Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation

By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:38
ShareBar

Abstract

This case examines the influence of political pressure on corporate decision-making. It questions whether fidelity to domestic operations ought to be a corporate social responsibility, and thus it challenges the limits of “social responsibility” as a corporate ideal. Specifically, the case focuses on Donald Trump’s effort to encourage U.S. companies’ domestic operations, through a study of one company’s decision to backtrack on a factory relocation plan. In February 2016, the Carrier Corporation (a maker of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment and a division of United Technologies Corporation) announced a plan to relocate operations of a furnace factory from the United States to Mexico. The case notes that Carrier began to outsource and offshore operations, in an effort to reduce costs, around 1921. While Carrier’s previous United States factory closures had garnered major press coverage, the 2016 announcement ramified differently. Days later, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump referenced the relocation in a Facebook post. Soon, Carrier’s plan became a touchtone to Trump’s anti-globalization and anti-free trade campaign messaging. The case documents that he was not the only candidate or politician to reference Carrier during the 2016 campaign. Still his declaration to “call up the head of Carrier” upon winning the presidency became a stump-speech refrain popular with his audiences and contrasted with other political figures’ more measured language. Ultimately, the case outlines the events set in motion after Trump kept his campaign promise and called Carrier’s parent company’s CEO one week after his surprise presidential election victory.

Keywords

Corporate Social Responsibility; Board Decisions; Political Influence; Layoffs; Offshoring And Outsourcing; Manufacturing; United States; Mexico; Governing and Advisory Boards; Decision Making; Job Cuts and Outsourcing; Political Elections; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Governance; Technology Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Connecticut; Indiana; Mexico

Citation

Zelleke, Andy, and Brian Tilley. "Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation." Harvard Business School Case 318-030, July 2017. (Revised September 2017.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Andy Zelleke

General Management
→More Publications

Related Work

    • July 2017 (Revised September 2017)
    • Faculty Research

    Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation

    By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley
Related Work
  • Donald Trump Calls Carrier Corporation By: Andy Zelleke and Brian Tilley
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College