法國情境下的危機傳播 : 三星GALAXY NOTE7事件案例研究 - 政大學術集成

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(1). International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. Master’s Thesis 政治大學. ‧ 國. 立. ‧. GALAXY NOTE 7 Crisis Communication in France: A Case Study of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Issue. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al Ch. i Un. engchi. Student: Elodie Prunet Advisor: Yi-Chieh Lin. 106 June 2017. 6. v.

(2) . GALAXY NOTE 7. Crisis Communication in France: A Case Study of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Issue.. Student: Elodie Prunet Advisor: Professor Lin Yi-Chieh. 政治大. 立 ‧ 國. 學. ‧ y. Nat. sit. er. io. A Thesis. n. al Submitted to International Master’si v Program in. Un. C. hengchi International Communication Studies National Chengchi University. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master of Arts. 106. 6. June 2017.

(3) Acknowledgement I would like to show my deep gratitude to my tutor, family and friends who supported me during this Master Degree. First of all, this Master was a great opportunity to learn more about the Communication field and it gave me precious tools that I will apply in my future jobs. I am very honored to have been accepted onto this Master’s degree course. I want to specifically thank Professor Yi-Chieh Lin for her help, thoughtful advice, guidance and her strong competence. She was always there for me and very responsive. Without her help, I wouldn’t have finished this thesis. I would always find an answer to my questions at any time. Thank you for your commitment and your solid support. I also want to express my gratitude to my committee members, Professor Tsung-Jen Shih and Professor Hong-Chi Shiau for their guidance and constructive comments. Thank you for your enlightening observations at different stages of my defense. It was always very welcome and helpful.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family. My parents always trusted me in my decisions since I left my hometown in French countryside and always showed. ‧. unconditional support. I also take the opportunity to thank my grandparents who always. sit. y. Nat. closely followed my evolution and achievements. Thank you for encouraging me to. al. n. er. io. continuously achieve more. I would not be here without them.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. I.

(4) Abstract This research adds further knowledge to the crisis communication field by studying the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 issue that occurred in 2016. It focuses on social media and specifically on Facebook. This research uses Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) from Coombs in order to determine which strategies Samsung used to solve the crisis in France and in the United-States. The results showed that Samsung used Corrective Action and Ingratiation in France and added Full Apology in the United-States. This research also analyses the different comments from Samsung’s customers posted on Facebook: Samsung France and Samsung Mobile USA. Comments have been classified according to a set of emotions that help us understand the customer’s reactions to Samsung strategies. Findings showed that customers mainly experienced anger, outrage, disappointment, anxiety, neutral emotion and/or sympathy at different stage of the crisis and according to the country analyzed. Finally, this study explains why Samsung used different strategies in France and in the United. 政治. States through Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory大 guidance. Results show that Power. 立. Distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, and Uncertainty Avoidance can be reasons why. ‧ 國. 學. Samsung adapted their strategies. Marketers should keep in mind that a crisis can strike a. ‧. company at any time and that strategies and messages should be fully adapted to countries’. y. Nat. culture. This study gives extensive explanation of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 crisis and help to. n. al. er. io. sit. marketers to better understand the stakes and strategies for a company’s crisis communication.. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Keywords: Crisis management, crisis communication, cross-cultural, social media, Facebook, Samsung. II.

(5) . Table of Contents Chapter One – Introduction ……………………………………………..……1 1.1 Samsung worldwide …………………………………………………………..2. 1.2 Samsung in France and in the United States ……………………………3 1.3 Samsung values and identity ……………………………………………6 1.4 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 crisis 2016 ……………………………………7 1.5 Social media importance ………………………………………………..8 Chapter Two – Literature Review…………………………………………….9. 2.2. Defining a Crisis in Crisis Communication ………………………………...9. 政治大 Crisis Management ……………………………………..…………………10 立學. ‧ 國. 2.1. Major Crisis Communication Theories ……………………….......………11. 2.4. The Role of Facebook in Crisis Communication ……….….…...…...……19. 2.5. User-generated Content ………………………………………...…………20. 2.6. Emotions …………………………………………………………..………21 a iv. 2.7. Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Theory ……………………………..…….23. ‧. 2.3. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. l C hengchi Un. Chapter Three – Research Methodology …………………………………...29 3.1. Analysis of Samsung’s strategies …………………….....…….………..…29. 3.2. Comments Analysis .……………………………………..……….……….31. 3.3. Comparison of France and United States ………………...……………….33. Chapter Four – Research Findings …………………………………….........34. 4.1. Samsung in France and in the United States………………….....…..…….35. 4.2. Samsung in the United States ……………………………………..………47. III.

(6) . 4.3. Cultural Comparison ………………………………………………......….55. Chapter Five – Discussion ………………………...………………….……...59 5.1. Discussion ………………………………………………....………………59. 5.2. Limitations ………………………………………………………………...60. 5.3. Suggestions for Future Research Direction / Recommendations ………….61. Chapter Six – Conclusion ……………………………………………………62 References ………………………………………………………………….…64 Appendix ……………………………………………………………………...69. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. IV. i Un. v.

(7) . List of Tables & Figures Tables Table 1 – SCCT response strategy types from Coombs’ theory (Adkins, 2010) ………....... 13 Table 2 – SCCT response strategy recommendations from Coombs’ theory …………….…13 Table 3 – Total of comments under each post with the number of analyzed comments……..28 Table 4 – Samsung overall use of SCCT in France ………………………………………….31 Table 5 – Summary of the 48 customized comments provided by Samsung ………..…....…35 Table 6 – Pre-Crisis Samsung’s customers’ reactions to Samsung’s posts on Samsung France ………………………………………………………………….……...…37. 治. Table 7 – Summary of the 272 customized政 comments provided 大 …………………...…..…...46. 立 Table 8 – Crisis Period: Results comparison France and USA ………………………......….51 ‧ 國. 學. Table 9 – Post-crisis Period: Results comparison France and USA .…………....………...…53. ‧. Figures. sit. y. Nat. er. io. Figure 1 – Comparison France and USA through Cultural Dimensions Theory.……..….….22. al. n. ithv n C h e nGN7 Figure 2 – Samsung France’s first post about i U(6 September 2016)……….……32 g c hcrisis Figure 3 – Samsung’s third post about GN7 crisis (21th September 2016)….……...….……33 Figure 4 – Samsung’s answer (24th September 2016) to a customer question (22nd September 2016) ………………………………………...………………………...………..34 Figure 5 – Samsung’s answer (26th of September 2016) to a customer question (26th of September 2016) ………………………………...……………………………..35 Figure 6 – Post-crisis Samsung France post ……………………………...…………..…….36 Figure 7 – Pre-Crisis: Samsung French Facebook Fan Page Comments’ emotions ….....…37 Figure 8 – Crisis Phases: Samsung customer reactions to Samsung posts on Samsung’s French Facebook Page ……………………………………………...…………..38. V.

