Strategic management expert available to comment on Fiat Chrysler record fine, recall

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Strategic management expert available to comment on Fiat Chrysler record fine, recall

HOUSTON – (July 27, 2015) – Anastasiya (Annie) Zavyalova, assistant professor of strategic management at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is available to discuss the historic settlement that Fiat Chrysler has reached with U.S. regulators to stave off legal problems arising from about two dozen safety recalls.

ANASTASIYA ZAVYALOVA

The settlement reportedly provides that the Italian-American automaker must offer to buy back from customers nearly 200,000 recalled Ram pickups and Dodge SUVs and pay a fine of $105 million.

Zavyalova is available for interviews to discuss the fallout and next steps for Fiat Chrysler. Her research focuses on negative events in organizations (such as product recalls, NCAA scandals in U.S. universities and child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church) and the role of media and organizational identification for stakeholder support following negative events.

“As my research suggests, news about defective products is detrimental for any company’s brand and reputation,” Zavyalova said. “Three caveats help understand how detrimental the recall is for Chrysler.

“First, how severe were the consequences of the defect for the company’s stakeholders? In this case, some reports suggest that the problem has been ongoing and that as of 2013, more than 50 deaths had been linked to the problem. This attests to the severity of the problem that Chrysler now has to face head-on.

“Second, are the company’s competitors facing similar issues? News about car safety problems involving Chrysler’s close competitors such as Honda, Toyota and GM can be, in fact, beneficial for Chrysler,” Zavyalova said. “The company may be able to point to an industrywide safety problem and deflect public attention from its brand.

“Third, what are the company’s reputation repair strategies? As my research suggests, when the company is culpable of wrongdoing (such as selling defective cars), it helps to cooperate with the government agencies (in this case NHTSA) and to work closely with customers to address the problem. Chrysler is doing both, which should help it recover from the negative publicity,” she said.

Zavyalova suspects that the news will negatively affect Chrysler’s stock price. However, industrywide safety problems and Chrysler’s direct actions to address the issue should soften the damage to its reputation, she said.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Zavyalova, contact David Ruth, director of national of national and broadcast media at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.

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Related materials:

Recent research:

“Negative Consequences of Good Reputation and Positive Outcomes of Negative Events,” Socio-Economic Review (2014 Oxford Journals).

“Managing the Message: The Effects of Firm Actions and Industry Spillovers on Media Coverage Following Wrongdoing,” Academy of Management Journal (2012).

Follow Rice News and Media Relations on Twitter @RiceUNews.

Follow Rice University’s Jones School on Twitter @RiceMBA.