This website uses technical, customisation and analytical cookies, both first-party and third-party, to anonymously facilitate browsing and analyse statistics on use of the website. Learn more
The Dragonfly Project
Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Information Technologies, Knowledge and Communication
English , Spanish
-
Reference: DPO-783-E
-
Year: 2018
-
Number of pages: 6
-
Geographic Setting: China, Estados Unidos
-
Publication Date: Sep 20, 2022
-
Source: IESE (España)
-
Type of Document: Case
Description
In 2010, Google decided to suspend the version of its search engine that was operating in China, due to accusations of collusion with an authoritarian government, which censored searches based on ideological and political criteria.
Eight years later, the American company - which had changed its name to Alphabet - began secret negotiations with the Chinese government, to return with a government-approved version known as the "Dragonfly Project." To avoid interference, the tech company hid this project even from its workers. But in 2018, after a leak revealed its existence, employees began to push for the project to be cancelled as being in contravention of human rights.
This case requires participants to take one of three positions of various stakeholders involved, and prepare a persuasive public intervention.
Learning Objective
The case - which is in the form of a simulation - provides the necessary elements for a class discussion the non-market strategy that companies must have in relation to each of their stakeholders; the connection between corporate purpose and internal and external communication; and the impact that international problems can have on companies.
The case also serves as an exercise in communication skills: how to choose appropriate arguments in the midst of controversy, and how to prepare public interventions in a multilateral context (the communicative version of a multilateral negotiation).
Related Documents
- The Dragonfly Project: Team A: Google Executive Committee (Pichai's team)
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo A: Comité de Dirección de Google (equipo de Pichai)
- The Dragonfly Project: Team B: The US Regulators (the Government, Congress and Senate)
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo B: Organismos reguladores de EE.UU. (Gobierno, Congreso y Senado)
- The Dragonfly Project: Team C: Google Employees
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo C: Empleados de Google
- The Dragonfly Project: Team D: Shareholders and Financial Analysts
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo D: Accionistas y analistas financieros
- The Dragonfly Project: Team E: NGOs for Freedom of Speech
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo E: ONG defensoras de la libertad de expresión
- The Dragonfly Project: Team F: American Companies Using Google as Their Business Platform
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo F: Empresas norteamericanas que utilizan Google como plataforma de negocios
- The Dragonfly Project: Team G: The Chinese Embassy to the United States
- El proyecto Dragonfly: equipo G: Embajada china en Estados Unidos