(8) Figure 9 – Crisis Phases: Emotions in Samsung France’s Comments ……....…………….39 Figure 10 – Post-Crisis: Samsung customer reactions to Samsung posts on Samsung’s French Facebook Page ……………………………………………………….…40 Figure 11 – Post-Crisis: Samsung French Facebook Fan Page Comments emotions ……...41 Figure 12 – Samsung Mobile USA’s first post about GN7 (September 6, 2016).…....….…42 Figure 13 – Samsung Mobile USA’s fourth post (23rd September 2016) ……………….…43 Figure 14 – Samsung Mobile USA last post about GN7 (10th November 2016) ……….….44 Figure 15 – Official Samsung answer to a customer’s comment (September 8, 2016) …....45 Figure 16 – An official Samsung answer to a customer’s comment (10th September 2016): crisis phase 1 ……………………………………………..……………….…...46 Figure 17 – A customer’s comment followed by an official Samsung answer (26th October 2016) ……………..…………….………………………………...……….…...46. 治. 政 reactions Figure 18 – Crisis Phases: Samsung’s customers’ 大 to Samsung’s posts on Samsung 立. ‧ 國. 學. Mobile USA …………………………………………………………………....47 Figure 19 – Crisis Phases: Samsung Mobile USA Comment emotions …………….……..48. ‧. sit. y. Nat. Figure 20 – Post-Crisis Samsung’s American customers’ reactions to Samsung’s posts. er. io. Samsung Mobile USA ………..……………………………………………….49. n. a. v. ni Figure 21 – Post-Crisis Samsung US lcustomer comment to Samsung’s posts ...50 C Uemotions. hengchi. VI.

(9) . Chapter One – Introduction To deal with a crisis is every company’s nightmare, and it is something that can strike at any moment. In the 1980s, crisis management emerged as many corporations faced crisis and environmental disasters. Because crisis is unpredictable, public relations play a key role in solving the issue via different communication channels, in order to restore a good relationship between the company and its stakeholders. Public relations also prevent from any damages that might hurt the brand or at least diminish them as much as possible. Until today, the subject is still discussed among researchers and many theories have been developed to help the companies cope with their issues, but some gaps for improvement remain within the crisis management field.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. With the emergence of the Web 2.0, researchers started to study social media’s impact. er. io. sit. y. Nat. (2014) stated:. ‧. in the field of crisis management (Schultz, 2010; Rochan, 2016; Austin, 2016). As Shan. n. “With athe i v 2.0 technologies, l increasing use of Web. Ch. n engchi U. media use in times of crisis has evolved from one way communication to multi-way interactions between a range of stakeholders and publics.”. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram play an increasing role in the crisis communication field as “a growing number of people have started relying on Internet based media forms as the primary channel to seek out crisis information” (Shan, 2014). Researchers often focus on the message, the impact of the crisis on corporate reputation, and the medium (Utz, 2013; Jin, 2014; Wendling, 2013; Olteanu, 2015) but very little research includes the impact of emotions (van der Meer, 2014; Utz, 2013; Coombs,. 1.

(10) 2013) and the influence of cultural differences on a global crisis (Zhu, 2017; Verhoeven, 2014). Therefore, the impact of emotions and cultural differences on the response in crisis communication needs further exploration. Companies from all over the world use social media not only to keep a close relationship with their customers, but also to control and obtain data about them. To give a better understanding of the impact of social media and to add new knowledge to the crisis management field, this study investigates the case of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 crisis that occurred from August to November 2016. This study focuses on the role played by Facebook during the crisis.. 政治. Moreover, this study will focus on France and the大United States. Indeed, many studies. 立. ‧ 國. 學. remain very general as they only cover the process of the crisis and how the corporations coped with it, but only on a global level. However, global brands like Samsung cannot keep. ‧. sit. y. Nat. its strategy global; they need to adapt to the targeted country. A solution that would work in. er. io. the United States would not necessarily work in France and vice-versa. Hence, this study will. n. a. v. i impact of emotions, and the l C to the crisis, nthe discuss Samsung’s response strategies significance of cultural differences.. hengchi U. 1.1 Samsung Worldwide Samsung is a Korean brand, which is already famous all over the world. This brand was initially created in 1938, but it is only in 1969 that Samsung shifted its business to electro-mechanics. First, they were famous for selling digital televisions and then started to create a wireless phone in 1999 (now mostly known as “smartphone”). In 2003, they ranked the fifth position among “the World’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune magazine. In 2004, Samsung Electronics won first place in the mobile phone sales ranking in Russia. In. 2.

(11) 2015, they maintained No.1 position in the global TV market for 10 consecutives years. Their main competitor in the mobile phone market is Apple. Samsung always had the biggest market share among smartphone manufacturers in the world. In the third quarter of 2016 alone, Samsung sold 72.5 million smartphones worldwide, while Apple sold 45.5 million smartphones. The same year, Samsung held 20% of the global market. Samsung is the biggest smartphone brand in the world in terms of market share, followed by Apple. Hence, Samsung is an influential corporation worldwide on which a crisis could have a serious global impact. The Samsung GN7 crisis happened during Q3. Samsung market share decrease and an Apple market share increase during the crisis. 治 crisis has negatively impacted Samsung 政 This. 大. 立. but benefited to Apple.. ‧ 國. 學. France is part of the top five European markets known as the EU5 along with. ‧. sit. y. Nat. Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom. Samsung is widely dominant and influential. er. io. among these 5 societies. 77% of all sales in the EU5 are from Android systems while Apple’s. n. a. l C iOS has 18,3% (Business Review, 2016).. hengchi. i Un. v. “So, while Samsung is the leading consumer smartphone of choice across the five nations it is facing competition from Apple, and new-kids-on-the-smartphone-block Huawei.” (Business Review, 2016) Hence, Samsung still has a strong influence on these 5 societies, including France, even if it faces competition.. 3.

(12) . 1.2 Samsung in France and in the United States The mobile market in France has risen continually since 2008, as shown in Figure 2. In 2013, Samsung dominated the smartphone market with 50% of the market share. In addition to this huge share, five of its smartphones figured in the top 10 despite the launch of Apple’s new iPhones. In 2016, Samsung sold almost 24 million smartphones in France alone. Samsung plays an important role in the consumption of smartphones in France (zdnet.fr). Since 2013, an important increase in smartphone sales has been observed. Indeed, French people prefer smartphones to simple mobile phones. In 2013, smartphones represented 67% of the entire market sales. It reached 76.4% in 2014. This speedy increase is also an important. 政治大 opportunity for Samsung to boost their sales (zdnet.fr). 立 ‧ 國. 學. Another particularity in the French market is the radio frequency regulations. The. ‧. French government controls smartphone frequencies very closely with strict regulations. The. y. Nat. er. io. sit. National Agency of Frequencies regularly tests smartphones available on the French market. n. and displays the results in an interactive online table. They a v precisely control the Specific. l C ni U h e n gabsorbed chi Absorption Rate (SAR), which is the energy by the human body during radio frequency electromagnetic field exposure. If a specific smartphone doesn’t comply and exceeds this rate, the agency can file a lawsuit and take down the product from the French market. Samsung has all their smartphones controlled and certified by the agency since 2012 (ANPR, 2016). However, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has been deleted from the list, as it is no longer in service (Samsung recalled this device and stopped the production). In the USA, smartphone sales represented 55 billion US dollars in 2016 with 207.1 million smartphone users (Statista.com). Samsung increased their sales to 6.2 billion US dollars in 2015, while sales were decreasing in Europe and China. Hence, the USA represents a huge share of their income and growth opportunities (zdnet.com). The GN7 crisis in USA. 4.

