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The purpose of this paper is to utilize co-query volumes of brands as relatedness measurement to understand the market structure and demonstrate the usefulness of brand relatedness via a real-world case.

Using brand relatedness measurement obtained using data from Google Trends as data inputs into a multidimensional scaling method, the market structure of the automobile industry is presented to reveal its competitive landscape. The relatedness with brands involved in product-harm crisis is further incorporated in empirical models to estimate the influence of crisis on future sales performance of each brand. A representative incident of a product-harm crisis in the automobile industry, which is the 2009 Toyota recall, is investigated. A panel regression analysis is conducted using US and world sales data.

The use of co-query as brand relatedness measurement is validated. Results indicate that brand relatedness with a brand under crisis is positively associated with future sales for both US and global market. Potential presence of negative spillovers from an affected brand to innocent brands sharing common traits such as same country of origin is shown.

The brand relatedness measured from co-query volumes is considered as a broad concept, which encompasses all associative relationships between two brands perceived by the consumers. This study contributes to the literature by clarifying the concept of brand relatedness and proposing a measure with readily accessible data. Compared to previous studies relying on a vast amount of online data, the proposed measure is proven to be efficient and enhance predictions about the future performance of brands in a turbulent market.

This study aims to investigate the effects of firm characteristics and crisis characteristics on remedies offered to consumers by firms in the event of a product recall crisis.

Published data on 868 product recalls in the US toy industry from 1988 to 2011 have been used to investigate the effects of firm experience in product recalls, type of firm (company versus intermediary) and product recall severity in predicting remedies offered to consumers in the event of a product recall.

The findings show that firm recall experience, firm type and recall severity are negatively associated with recall remedies offered. Specifically, firms offer lower remedies if they have higher recall experience, if they are upstream firms in the supply chain (farther from consumers) and if the recall is more severe.

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 include the above factors.

Offering a high remedy to consumers of a recalled product may be a responsible decision by a firm, but it may also attract shareholder wrath. The study has implications for managing multiple goals in product recall crisis management.

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.

The brand crisis literature remains unilateral and scattered, necessitating academic effort to comprehend the extant body of knowledge. This study aims to provide the required comprehensive overview of the domain, by outlining its significance, progression and future research directions.

Following the PRISMA approach, journal articles for review are selected. The study uses a hybrid (structured and bibliometric) review, to provide a systematic insight and graphical visualization of the existing literature. It applies VOSviewer software to analyse bibliographic data through citation and co-occurrence analysis.

The hybrid review outlines most-cited articles, authors, frequently used theories, methodologies and data analysis techniques in this domain. Findings are further presented as integrative framework that distinctly highlights prior studies from a dichotomous perspective and across three stages of crisis. Finally, research opportunities and directions for future research are presented.

The study is useful for scholars and practitioners to understand the brand crisis literature and to cognize the inferences drawn by distinct researchers. It provides contemporary research agendas using the theory, context and method (TCM) framework, to augment future investigations through interdisciplinary approach.

To the best of our knowledge this is the first study that synthesizes the academic work of brand crisis using a hybrid method. Also, the novelty of the work lies in presenting the future research direction in the form of multiple (macro, meso and micro) levels with inter-disciplinary theoretical underpinnings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how different types of organizational culture (OC) manifest in certain corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and to uncover how the presence of certain OC types induces changes in CSR caused by drastic shifts in the economic environment.

The analysis relies on a case study and uses qualitative and quantitative data obtained via interviews, employee survey and analysis of documents. The paper focuses on Ecoprint Ltd, a small printing house in Estonia, and analyzes its reactions to the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009 in terms of CSR. The authors then analyze the concurrence of these changes with its OC, based on a survey that relies on the Competing Values Framework.

