the article]

International sport has always been associated with nationalism. The purpose of the study was to explore how Chinese media and the general public perceived the doping scandal of their national sports hero, Sun Yang. Through analyzing 11 Chinese media outlets' coverage on Chinese social media Weibo, the results revealed that Chinese media covered Sun and his team's reaction and perspectives on this issue more when compared with other news. The general public's perceptions toward this scandal tended to be favorable toward Sun, with 55.5% of selected Weibo comments defending Sun after his 8-year ban for doping was handed down. The analysis of these social media comments posted by sports fans showed that the general public's perceptions might have been impacted by their nationalism, international relations, and media coverage. In addition, the study revealed the Chinese public's perceptions toward current antidoping regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the reasons contributing to the heterogeneous effects of environmental scandals on corporate performance remains limited. This study examines the factors of corporate resilience (CR) and employs event system theory to investigate the roles of responsible innovation (RI) and relational trust (RT) in shaping the relationship between environmental scandal intensity (ESI) and CR. We focus on examining the mediating role of RI in the relationship between ESI and CR and consider the moderating effect of RT. Analyzing survey data from 211 Chinese companies, we find that RI significantly mediates the inverted U‐shaped impact of ESI on CR. Moreover, RT regulates this relationship. These findings help extend our knowledge on the practice of CR when a scandal occurs and during its aftermath. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are fewer cases of such blatant acts to defy and subsequent heroic efforts to rearrange institutional norms than the Russian doping scandal. In adopting a neo-institutional perspective, the authors theorize the scandal as a case of attempted but failed institutional disruption. More specifically, the authors draw upon the institutional change literature and the institutional work perspective to explain the key events surrounding actors' response to the scandal. The analysis utilized Gioia's methodological approach to examine secondary empirical data. Findings reveal how stakeholders circumvented traditional governance structures in an attempt to disrupt institutional arrangements, but despite this, much of the preexisting institutional infrastructure has remained intact. The authors explain this outcome, in part, as a consequence of the counter-institutional work of key governing agencies and other actors to maintain the status quo within international sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I investigate how non-knowledge about border violence is maintained through secrecy. I do so by focusing on Frontex's maritime pushback scandal. The first argument I develop is that secrecy takes the form of hiding and obfuscation. Hiding is straightforward. It implies that information about pushback is withheld from oversight bodies and the public to avoid criticism and disciplinary measures. Obfuscation is more complex. It refers to the production of uncertainty, ambiguity and confusion about a policy or practice. Differently from hiding, obfuscation results from the disclosure of contradictory and misleading information about pushback, as well as from attempts to confuse the public debate by raising convoluted arguments that question the very understanding of pushbacks as illegal. The second argument I develop is that transparency can be implicated in the production of secrecy. While transparency and secrecy are typically seen as binary opposites, I will explain how mechanisms implemented to render Frontex's operation more transparent have been used to hide pushbacks and obscure the Agency's responsibility for violations of fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Combating Money Laundering in Africa: Dealing with the Problems of PEPs" by John Hatchard is a comprehensive study on the issue of money laundering in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on politically exposed persons (PEPs). The book examines the challenges faced by African countries in combating money laundering and explores the role of PEPs in the process. Hatchard recommends a three-pronged approach to address the problem, including effective action at the national, transactional, and corporate levels. The book provides in-depth analysis and case studies to highlight the depth of the problem and advocates for the development of political will, economic sanctions, and asset recovery mechanisms to combat money laundering. [Extracted from the article]