(13) has importantly impacted Samsung. It is relevant to compare Samsung’s crisis management strategies in France, as part of the EU5, and the USA, as these two countries are important for Samsung stability and continuous growth.. 1.3 Samsung values and identity The company values are part of the brand identity. Samsung openly shows their philosophy and values on their official French website as it can help to establish strong and lasting relationship with their stakeholders. Indeed, notions like “People”, which means they care about their customers (main stakeholder), “Excellence” to create the best product possible, “Change” meaning they are always seeking for evolution, “Integrity” standing for. 政治. efforts put into transparency and reliability and lastly,大“Co-Prosperity” showing they are. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. for.. 學. involved in social and environmental issues around the world, all state the values they stand. Nat. io. sit. y. As for Samsung’s five principles, they advocate the respect of their employees, laws. n. al. er. and regulations as well as showing their budget publicly, in France. They give importance to. i Un. Ch. v. ethics rules and especially to security. Additionally, e n g c h iSamsung seeks for the best towards not only their employees, but also their customers. On the American version of the Samsung website, they insist more on the ideas of “Community”, “Sustainability” and “Government”. Indeed, they put the accent on their environmental initiatives and association “Hope for Children”. They make efforts to show their engagement in environment challenges and clean technologies. They want to “change the world” and create a “global harmony with people, society and environment”. This shows that the French and American Samsung websites display the same values and beliefs, but spotlight different specific values to the American and French publics. This suggests there are differences in the way Samsung market its brand in both countries. It is useful to compare. 5.

(14) Samsung France and Samsung USA crisis management strategies, as they may be different. Culture differences can lead to different marketing and crisis communication plans that are worth studying.. 1.4 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Crisis 2016 However, Samsung faced a major crisis starting in August 2016. Their latest phone, the Galaxy Note 7, was officially announced on August 2, 2016. It was officially launched in China and India on August 16, 2016, while French people could only pre-order. The US and South Korea markets were opened on August 19, 2016. A few days later, the first damaged Galaxy Note 7 pictures were posted on Baidu, the biggest Chinese search engine for websites,. 政治大 audio files and images. One week later, an increasing number of burned Galaxy Note 7 立 ‧ 國. 學. pictures were published on social media and French deliveries were delayed. Samsung made. ‧. their first official statement: research and quality tests are being conducted at that time. They. sit. y. Nat. asked their customer to remain patient while they conduct 5 quality control investigations.. n. al. er. io. The day after, Galaxy Note 7 official sales started in France, as Samsung confirmed that the. iv. C h later, Samsung smartphone had a battery issue. Four days U n announced its exchange program. engchi. and gave new certified safe Galaxy Note 7 to their customers who previously bought a damaged one. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration encouraged people not to turn on or charge the smartphones in plane or transportation bunker; other flights companies followed suit. On the September 10, Air France decided to forbid the use, charge and transport of any Galaxy Note 7 on all of their flights. The statements from these airlines partially caused Samsung stock market to decrease by 7%. The loss has been estimated at 1.34 billion US Dollars by Credit Suisse. On October 5, a certified safe Galaxy Note 7 burned in Louisville, USA, then in South Korea, a few days later. On October 10, Samsung officially removed the Galaxy Note 7 from the global market and asked people not to use these. 6.

(15) smartphones anymore. It is worth noting that Samsung GN7 release in France was late compared to other countries such as USA. When the crisis occurred, the GN7 was only available on pre-order in France. Therefore, many French customers had not received their GN7 yet when Samsung proceeded to the first recall. This situation adds specificity to this current research.. 1.5 Social Media importance Social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are vital tools for brands. Every global brand has their own social media accounts that provide a bridge between them and the consumers. In 2017, 50% of French population uses social media, Facebook. 政治大 represents 90% of all social media accounts; it’s the fourth European country in term of 立 ‧ 國. 學. social media use and the tenth worldwide (blogdumoderateur.com). Therefore, Facebook is. ‧. the social media leader in France. In 2017, 81% of the American population has at least one. sit. y. Nat. social media profile, which represents 200,9 millions Americans (stastita.com). USA is the. n. al. er. io. third largest social media user base in the world, after China and India. 79% of the American. iv. C h on the top population use Facebook, which put Facebook U nrank of social media use in the USA. engchi. (pewinternet.org). Hence, this study will focus on Facebook and compare the strategies adopted by Samsung on Samsung France and Samsung Mobile USA Facebook pages.. 7.

(16) . Chapter Two – Literature Review Corporations often encounter different types of crises, which may end up damaging the brand and its stakeholders. Lerbinger (2008) defined the difference between an incident and a crisis. Indeed, a crisis, like an incident, is supposed to be unexpected. The timing is unpredictable but what makes the incident become a crisis is the mass media attention. If this incident receives mass media attention, then it will become a crisis for the corporation. The more the crisis gets headlines on the front pages of newspapers, the more important the crisis will become for the company.. 2.1 Defining a crisis in crisis communication. 政治大. The term Krisis comes from立 Greek and means “decision”, in other terms, it meant a. ‧ 國. 學. specific answer to a specific issue. However it progressively changed to only describe the. ‧. situation (Bouzon, 1999). The crisis is always accompanied by the mass media that cover it.. Nat. io. sit. y. Indeed, the corporation needs to control the information, balance the amount it gives and. er. make the information precise enough a to calm the stakeholders (mostly the customers). If the. n. iv l C n h e the company fails in this task, it can damage n g image c h i Uand create more financial loss than expected (Ogrizek, M., & Guillery, J. M. 2000). Communication itself can lead to a crisis.. The incident that turns into a crisis can have many forms including a misunderstanding between the company and the stakeholders. If just one of the stakeholders misinterprets an official document, statement, or a spokesperson’s speech, then a crisis can be on its way (Gabay, 2001). Hence, when public relations department want to solve a crisis, they need to take care about the timing, the tone and the amount of information they tell the stakeholders, especially to the public.. 8.

(17) . 2.2 Crisis Management Nowadays, the issue is not if a corporation will face a crisis but when and how will it happen (Ritchie, 2004; Fink, 1986; Smallman, 1996). Ritchie created a model that underlines the fact that companies are in constant state of “pre-crisis” or “prodromal model”. Crisis management often follows the lifecycle in order to create the most appropriate responses. As there are different stages in a crisis, there are different stages for the responses. The first stage is strategic analysis, which means gathering data about the issue itself; then comes strategic direction and choice to better achieve corporate goals; followed by strategy implementation and control to put the directions and choices into practice to solve the crisis;. 治. lastly, strategic evaluation and feedback 政 help the company 大 evaluate the efficiency of their. 立. ‧ 國. 學. strategies.. ‧. Despite the risks that crisis represent, they can also bring new opportunities to the. sit. y. Nat. company or even help it improve its sales. If strategies are well established and the timing is. n. al. er. io. well prepared, it can help to increase market share, enhance corporate reputation, save money. C h Larkin, 2008). and build important relationships (Regester, Un. engchi. iv. Many researchers and practitioners (Coombs, 1996; Holladay, 2009; Lerbinger, 2011; Anderson, 2011) have agreed on the basic guidelines of crisis communication and management theories. The process can be described into three phases: pre-crisis, crisis response phase and post-crisis. They also agreed on the fact that corporations need to anticipate any crisis and create a response strategy plan before it actually happens. However, when it occurs, corporations need to pay attention to information and precisely identify the issues. Once they have enough information, they can create a response strategy to counter the crisis in an efficient way.. 9.

