Every line between a corporation and the outside is simultaneously a link of cooperation and getting things done for mutual benefit and a possible location for accusations and perpetration of various kinds of illegality. This lets us ask several questions: How are accusation stories, enacted through stripping, leveling, and attributing, distributed along market-based lines? Which accusations appear on which market routes with a high degree of frequency?

Several steps follow the public accusation, reflecting the concern of executives over the tarnishing of personal corporate reputations. First, the media enlarge the story, interpreting it by assimilating it to one of a few standard scenarios, which puts blame in one place or another. Second, this keeps it in the public eye, producing outrage and provoking damage control by executives. Third, the standard stories (whose elaboration will be part of our description and analysis) all tend to stick to one of a handful of templates and are variations on the theme of executives breaking promises due to their self-interest, self-dealing, and greed on the one hand, and their need to protect, defend, and justify the actions of their corporation on the other.

Market-Based Tie Number 1: Accusations of Wrongdoing In and Around the Corporation

Many intermediate accusations originate in formal and complex organizations. These may include abuses of power, abuse of trust, and business misconduct (Wheeler and Rothman 1982; Vaughan 1999, 287).