Complexities of Crisis Renewal Over Time: Learning from the Tainted Odwalla Apple Juice Case

This study examines the postcrisis experience of Odwalla, an organic juice and natural products company, following a 1996 E. coli outbreak. Specifically, the four consistent characteristics of renewal were observed in Odwalla's extended recovery process. These characteristics include: provisional as opposed to strategic, prospective rather than retrospective, capitalizing on the opportunities embedded in the crisis, and renewal as a leader-based communication form. The study identified Odwalla's initial success and the complexity-fraught extended recovery period that followed. Odwalla overcame these complexities with a consistent focus on renewal and an emphasis on the characteristics appropriate to meeting the extended recovery process' shifting demands.