(18) Another core value to the crisis management field is timing. It is often advised that public relations department respond to the crisis very quickly. Not only should they have anticipated the crisis and have a plan already prepared, but also apply it as soon as possible (Holladay, 2008). A previous study has compared consumer responses linked to product defect at different periods (Vassilikopoulou, Siomkos, Chatzipanagiotou, Pantouvakis, 2008). The crisis concerned a false mobile phone. The research demonstrated that after a few months, the effects of the crisis were minimal: “consumers tend to forget”, especially when the company is socially responsible, and when the product has been recalled. 2.3 Major Crisis Communication Theories. 治. Crisis communication is a widely政 studied field 大 for decades, both by researchers and. 立. ‧ 國. 學. professionals. It is very important for the corporation to communicate with the public when a crisis breaks out. Many communication management theories have emerged over the past few. ‧. decades, but two researchers dominate this field: Coombs and Benoit. They have dedicated. sit. y. Nat. io. al. n. used and acknowledged.. er. most of their research to this field and to the elaboration of major theories that are still widely. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) was developed by Coombs and is under continuous revision. Coombs started to elaborate this theory in 1995 until now. He used the Attribution Theory of Weiner (1986) to develop his current theory. Attribution Theory asserts that stakeholders always seek for the causes of events, especially when they are unexpected and negative. Stakeholders want to know whose fault it is and the reasons why this negative event occurred in the first place. Attribution Theory treats the crisis as a function of responsibility/blame level. However, Coombs (2012) developed this theory, arguing that there are different types of crisis that require different solutions. Apologia response cannot apply to any situations.. 10.

(19) Situational Crisis Communication Theory has been created to apply to a wider type of crisis. Coombs combined experimental methods with social-psychological theory to develop SCCT.. “SCCT advances and test hypotheses related to how perceptions of the crisis situation affect the crisis response and the effects of crisis responses on outcomes such as reputation, emotions, and purchase intention.” (Coombs, 2007). First, corporations should know who the stakeholders believe is responsible for the. 政治大 crisis. Three reputational threats have 立been categorized according to the levels of attributions ‧ 國. 學. of crisis responsibility: (1) initial crisis responsibility, (2) crisis history, and (3) relationship. ‧. history/prior reputation (Coombs, 2012).. y. Nat. er. io. sit. Crisis responsibility may increase according to the severity variable and the. n. performance history variable. According a to the crisis response v strategies prepared and applied,. l C ni U h e n gstabilized c h i or decreased. the organizational reputation may be increased,. Second, corporations should investigate to discover who is responsible for the crisis. Previous research has proved that when the attributions of responsibility are high, the reputational scores of the corporations drop considerably (Coombs & Holladay, 1996, 2002, 2004). Third, corporations should examine the framing of the crisis in order to understand which type of crisis they are facing. Coombs gives solutions according to the type of crisis that corporations encounter. SCCT gives precise and predictable levels of crisis responsibility based on the crisis type: (1) victim cluster has very weak attributions of crisis responsibility. 11.

(20) (natural disasters, workplace violence, product tampering, and rumour) and the organization is viewed as a victim of the event; (2) accidental cluster has minimal attributions of crisis responsibility (technical-error accident, technical-error product harm, and challenge) and the event was considered unintentional or uncontrollable by the organization; and (3) intentional cluster has very strong attributions of crisis responsibility (human-error accident, human-error product harm, and organizational misdeed) and the event was considered to be purposeful (Coombs & Holladay, 2002). If an organization encounters a high level of crisis responsibility, the level of threats will increase as well, making it difficult to resolve. SCCT gives precise and accurate crisis responses for crisis managers. There are three levels of responsibility according to disaster/crisis cluster type and 治. 政. 大. subtypes (Adkins, 2010). In this study, 立 Samsung faced a battery dysfunction that made the. ‧ 國. 學. Galaxy Note 7 overheat and burn/explode. The plastic layer separating the positive and. ‧. negative sides of the battery was too thin and was easily punctured, causing a short-circuit. io. sit. y. Nat. and in turn, overheating, burning smartphones. This was caused by the insulation tape around. n. al. er. the battery being insufficient, so the two electrodes could make contact through variations of. i Un. Ch. v. tension (News Samsung, 2017; Cnet, 2016;eBloomberg n g c h i Technology, 2016). This crisis would be categorized as a moderate responsibility with accidental cluster due to technical-error product harm. It was manufacturer dysfunction that caused this crisis. Technical-error accidents happen when the product causes an industrial accident. Technical-error product harm is when the product has been recalled. Samsung did recall their Galaxy Note 7 twice: once for an exchange program on September 6, 2016 and a second time when the first one failed, on October 11, 2016. In the end, 220 original GN7 and 119 replaced GN7 have been confirmed as overheating by Samsung. Officially, 35 GN7 exploded or caught fire worldwide. 2.5 million GN7 were manufactured and recalled by Samsung (apnews.com, 2016; Samsung Newsroom, 2017).. 12.

(21) At that point, different responses can be chosen. Samsung’s crisis remains in the accidental cluster. Therefore, a few solutions may be interesting to adopt: diminishment strategies or rebuilding strategies. These strategies are recommendations and are applied according to the organizational history type. They can be combined as well in certain cases for better results (see Table 3 and 4). Table 1 – SCCT response strategy types from Coombs’ theory (Adkins, 2010). Rebuilding Strategy. Diminishment Strategy. Compensate the victims, Offer Apology, Accept Responsibility . Provide excuses for the situation, provide justifications for the situation . 政治大. 立 Table 2 – SCCT response strategy recommendations from Coombs’ theory (Adkins, 2010 ‧ 國. 學 y. sit. io. No previous Use diminishment disaster/crisis history strategies. n. a. l C No unfavorable hengchi organizational reputation . er. Nat. Accident Cluster. Recommend Strategy. ‧. Organizational History Type. Situation Type. v iUse diminishment n U strategies. Previous Use rebuilding disaster/crisis history strategies Unfavorable organizational reputation. Use rebuilding strategies. Coombs simplified the crisis responses into a list of eight strategies: 1) Attack the accuser: to go up against the people who claims a crisis is occurring. 2) Denial: To claim there is no crisis at all. 3) Excuse: To minimize organization’s responsibility.. 13.