The dominant type of OC in the organization did not predict all its CSR practices, but described rather well how adaptation in the sphere of CSR took place as a result of economic downturn. The case demonstrated that CSR activities that relate to dominant OC types are less likely to be reduced in a recession; moreover, some were even intensified. On the other hand, there were certain CSR activities that reflected less prevalent types of OC, nevertheless these were not withdrawn either.

The method used, single case study, serves as an exploratory study. The relationship between unchanged CSR activities related to less dominant OC types is not easy to interpret and needs further investigation.

There is abundant literature referring to a connection between OC and CSR, but related empirical research is hard to find. The current paper empirically explores the relationship between these concepts under the extraordinary economic situation that existed in Estonia in 2008‐2009.

This paper aims to investigate consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to brand crisis and examine an empirical model to explain consumer’s internal process in the context of negative information about a brand, analyzing the relationships between the brand association types, brand-customer relationship strength and consumers’ responses depending on the types of brand crises.

This study uses an integrative approach based on qualitative and quantitative methods: a focus-group interview and an experiment.

The results indicated that consumers’ responses were more favorable in the corporate ability (CA) crisis than in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) crisis. In addition, consumers with high brand-customer relationship strength and brand associations for CA (CSR) showed more favorable responses to a brand crisis related to CA (CSR) than to that related to CSR (CA).

Managerially, firms should improve their marketing activity to reinforce particular brand association type that strongly related customers mainly have. In addition, firms should carefully find the best timing and channel that strongly related customers usually access, to present corporate corresponding statements in brand crisis and information of their corporate crisis-coping process.

Theoretically, this study will contribute to the literature on brand crises by providing critical insights into the mechanism underlying consumers’ responses to brand crises.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the issue of crisis management within the Toyota Corporation's series of worldwide recalls for multiple malfunctions on a number of different Toyota brands of vehicles. The analysis relates to the difficulty now faced by Toyota, previously recognized as the world's leading manufacturer of automotive vehicles. The crisis became so great that Toyota corporate leaders even traveled from Japan to testify before a US Congressional Committee hearing.

A crisis, typically considered to be a negative issue, can be a positive event in the life of a business firm, such as Toyota, if the management involved seizes the opportunity to make appropriate changes in its operations to facilitate continuing positive growth and development. However, this opportunity was not initially addressed by Toyota in a meaningful way, and the crisis continued to evolve through subsequent stages, bringing a vast array of negative international criticism. The crisis management paradigm that is the focus for this case identifies four stages of a crisis – the preliminary (pre‐) crisis, acute crisis, chronic crisis, and crisis resolution. The present crisis deals with several different malfunctions that were identified, apparently by customers, in various Toyota brands, but publically ignored by Toyota's management. Therefore, the pre‐crisis stage was not appropriately dealt with by Toyota, and the firm was thrust into an acute crisis that has now evolved into a chronic crisis. A brief overview of the historical development of Toyota is presented, and an analysis of the present crisis situation in which the firm found itself is presented in some detail.

It was concluded that Toyota is now in a very difficult position in the chronic crisis stage due to the failure of its management to facilitate a timely response to the malfunctions of its vehicles.

The paper presents an excellent example of crisis mismanagement by a previously recognized world leader.

This paper aims to provide an in‐depth analysis of the economic, operational and strategic aspects of the Toyota recall crisis, as well as its implications for the global auto industry and its competitive dynamics in the future.

The paper provided a literature review (of both academic literature, company reports, and popular press).

Toyota's recent efforts to become the top selling automaker in the global market place might have led to some unfavorable changes in its supply chain management practices, as well as tarnishing some of the core values of the “Toyota Way”, which were partially responsible for the massive recall. Toyota's handling of the recall also reflected the unique “Japanese way” of managing crisis.

The paper provides a timely analysis of a corporate crisis that is still unfolding. The multi‐disciplinary perspectives used in this analysis provide unique insights to understand a complex corporate phenomenon.

