Radials, Rollovers and Responsibility: An Examination of the Ford-Firestone Case

Abstract

In August of 2000, Firestone executives initiated the second largest tire recall in U.S. history. Many of the recalled tires had been installed as original factory equipment on the popular Ford Explorer SUVs. At the time of the recall, the tires and vehicles had been linked to numerous accidents and deaths, most of which occurred when tire blowouts resulted in vehicle rollovers. While Firestone's role in this case has been widely acknowledged, Ford executives have managed to deflect much of the attention away from themselves, mainly by claiming that the Firestone tires were not its product, and therefore not its responsibility. In this paper, we examine the extent to which Ford can be held morally responsible for the incidents at issue. In so doing, we develop an approach for determining when an item is a product in its own right, as opposed to a component of another product. We argue that such an analysis not only provides a better understanding of this case, but also more properly accounts for the extent to which evolutions in technology and business relationships can affect issues of moral responsibility in business contexts.

Corporate Social ‘Irresponsibility’: Are Consumers’ Biases in Attribution of Blame Helping Companies in Product–Harm Crises Involving Hybrid Products?

“…While ethical challenges in business practices do exist in countries that have an unfavorable image-such as China and India (Lu 2009)-and moral approaches to assigning responsibility support the notion that manufacturers are primarily responsible for product defects (Noggle and Palmer 2005), problems with the product do not always emanate from the country of manufacture. Direct responsibility because of a design flaw for the product recalls was eventually seen in the case of the Mattel recalls of 2007 (Bapuji and Beamish 2007).…”

Capability Reputation, Character Reputation, and Exchange Partners’ Reactions to Adverse Events

“…Though not commonly studied by strategy and management scholars, economics and political science researchers have identified blame shifting as a strategic action used in politics, for example when a legislature delegates the implementation of an unfavorable policy to an agency, in order to soften the blame that it will face (e.g., Bressman, 2003;Hill, 2015;Oexl & Grossman, 2012). Similarly, following adverse events, firms may attempt to shift blame to avoid penalties associated with the events (Noggle & Palmer, 2005).…”

The more I err, the less I pay

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