(22) 4) Victimization: To remind stakeholders that the corporate is also a victim. 5) Justification: To minimize the crisis’ damage effect on the stakeholder 6) Ingratiation: To praise stakeholders and remind them the good side of the organization. 7) Corrective action: To try to prevent a crisis to happen again and/or to repair the damage 8) Full apology: Crisis manager publicly recognize and accept their responsibility and ask for forgiveness from the stakeholders. This study aims to examine and understand which strategies Samsung used during the different stage of the crisis in order to diminish the impacts made on the brand.. 政治大. Hypothesis 1: Samsung used 立 Rebuilding Strategy in France and in the USA but to. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. different extent.. Benoit (1997) developed another major crisis communication theory: the image. y. Nat. er. io. sit. restoration theory. As for Coombs, the theory is constantly updated. Benoit affirms that a. n. a l (1) the accused is held crisis is formed from two components: i v responsible for an action. (2). n i U e h n c g that act is considered offensive. In addition to, the way people perceive the crisis is more. Ch. important than the reality. Crisis managers need to understand and analyse the public’s point of view about the issue; whether the public is offended and put the crisis’ responsibility on the corporation is the main preoccupation. A business has different stakeholders such as local citizens, governments, employees, customers etc. The crisis manager must find the most important audience and prioritize it. This image restoration focuses on the messages that can help to heal the issue. To better solve the issue, Benoit recommend a few steps: 1 – To prepare a Crisis Contingency Plan 2 – To analyse the crisis and the accusations. 14.

(23) 3 – To identify the relevant audience 4 – To repair the image There are three main strategies. The first one is to deny the responsibility. Benoit emphasizes on the innocence of the corporation: it can’t be guilty to apply the denial strategy. It can also help the company to shift the blame on someone else. The second strategy is to create an emergency exit, in other words to apply the evasion of responsibility. This can be a way to diminish and self-victimize as the issue can be the result of someone else’s offensive act. Another way would be to blame a lack of information or to claim the act was an accident. The third solution would be to reduce offensiveness. Different subcategories exist such as bolstering; minimize the negative effects政 of the治 act; distinguish the act from another more. 大立 harming act; to place the act in a better context; to attack the accuser or to compensate the ‧ 國. 學. damages. The last strategies are corrective action and mortification. The first one consists in. ‧. promising the stakeholder to quickly find a solution and the second is to ask for pardon and. er. io. sit. y. Nat. forgiveness.. n. a. v. i l C communication 2.4 The role of Facebook in crisis Un. hengchi. With the emergence of the Web 2.0, people were not only receiving information, but also able to create and diffuse content. This allows everyone to exchange knowledge, opinions and express their emotions at anytime; Web 2.0 facilitates interactive communication (O’Reilly, 2007). One of the most popular social networks is Facebook (Barnes, Mattson, 2011). Facebook is a social networking site that was created in 2004. It allows people to create and maintain their social capital through posting status, commenting, expressing reactions and posting pictures. There are lots of functionalities on this social media such as adding “friends”, chatting with them and exchanging information through their. 15.

(24) walls or tagging each other’s (Papacharissi, Zizi, 2009). Facebook is very important for businesses that need to interact with their customers.. “Worldwide, there are over 1.86 billion monthly active Facebook users (Facebook MAUs) which is a 17 per cent increase year over year.” (Source: Facebook as of 02/01/17). Facebook can help business to avoid crises situations but it is a “double-edged sword for companies in times of crises” (Nekmat, 2014). Indeed, online networks can also make a. 政治大 crisis go viral as users can constantly 立comment and spread information: it can make the crisis ‧ 國. 學. grow and become uncontrollable or be an efficient way for crisis manager to calm down the. ‧. situation and communicate with their stakeholders. Crisis managers need to carefully choose. y. sit. n. al. er. io. worse.. Nat. their communication strategy and avoid misunderstandings; otherwise the crisis could get. i Un. Ch. v. i e nisgthe c h seventh The Samsung France Facebook page most liked page in the country with 2,314,385 fans (Socialbakers.com, 2016). The Samsung Galaxy USA Facebook page is the fourth most liked page in the country with 25,534,450 fans (source: Socialbakers.com, 2016). Hence, Samsung Facebook pages are active, controlled and followed by users: if well managed, it can be a powerful tool for Samsung social marketers. Furthermore, Samsung is the first mobile phone industry most liked on Facebook, even before Apple or any other mobile phone brands in France and in USA. The purpose of this study is to examine and understand what strategy Samsung applied on their Facebook pages (in USA and in France). Usulu (2010) demonstrated that people use Facebook mainly for Social Networking, Writing on wall, Entertainment, Searching for friends and free time. Brand and Advertising. 16.

(25) Engagement revealed that users show interest towards brand announcements on their profile page and feel part of the community they joined. They also value their friends’ opinions about a brand community and ads, which can lead to a positive or negative word of mouth more easily.. 2.5 User-generated content As Smith (2012) stated: “One form of consumer engagement that can be compared across social media sites is user-generated content (UGC).” Indeed, UGC allows people to express themselves and communicate with others at any moment online. It also has many forms such as “Twitter tweets, Facebook status updates, and videos on YouTube, product. 治. 政create UGC大that is brand-related to impact the reviews or advertisements.” Marketers can 立. ‧ 國. 學. way consumers perceive a brand. Smith’s research focuses on the brand-related UGC across different social media. He compared UGC types between Twitter, Facebook and YouTube in. ‧. order to determine if marketers manage these channels differently. The first dimension used. sit. y. Nat. in this study is self-presentation, which means how users display themselves on social media,. er. io. n. a l a specific image andi videntity of themselves to others. such as Facebook, in order to show. Ch. n engchi U. Self-presentation can become self-promotion and a user’s identity can also be linked to brands. However, even if brand-referencing is less highly developed on Facebook compared to Twitter and YouTube, it is still very important to control for oneself which brand they are attached to in other people’s minds. It has been shown that this dimension is very important on YouTube and Facebook but less common on Twitter. The second dimension is brand centrality, which is to what extent a brand’s Facebook content would be focusing on the brand itself rather than using it as a supporting add-on. Results showed that brands focus on themselves a lot especially on Twitter, closely followed by Facebook. A third dimension is marketer-direct communication: social media sites let consumers directly express their questions, doubts, complaints or compliments directly to the marketers via UGC. This. 17.

(26) dimension is extremely important for Facebook as findings showed a clear impact of UGC between marketers and users on this social network. This study aims to analyze UGC from both marketers and users in a crisis communication period in order to determine how Samsung managed the issue and how people reacted to it in France and in the USA.. 2.6 Emotions A study from Lynette M. McDonald (2010) showed that a company’s responsibility strongly impacts anger, fear and sympathy. Web user involvement in the crisis mainly predicts anger, fear, joy and surprise. In other words, 治 the more the company is responsible for. 政. 大. the crisis, the more it will trigger strong 立 emotions such as anger, fear or sympathy emotions. ‧ 國. 學. towards the company. The more web users are involved in the crisis, the more predictable are. ‧. emotions’ variance such as anger, fear or surprise. Moreover, emotions can also help to. Nat. io. sit. y. predict negative word of mouth, that is to say when people speak negatively about a brand. n. al. er. and so spread negative messages. Since Samsung’s customers were buying the Galaxy Note 7. i Un. Ch. v. i for a direct end-user experience, they wereedirectly in the crisis. It is expected that n g c hinvolved Samsung’s customers (USA and France) will show anger and outrage in the comments more than any other emotions.. “Attitude, fear, anger, and joy predicted 61.1% of NWOM’s variance. Attitude, fear, and joy predicted 55% of loyalty’s variance. Anger and fear predicted 30.2% of complaining’s variance. The strongest predictors for NWOM, loyalty and complaining were, respectively, fear, attitude, and anger.” Lynette M. McDonald (2010). 18.

