• 13 Dec 2023
• 2023

A talk about "Crisis Contagion: Guilt by Association"

Dear distinguished guests, lecturers, staff, and students,

We are delighted to invite you to join us for a talk by Dr. Daniel Laufer, Associate Professor of Marketing at Victoria University of Wellington, next Wednesday, December 13, 2023, at 10 AM. The discussion will be about Crisis Contagion: Guilt by Association and will be held in person in room B1-204.

Crisis Contagion: Guilt by Association

In many cases companies in an industry view a competitor’s misfortunes as a competitive advantage. However, this reaction may be premature. Through guilt by association, customers may link other companies in an industry to a crisis impacting a competitor, causing considerable reputational damage. Therefore, it is of great importance for companies to understand their risk of crisis contagion.

It is worth noting that the is not only relevant for companies that belong to the same industry. Guilt by association can adversely impact organizations that share the same country of origin and organizational type as well. As a result, crisis contagion can cause harm to for-profit, non-for profit and government organizations.

This presentation describes factors that cause a crisis to spill over from one organization to another (“Crisis Contagion”), and also suggests how organizations can protect themselves from crisis contagion. The presentation focuses on a conceptual framework () that examines crisis contagion.

Video on Crisis Contagion is also available here:

Daniel Laufer, Associate Professor of Marketing at Victoria University of Wellington

Dr. , PhD, MBA is an Associate Professor of Marketing, and a former head of the school of Marketing and International Business. He also served as a member of the faculty management team (2014-2017) at the Wellington School of Business and Government at Victoria University of Wellington, one of the leading universities in New Zealand. His primary area of expertise is Crisis Management, and his research focuses on crisis communications, and gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders react to crises. Before moving to New Zealand, Dan was a faculty member at leading universities in the USA, and he also taught at highly ranked business schools in Germany, South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Israel and Austria. Prior to entering academia, Dan worked as a manager at KPMG and a senior consultant at PwC in the USA. He was also the owner and founder of his own international consulting firm for which he was selected by ABC News in Houston, Texas as their "Business Person of the Week"

Dan’s published research involves data collected from consumers around the world (North America, Europe, Asia), and his articles have appeared in leading academic and managerial journals. Dan currently serves as an Associate Editor for the European Journal of Marketing, and he also serves on a number of editorial boards including Public Relations Review, Corporate Reputation Review, Business Horizons and the Journal of Non Profit and Public Sector Marketing.

Dan is a frequent commentator in leading global media outlets on topics related to Crisis Management. He served on a panel of experts for the Wall Street Journal in the USA discussing best practices in Crisis Management, and his commentary has also appeared in other major global media outlets such as the Economist, CNN, the Guardian, and the Associated Press.

Dan’s work is also of great interest to industry, and he was featured by the global consulting firm PwC as an expert on Crisis Management in their magazine in both the USA and New Zealand (2010 and 2013). Over the past few years he has taught workshops to mayors and senior government officials in New Zealand about Crisis Communications.

Registration

This talk will be of great interest to anyone who wants to learn more about crisis management, marketing, and organizational behavior. It will also provide an opportunity to interact with Professor Laufer and ask him questions about his research and expertise.

In order to make a proper arrangement, please fill out the registration form at  by Monday, December 11, 2023.

We hope to see you at the talk and look forward to your participation.