Historical and transcultural studies of crisis-responses by anthropomorphized corporations

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380463
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Management
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: Chikudate Nobuyuki 広島大学, 社会科学研究科, 教授 (50255238)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 危機管理 / 企業の社会的責任 / 不祥事

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, the researcher investigated how "anthropomorphized corporations" managed the critical situations by utilizing historical and transcultural analyses. Many Japanese corporations were accused because of irresponsible responses to growing public criticisms when their wrongdoings were exposed, and their corporate reputations were severely damaged. We also witnessed some cases where the scopes of public criticisms were beyond national boarders in globalizing corporate activities. Although many corporations took crisis management strategies to defend corporate images upon the disclosures of wrongdoings, the researcher revealed that these corporations repeated the similar types of incidents in the past. Furthermore, they did not "behave and speak" as responsible corporate citizens. In this project, the researcher investigated how the behaviors and speeches of corporations influence the crises by developing the concept of "anthropomorphized corporations."

Free Research Field

経営組織論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の中心的概念である「人格化する企業」が提唱される以前の企業危機管理とは、「法人化した企業」が「法的責任」を最小限に抑え、賠償金・罰金を減らすことが主流であった。しかしながら、このような戦略では、危機を終息できないばかりか悪化させる世相になった。不祥事による被害の程度にもよるが、「危機」に発展するかどうかは、企業側の「話し方」・「態度」に対し、パブリックがどのような判断を下すかにより影響されるようになったからである。つまり、企業が「人格化」し、人格化した企業による不祥事への対応が、危機を悪化させる。本研究においては、人格化する企業による危機対応について、時系列かつ通文化的分析を行った。