(27) . Another study, from Jianqiang Shen (2013) compared emotional user content on Facebook and Gmail. They found out that people express more and show more emotions on Facebook than on Gmail; they use more positive and negative words as well as exclamation marks. Users are more likely to share supportive response and/or bad experience on a Social Network Site (SNS) than on emails. Furthermore, people are more expressive and emotional when they comment, with more positive and negative words as well as exclamations. A last research conducted by Coombs and Holladay (2013) analyzed stakeholders’ reactions to corporate messages during a crisis on different social media: the Livestrong blog and the Huffington Post online news site. 政They治monitored and categorized stakeholders’. 大. or neutral comments). Findings showed that. 學. ‧ 國. online comments (positive,. 立 negative. “monitoring reactions of stakeholders can reveal how individuals can act as crisis. ‧. communications in social media messages can serve as barometers the effectiveness of an. y. Nat. er. io. sit. organization’s crisis response.” It is also demonstrated that analyzing multiple social media. n. is needed because of supportive astakeholder influence. i v Hence, the importance of the l. n i U e h n c g emotions of Samsung customers can clearly determine the efficiency of Samsung’s strategies. Ch. in France and in the United States. This leads us to the RQ1.1: “How did Samsung customers react in France?” and RQ1.2: “How did Samsung customers react in USA?” We expect that different stage of the crisis would lead to different emotion and reactions from Samsung customers.. 2.7 Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Theory Global brands can’t deal with a crisis the same way everywhere in the world: some adaptations need to be made according to the country targeted for crisis healing (Hofstede, 1993).. 19.

(28) Hofstede developed the main theory in the intercultural communication field in the 1990’s. This theory is constantly revised and updated according to different evolution and empirical research. Hofstede considers that culture is the mental software of humans; meaning culture plays an important role in the way we feel, think and act. Culture is embedded in families, school, workplace and ourselves. This theory also claims that cultures can be different from nations and regions Values are the deepest level of culture manifestations: these are the core of cultures and may change from a country to another. Then, rituals, heroes and symbols are part of the practices that are easier to understand and to observe as individuals.. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Hofstede elaborated dimensions to help individuals and corporations understand the differences that may exist between nations. Indeed, cultural differences can lead to conflicts. ‧. sit. y. Nat. and misunderstanding; so this theory gives insights to help us overcome and better. er. io. understand each other. This theory can be used for intercultural communication and. n. a. v. cooperation, but is also designed forl corporations. Corporations need to communicate with ni C. hengchi U. their stakeholders, who are mainly their customers. When it happens to be a global brand such as Samsung, it is very important to adapt the message to the target. According to the theory, people from different cultures would feel, think and act differently. Consequently, the message should be adapted to the nations in question. This theory is divided into six dimensions: The first dimension is Power Distance Index (PDI), which is to what extent people can accept inequalities. Some people in a society would strive to get a fair distribution of power while other people from a different society would accept their place without further explanations. For instance, the French society, compared to the US society, better accepts. 20.

(29) inequalities and gives more importance to hierarchy. They depend more on their parents, teachers and superiors than American people. The second dimension is Individualism versus Collectivism (IDV) refers to the social network. People who tend to only take care of themselves and their families are on the individualism side. However, people who can rely on their relatives or a certain in-group to take care of them with a very high loyalty are on the collectivistic side. The French people tend to take care of oneself and one’s family. The French need a strong leadership during a crisis but also to give a voice to the weaker communities. They strictly separate their professional and private life. In the American society, the individualism index is even higher, meaning that their customer service is very important, as customer is the only priority. 治. 政. 大. However, in France, employees expect 立 respect from the customer.. ‧ 國. 學. The third dimension is Masculinity versus Femininity (MAS). A society that seeks for. ‧. rewards for success and is more competitive would be on the masculinity side. Femininity. y. Nat. er. io. sit. side would encompass modesty, cooperation and solidarity. As there is welfare system and. n. importance given to quality of life,a lFrench society is slightly i v feminine. Managers are less. n i U e h n c g paid than the power distance score would suggest. American society is much more masculine. Ch. as it tends to give rewards to success and is more competitive. The fourth dimension is Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), which is how a society reacts to the unpredictable future. In other words, to which extent a society can accept uncertainty and ambiguity. A high UAI stands for a society that has for strong codes of belief and intolerance to different behaviour and ideas from the society standard. A low UAI would mean that a society prefers practices to principles and is more relaxed. French society has a very high score on uncertainty avoidance. Structures and rules are very important and surprises are not welcomed. American people are more relaxed and better to accept changes.. 21.

(30) The fifth dimension is Long Term Orientation versus Short Term Normative Orientation. A low score would represent a society that is suspicious towards changes and very attached to traditions and norms. Those with a high score are more pragmatic with modern education. French society is more pragmatic than the American society as French people believe that truth depends on situation, context and time. They tend to save and invest more as well. The sixth and last dimension is Indulgence versus Restraint or, a society that would allow free gratification for fun and enjoying life, versus a society that would restrain and regulate free gratification. French society is less open to free gratification than American society. France doesn’t have very high happiness治 indices either. The next figure 6 shows to. 政. 大. what extent the French and American 立cultures differentiate from each other.. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 1 – Comparison France and USA through Cultural Dimensions Theory (Hofstede). ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. This comparison shows four main differences between French and American cultures. First, Power Distance is much higher in France, meaning that French people need more leadership and have a strong hierarchy system whereas the USA has a more equal system and themselves. This can explain why Individualism is higher in the USA than in France as Americans rely more on themselves and their relatives: the idea of the “self-made man” is. 22.

(31) fairly strong. Third, Uncertainty Avoidance is also a major difference as explained earlier: French people don’t like surprises, unstable situations and/or future while American society seems to better accept changes and instability. This can also explain why French people have a higher Long-term Orientation and American a much lower rate: French need stability and so plan as much as they can for their future. This research aims to find out and explain potential differences in the way Samsung handled the crisis in France and in USA. Indeed, both France and the USA Facebook pages will be analyzed in order to determine whether Samsung applied different strategies in these countries. Moreover, customers’ reactions will also be analyzed to determine if French and American people perceived the crisis differently.治 The potential differences in the results may. 政. 大. be explained through Hofstede’s Cultural 立 Dimensions Theory.. ‧ 國. 學. Besides Hofstede’s theory, a research conducted by Zhu (2017) examined how. ‧. McDonald’s and KFC used social media to solver their 2012 crisis in China. This study. y. Nat. er. io. sit. demonstrated that when marketers chose their crisis response strategies, they also should take. n. al cultural differences into account. Moreover, the use of specific i v response strategies, such as. n i U e h n c g apology, has different impact across cultures. KFC and McDonald’s faced similar crisis. Ch. concerning their food safety and hygiene. However, they handled the crisis in different ways. KFC did not apologize right away and tried to minimize the facts and justified their chicken production. KFC got caught into a bigger crisis as netizens were unsatisfied with KFC’s answers. KFC ended up apologizing to their customers few months later. However, McDonald’s, when facing their crisis, reacted within the next thirty minutes and provided an apology within the next hour and a half. Their customers were very satisfied and ended up supporting even more McDonald’s, attacking the original source of the crisis’ creation: CCTV. Despite the fact that KFC and McDonald’s both used SCCT strategies that have been proven correct, KFC didn’t take the local and cultural environment in China. In collectivistic. 23.

