The Nestlé Infant Formula Controversy and a Strange Web of Subsequent Business Scandals |
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Authors: | Colin Boyd |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Management and Marketing, Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, 25 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A7, Canada |
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Abstract: | The marketing of infant formula in third-world countries in the 1970s by Nestlé S.A. gave rise to a consumer boycott that
came to be a widely taught case study in the field of Business Ethics. This article extends that case study by identifying
three specific individuals who were associated with managing Nestlé’s response to that boycott. It reveals their subsequent
direct involvement in a number of additional “classic” 1980s business scandals (some of which ended with major criminal trials
and the imprisonment of eminent business figures)—and describes tangential linkages to other business scandals of the time.
The article discloses a behind-the-scenes pattern of business villainy, adding both depth and breadth to previous accounts
of these scandals. The article offers a conceptual framework that goes beyond personal greed as an explanatory factor for
such unethical behavior in the business world, suggesting the presence of personal and organizational networks of intrigue
and opportunity. The linkages between the scandals suggest an epidemiological process with the plotters acting as “virus”
carriers contaminating various corporate cultures. |
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