The aim of this paper is to establish an understanding of what components of the stewardship model (reciprocity, responsibility, reporting and relationship nurturing) were present on Toyota's corporate Facebook page through communicative patterns and themes in the wake of the 2010‐2011 vehicle recall crisis: and what comments/posts by the social media team – who act as “admins” of the social networking site to communicate with stakeholders and fans – indicate components of the stewardship model.

Using Kelly's stewardship model as the theoretical framework, the study incorporated qualitative methods – specifically, a textual analysis to review the recall‐related conversation on the Toyota corporate Facebook page from January 2010 until the end of the first quarter in March 2010. The Facebook page was reviewed two to three times per day to monitor the discussion. In conducting the actual analysis, Toyota's Facebook page “Wall” was reviewed for words and phrases that referenced one or more components associated with the presence of the stewardship model.

As the crisis situation unfolded and the media coverage of the recalls intensified, the results of the textual analysis indicated a significant integration of the steps consistent with the stewardship model. After receiving compelling criticism from Facebook followers of the company for not engaging enough, Toyota's social media team formulated an enhanced social media engagement effort which focused on stressing the importance of genuine, two‐way, online engagement in a consumer‐driven environment. By doing so, this greatly contributed to Toyota's ability to quickly rebound from the crisis as well as emerge with their company's brand reputation intact.

Overall, this research is significant because of its practicality and contribution to previous research in stewardship and social media. Furthermore, companies can learn from the example set by Toyota in that, while profits are important, building and nurturing long‐term relationships in a socially‐responsible manner can result in reinforced positive attitudes and behaviors, which are far more important to the company's bottom line. Finally, through the utilization of the stewardship model in an online engagement strategy during times of crises, incorporating a two‐way communication approach can yield positive results for the company's brand reputation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for effective crisis response.

The methodology involves a qualitative examination of responses by companies that have been judged by analysts to be varyingly effective. Toyota, for instance, had a poor response to its product quality and recall crisis. Singapore Airlines on the other hand, is often cited as an exemplar for an effective response to the crash of its flight SQ 006 in Taiwan.

This research finds that organizations with a strong commitment to doing the right thing for stakeholders and a high readiness are most likely to effectively respond to crises. Organizations lacking in one of the two critical dimensions (commitment to stakeholders and/or readiness), on the other hand, are likely to have ineffective responses with possible post-crisis losses in competitive (e.g. market share) and financial (e.g. penalties) terms.

The case study methodology implies limitations about generalizability. The framework may also be less useful in crises where there is ambiguity about the genesis of the crisis and its implications, such as the disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines’ MH 370 flight.

Since crises are commonplace and can impact any company, the framework can be useful for a wide range of companies.

The proposed framework fills a gap in the understanding about why some companies have effective responses to crises and others do not. Prior literature has often adopted narrower perspectives such as the skills and the personality of the CEO, pre-crisis drills and effective communication strategies post-crisis. This study argues that while these factors are important, they are not sufficiently strategic.

Using as many perspectives as possible to understand large-scale industrial crises can be a daunting task. This paper aims to demonstrate a reasonably complex yet systemic, analytical and critical approach to analyzing what causes crises.

The authors use a multi-perspective methodology within which each perspective uses a substantially different ontology and epistemology, offering a deeper understanding of the causes of large-scale crises. The methodology utilizes extant theory and findings, archival data from English and Japanese sources, including narratives of focal people such as Toyota President Akio Toyoda.

The analysis suggests that what caused Toyota’s crisis was not just Toyota’s failure to solve its technical problems. It was Toyota’s collective myopia, interactively complex new technologies and misunderstanding of corporate citizenship.

The authors argue that crises are complex situations best understood from multiple perspectives and that easily observable aspects of crises are often not the most significant causes of crises. In most cases, causes of crises are hidden and taken-for-granted assumptions of managers. Thus, managers must view crises critically from multiple yet distinct viewpoints.

The authors use Alpaslan and Mitroff’s multi-disciplinary methodology to outline several critical perspectives on Toyota’s messy recall crisis.