(32) societies, such as China or Japan, public apologies are often avoided as it can make the company “lose face”. McDonald’s decided to surpass Chinese expectations and to use apology strategy. That was a success: analysing and knowing the local market can help a company apply the best strategy during a crisis. Finally, the role of social media should be contextualized according to the targeted culture. As Zhu stated: “The study urges scholars and practitioners to consider the local and cultural contexts in which crises evolve in order to develop effective crisis communication strategies and responses”. This current study aims to find out more about the implications of cross-cultural impacts in the crisis communication field. This study also aims to show the necessity of combining SCCT response strategies with Cultural Dimensions Theory to better understand the local stakeholders during a crisis, and so to more efficiently solve the crisis.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Hypothesis 2: Power Distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. dimensions played a role in the way Samsung handled the crisis in France and in the USA.. Ch. engchi. 24. i Un. v.

(33) . Chapter Three – Research Methodology This study aims to analyze and understand the strategies of crisis management used by Samsung during the crisis involving the Galaxy Note 7 (GN7). This issue is now famous among the French population and worldwide since Samsung faced this crisis globally. This study aims to understand the process of Samsung’s crisis solving through different phases. This research selects the case study as the major research methodology. Indeed, as Eisenhardt (1989) defined case studies: “The case study is a research strategy which focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings”. He also added: “case studies can employ an embedded design, that is, multiple levels of analysis within a single study”.. 政治. This research will analyze the multiple changes of strategies 大 applied by Samsung during the. 立. ‧ 國. 學. GN7 crisis. Case studies combine qualitative and quantitative data collection in order to get insights and confirm hypothesis or answer to research questions. This study uses this method. er. io. sit. y. ‧. Nat. to analyze Samsung’s strategies and customer’s reactions.. 3.1 Analysis of Samsung’s strategies a. n. iv l C n hengchi U The first step is to know when and how Samsung reacted to the crisis in France.. Coomb’s Situational Crisis Communication Theory is used in order to analyze the different phases of the crisis according to the crisis timeline. All the official Facebook posts that have been published by Samsung from August 1, to October 18, 2016 on the official Samsung Facebook. Page. in. France. (Samsung. France:. 2,315,223 fans) are analyzed through this method. During this period, Samsung posted 56 posts on their official Samsung France Facebook Page: 12 posts were related to the GN7. 7 posts were published during the pre-crisis stage (August 1-23, 2016); 4 posts were published during the crisis (August 24, to October 13, 2016) and 1 post was published during the postcrisis stage (October 14). Each post was analyzed through SCCT: each sentence was. 25.

(34) categorized according to the different responses proposed by Coombs, with special attention paid to the wording chosen by Samsung. The different potential responses were as followed: Attack the accuser, Denial, Excuse, Victimization, Justification, Ingratiation, Corrective Action, and Full Apology. A table will categorize each post and SCCT category: every response strategy will be counted in this table. According to the position that the company adopted through the SCCT, we will be able to see if the solutions employed by Samsung are matching with the solutions recommended by Coombs or if they opted for something different. The analysis will be separated according to the different phases of the crisis that Samsung faced (as shown in a timeline). However, the pre-crisis isn’t part of治 the SCCT, only the crisis itself will be. 政. 大. analyzed through this method. The立 pre-crisis corresponds to the pre-launching of the GN7. ‧ 國. 學. (Facebook posts): when Samsung teased their audience with unboxing video or pictures of. ‧. the smartphone before its official release date. To analyze the pre-crisis period can help us. sit. n. al. er. io. emotions.. y. Nat. understand the evolution of the crisis once it appeared as well as the evolution of customer. Ch. i. e. i Un. v. n g c hFacebook comments addressed to their The second part is to analyze Samsung’s customers on their official Samsung France page in order to verify to the Hypothesis 1: Samsung used Rebuilding Strategy in France and in the USA but to different extent. The same method will be used to analyze Samsung’s American Facebook Page (Samsung Mobile USA). The timeline for the USA is August 1, to November 10, 2016 (the last Samsung official post date). One should note that no teaser posts or revealing GN7 posts have been found on Samsung Mobile USA. The first post that involves GN7 has been posted on September 6, which corresponds to crisis phase 1. It is impossible to say if Samsung did not tease or reveal. 26.

(35) the product before its official release date or if they deleted every one of these pre-crisis posts during or after the crisis. In total, 6 posts were published during the crisis (August 24, to October 13, 2016) and 1 post was published during the post-crisis stage (October 14). An analysis of the posts during the period to verify the Hypothesis 1: Samsung used Rebuilding Strategy in France and in the USA but to different extent.. 3.2 Comments analysis Furthermore, all the Facebook comments written by the customers on the official Samsung France Page from August 1, to October 18, 2016 will be checked and categorized to. 政治大 see how people reacted at different stage of the crisis. Indeed, an emotion classification has 立 ‧ 國. 學. been adapted from Lynette M. McDonald (2010) original classification: anger, outrage,. ‧. disappointment, satisfaction, anxiety, sympathy, enthusiasm, off topic and neutral. Each. sit. y. Nat. comment will be organized, analyzed and counted in a table through these emotions spectrum.. n. al. er. io. This analysis represents 1548 comments. In addition to, the “Likes” details will be checked. iv. Ch as well in order to see if people were supporting or rejecting U n Samsung’s attempts to solve the. engchi. issue. The amount of positive feedback from the people will inform us about the efficiency Samsung’s crisis management. This should answer to the RQ1.1: “How did Samsung customers react in France?” A slightly different method will be used for Samsung Mobile USA. Indeed, due to the overwhelming number of comments (over 40,000 comments), the sampling method from Lawrence Neuman (2002) will be used: “A small set of cases a researcher selects from a large pool and generalizes to the population.” This very high number of comments is explained by the number of Samsung Mobile USA fans: 25,560,757 fans. Lawrence Neuman also affirmed: “For large populations, data from a well-designed, carefully executed. 27.

