The Crisis Management of the Samsung Note 7 Explosion: a Study Based on Public Reception

Lai, Siaw Yien (2018) The Crisis Management of the Samsung Note 7 Explosion: a Study Based on Public Reception. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

This study is about “The crisis management of the Samsung Note 7 Explosion: A study based on public perception. The study was carried out because the latest smartphone product, the Samsung Note 7 explosion, poses a huge corporate image threat. Thereby, Samsung had made a global recall of 2.5 million Note 7 phones due to battery problems (Wiggers 2017). As Samsung Company announced the global recall, the incident raised concerns among stakeholders about Samsung’s practices and product quality (Dejene 2017, p. 6). Through the study of Samsung Note 7 explosion, this case study analysed how the brand integrated two important crisis communication theories, Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Image Restoration Theory (IRT). Therefore, this study aims to find out whether or not the public sentiment about Samsung crisis management on social media and the effort done by Samsung during the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 crisis. An online survey has been chosen to distribute to publics in the Klang Valley. The survey collected 185 respondent; 94 male and 91 female among aged 21 – 31. The result had concluded that Generation Y has not affected by Samsung Note 7 explosion. This can be explained Samsung’s reputation has not been affected. Thus, stakeholders have been forgiving Samsung and are willing to buy Samsung’s products in the future. Additionally, Generation Y has accepted Samsung company crisis management strategy. It has been concluded that Generation Y are agreeing Samsung actions shows that the company has taken the full responsibility and immediately resolve the crisis. The company has done the right thing by implementing product recall procedures to correct their mistakes. Furthermore, future study should focus more on the involvement of the public with regards to a crisis in order to provide a profound framework. This framework can be used by organization, college students and educator have well understanding on crisis management.