Nike Ethics Case Study
Ethics
For Nike, labor and human rights continues to be a top priority and corporate concern. Ethics is essential in crisis communication. Nike’s sweatshop labor crisis demonstrates the importance of ethics. To defend its practices and public reputation during this crisis, Nike responded to allegations in ethical ways, employing truthfulness and transparency, disclosing their corporate social responsibility statements, including a fair employee treatment and a labor report, and commissioning external investigations for the company’s foreign workers (Kim, 2015). Nike’s response is an example of “contingency thinking” (Schermerhorn et al., 2012) and resulted in the company developing its own code of conduct. Eventually, Nike’s ethical …show more content…
The competitor gaining the most ground is Under Armour, though “Nike continues to have a more attractive valuation than Under Armour (Keulen, 2014).” Similar to Nike, the Under Armour Company is aggressively pursuing profitable sponsorship deals, giving them a rising portion of market revenue. Nike makes more than 10 times the revenue of Under Armour, but the brand frequently find themselves squabbling over endorsement deals and sponsorship (Goodkind, 2014). “Under Armour has also grabbed Adidas’ spot as the second-largest sporting brand in the United States with Nike being ranked number one (Goodkind, 2014).” But despite this new rank and a predicted revenue growth of 20% each of the next five years, Under Armour finds its total annual revenue to be the equivalent of Nike’s advertising budget (Goodkind, …show more content…
In 2011, “Adidas’ revenues amounted to $17.42 billion, while Nike leads with $21.77 billion (Barth, 2012).” Historically, Reebok, owned by Adidas, has been one of Nike’s top brand name competitors. Nike gained a large advantage over their opponent when the company took over as the NFL's exclusive maker of on-field apparel, including the players’ footwear. Nike’s new deal took effect in April of 2012, when NFL owners approved a five year exclusive uniform apparel deal with Nike. The New York Times reported that the Reebok/NFL 10 year contract “was originally worth at least $250 million to the league,” and it has most likely appreciated in value over the past decade (Barth, 2012). In an interview, retired President of Nike brand, Charlie Denson, stated, “Partnering with the NFL really puts us in a position where we can continue to fuel the growth in the United States (Bloomsburg,
For Nike, labor and human rights continues to be a top priority and corporate concern. Ethics is essential in crisis communication. Nike’s sweatshop labor crisis demonstrates the importance of ethics. To defend its practices and public reputation during this crisis, Nike responded to allegations in ethical ways, employing truthfulness and transparency, disclosing their corporate social responsibility statements, including a fair employee treatment and a labor report, and commissioning external investigations for the company’s foreign workers (Kim, 2015). Nike’s response is an example of “contingency thinking” (Schermerhorn et al., 2012) and resulted in the company developing its own code of conduct. Eventually, Nike’s ethical …show more content…
The competitor gaining the most ground is Under Armour, though “Nike continues to have a more attractive valuation than Under Armour (Keulen, 2014).” Similar to Nike, the Under Armour Company is aggressively pursuing profitable sponsorship deals, giving them a rising portion of market revenue. Nike makes more than 10 times the revenue of Under Armour, but the brand frequently find themselves squabbling over endorsement deals and sponsorship (Goodkind, 2014). “Under Armour has also grabbed Adidas’ spot as the second-largest sporting brand in the United States with Nike being ranked number one (Goodkind, 2014).” But despite this new rank and a predicted revenue growth of 20% each of the next five years, Under Armour finds its total annual revenue to be the equivalent of Nike’s advertising budget (Goodkind, …show more content…
In 2011, “Adidas’ revenues amounted to $17.42 billion, while Nike leads with $21.77 billion (Barth, 2012).” Historically, Reebok, owned by Adidas, has been one of Nike’s top brand name competitors. Nike gained a large advantage over their opponent when the company took over as the NFL's exclusive maker of on-field apparel, including the players’ footwear. Nike’s new deal took effect in April of 2012, when NFL owners approved a five year exclusive uniform apparel deal with Nike. The New York Times reported that the Reebok/NFL 10 year contract “was originally worth at least $250 million to the league,” and it has most likely appreciated in value over the past decade (Barth, 2012). In an interview, retired President of Nike brand, Charlie Denson, stated, “Partnering with the NFL really puts us in a position where we can continue to fuel the growth in the United States (Bloomsburg,