(36) probability sample are often equally if not more accurate than trying to reach every case in the population.” Indeed, a probability sample of a small amount of people has “a very tiny and known error rate”, but if the population is very large, “systematic errors will slip in unless we take extraordinary efforts and expend huge amounts of time and money”. Therefore, the sampling method seems to be the most relevant process to adopt in this study. He stated that if the population is less than a thousand, a sample of 30% is accepted; if the population is larger than ten thousand, then 10% is enough; finally if the population is larger than fifteen thousand, a sample of 1% is acceptable. Given that, a sampling frame can be made from the comments on Samsung Mobile USA page. For each post on the American Facebook Page, the required number of comments will be as follows:. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Table 3 – Total of comments under each post with the number of analyzed comments Number of analyzed comments. 6th September. 853 comments. 10th September. l C 1,900 comments. i v (30% comments analyzed) 300 n U. 16th September. 22,929 comments. 229 (1% comments analyzed). 23rd September. 1,923 comments. 300 (30% comments analyzed). 15th October. 2,682 comments. 300 (30% comments analyzed). 10th November. 17,757 comments. 177 (1% comments analyzed). y. ‧. Original number of comments. Nat. Date. er. io. sit. 300 (30% comments analyzed). n. a. hengchi. Furthermore, the earlier comments will be first analyzed. The pretest done on the post published on September 10, 2016 showed that the peak number of comments happened just after the publication date. The total comments that will be analyzed is 1,606.. 28.

(37) This method should answer the RQ1.2: “How did Samsung customers react in the USA?”. 3.3 France and United States comparison In the last part, this study aims to analyze the potential differences found in the way Samsung handled the situation in France and in the USA. Both results from France and the USA will be compared, meaning that Samsung posts and customer reactions will be contrasted. The potential differences found would be explained using the Cultural Dimensions Theory from Hofstede. It is assumed that cultural differences between France and the USA should not only have impacted the way Samsung handled the situation but also. 治. have influenced customers’ reactions 政 in both countries. 大 This step should verify the. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Hypothesis 2: Power Distance, Individualism vs Collectivism, Uncertainty Avoidance dimensions played a role in the way Samsung handled the crisis in France and in the USA.. ‧. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Ch. engchi. 29. i Un. v.

(38) . Chapter Four: Research Findings In order to better display the findings, the following part sums up the different steps of the Samsung Galaxy note 7 crisis. For further details, a timeline is available in the Appendix section of this paper. The crisis was separated into three categories: pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis. The pre-crisis started on August 2, 2016 when Samsung announced the upcoming launch of the Galaxy Note 7. Different dates marked the sales opening in different countries. The pre-order started on August 16, 2016 in France. It was on sales on August 19, 2016 in the USA. Hence the timelines for France and the USA are quite similar.. 政治大 The crisis is divided in 5 phases. 立 Phase 1 started with the first damaged GN7 found in ‧ 國. 學. Baidu on August 24, 2016. Many burned GN7 were shared online, which led Samsung to. ‧. delay the delivery in France at the beginning of September. This period was also the opening. sit. n. al. er. io. for Samsung customers.. y. Nat. of GN7 sales in France. This phase 1 ended with the announcement of the Exchange Program. i Un. Ch. v. i n g c hAviation Phase 2 started with the American e Federal Administration who encouraged people not to turn on the GN7 in-flight. The American Consumer Commission followed the FAA on September 9, and asked Samsung’s consumers not to use the GN7 anymore. The next day, Air France forbade their passengers to bring GN7 on their flights. Phase 2 ended with a 7% stock market decrease for Samsung on September 12. Phase 3 started with the launch of the Exchange Program, initially 1 million devices were called back. On September 19, the Exchange Program was applied worldwide. The new certified safe GN7 was ready for the US market on September 21.. 30.

(39) Phase 4 started with the failure of the Exchange Program. Newly certified safe GN7 were also burning. Another wave of burning GN7 spread all over the Internet. On October 9, AT&T USA and German T-Mobile stopped replacing the smartphones. The end of the GN7 production defines phase 5. On October 11, Samsung officially announced the end of the production and asked people not to use their GN7 anymore. On October 14, Samsung had lost 8% of their stock market. This is the post-crisis period. The end of the GN7 crisis was also the beginning of another one as Samsung lost their trial against Apple for a patent issue.. 4.1 Samsung in France. 政治大. Overall, Samsung France focused 立 its response strategy on Corrective Action (5 posts. ‧ 國. 學. and 44 comments). Indeed, Samsung community managers published posts only when they. ‧. were able to provide a solution to their customers: the exchange program. They mainly. Nat. io. sit. y. informed their customers about the exchange program opening and customer service access.. n. al. er. However, if the posts are classified by dates, following the crisis timeline table, we can. Ch. en observe that the strategies have changed (see Table g c h7).i. i Un. v. Table 4 – Samsung overall use of SCCT in France SCCT OVERALL 24th August to 18th October. Total: Samsung comment Total Responses Strategies. answer 48. Attack the accuser. 0. 0. Denial. 0. 0. Excuse. 0. 0. 31.

(40) Victimization. 0. 0. Justification. 2. 0. Ingratiation. 2. 10. Corrective action. 5. 44. Full apology. 0. 0. Here is Samsung’s first publication about the GN7 issue. Combinations of strategies have been used.. 政治大 th Figure 2 – Samsung France’s first post 立 about GN7 crisis (6 September 2016): crisis phase 1 ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. This first post shows that the crisis management can be using different strategies at the same time. Samsung decided to use Justification: “This [exchange] program is following. 32.

(41) the recent decision made to suspend Galaxy Note 7 sales after that a few isolated incidents related to the battery have been identified.” Then, Samsung reminds people about their main brand value: security. Hence, they used Ingratiation next: “Indeed, Samsung considers its consumers’ security to be an absolute priority”. “[…], But this exchange program allows us to continue to offer the best quality products to our consumers”. Samsung also used Corrective Action, as the goal of this post is to announce the Exchange Program and customer service access. Hence, Samsung decided to use different strategies at the same time and to different degrees. The second post (September 10), during crisis phase 2, uses the same strategies but they ask people to turn off their GN7 and not to charge it. Then, like in the first post, they invite people to call the customer service and to apply for the Exchange. 政治大 Program. The next figure shows the third post of Samsung France. 立 ‧ 國. 學. Figure 3– Samsung’s third post about GN7 crisis (21th September 2016): crisis phase 3. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. From this third post on, Samsung shifted their strategy and decided to only apply Corrective Action. Indeed, this short post only asks people to apply for the Exchange Program. However, Samsung remained very silent on their French Facebook Page during the Phase 4 of the crisis. Samsung decided not to publish any post about the failure of the Exchange Program as the new GN7 had battery issues as well. The next post was only published on October 13, during crisis phase 5. It simply reminds people to save their data, turn the GN7 off and not to charge it, with a link to Samsung website for the Exchange. 33.

(42) Program. The last post is also informative and part of the Corrective Action as Samsung informs their customers about the airline companies decision: from now on, the GN7 will be forbidden on board in the USA and on Air France flights.. Samsung did not only publish posts on their French Facebook Page, but they still answered to some comments from their customers (48 answers). The post and the comment contents are similar; the comments also use the Corrective Action strategy with a few combined with Ingratiation strategy. The following figure gives an example of an official answer of Samsung to their customers.. 政治. Figure 4 – Samsung’s answer (September 24, 2016) to a大 customer question (September 22,. 立. 2016). ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i Un. v. Samsung answered specifically to a few customers using Corrective Action and invited them to apply for the Exchange Program; Samsung would tag the name of the person and give them a customized answer according to their problem with a link for more information. Here is another example of Samsung’s official comments.. 34.