Page 2 of 2 Chapter Four Business Ethics and Social Responsibility: Doing Well by Doing Good Case: Zappos Employees Do More Than Sell Shoes It’s hard to imagine not being able to buy a pair of shoes online. It’s even harder to imagine not owning a pair of shoes at all. The founders and employees at Zappos are familiar with both situations. Co-founder and CEO Tony Hsieh got Zappos off the ground in 1999 when he and other investors realized that nowhere on the Internet could consumers find a real selection of shoes. You know how successful Zappos has become since then, despite subsequent competition—but you might not be aware of the company’s efforts to give back to its community, including giving shoes away to children in need. Zappos engages in social responsibility initiatives because “we feel that it’s the right thing to do,” explains Shannon Roy, the company’s Happiness Hippie (her job title). The company develops relationships with charitable organizations that are similar to those it builds with customers and vendors, looking for ways that employees can interact directly with the community through these organizations. Some of the broad areas in which Zappos offers assistance are poverty and education, cancer research and care, and pets and nature. Specific efforts include partnerships with charitable organizations, such as Goodie Two Shoes, a foundation that provides new shoes and socks to children in crisis or need. Through its Goodie Two Shoes Giveaway each year, the organization teams up with Zappos and other firms to donate and distribute thousands of footwear products to children who need them. “It’s giving back to the community,” says Shannon Roy, who adds that Zappos employees feel driven to participate. “It’s part of our being, part of our culture, it’s very inherent in what Zappos is all about.” Working at Zappos is “grander than the 9 to 5 job. It’s doing something for the greater good.” It would be easy for an online retailer like Zappos to set up shop anywhere and ignore its surroundings. But that’s not Zappos. Instead, the firm made a deal to renovate the vacant Las Vegas City Hall for $40 million, bringing about 2,000 employees to downtown Las Vegas—an area that could use an economic and social boost. CEO Tony Hsieh admits that originally he thought about building a “dream corporate campus,” much like those of Apple, Google, and Nike. But when the Las Vegas opportunity came along, Hsieh and other Zappos managers thought: “Let’s not be like the other companies. Let’s not be insular and only care about our employees. We want to help contribute and help build a community and really integrate into a community around our campus.” City officials predicted that the economic impact to the downtown area could top $336 million, bolstering real estate, health care, restaurants and hotels, retailers, and other businesses. “I think this is part of what our brand is about,” observes Matt Burchard, senior director of marketing, photo, a.

1. Page 2 of 2
Chapter Four
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility: Doing Well by
Doing Good
Case: Zappos Employees Do More Than Sell Shoes
It’s hard to imagine not being able to buy a pair of shoes online.
It’s even harder to imagine not owning a pair of shoes at all.
The founders and employees at Zappos are familiar with both
situations. Co-founder and CEO Tony Hsieh got Zappos off the
ground in 1999 when he and other investors realized that
nowhere on the Internet could consumers find a real selection of
shoes. You know how successful Zappos has become since then,
despite subsequent competition—but you might not be aware of
the company’s efforts to give back to its community, including
giving shoes away to children in need.
Zappos engages in social responsibility initiatives because “we
feel that it’s the right thing to do,” explains Shannon Roy, the
company’s Happiness Hippie (her job title). The company
develops relationships with charitable organizations that are
similar to those it builds with customers and vendors, looking
for ways that employees can interact directly with the
community through these organizations. Some of the broad
areas in which Zappos offers assistance are poverty and
education, cancer research and care, and pets and nature.
Specific efforts include partnerships with charitable
organizations, such as Goodie Two Shoes, a foundation that
provides new shoes and socks to children in crisis or need.
Through its Goodie Two Shoes Giveaway each year, the
organization teams up with Zappos and other firms to donate
and distribute thousands of footwear products to children who
need them. “It’s giving back to the community,” says Shannon

2. Roy, who adds that Zappos employees feel driven to participate.
“It’s part of our being, part of our culture, it’s very inherent in
what Zappos is all about.” Working at Zappos is “grander than
the 9 to 5 job. It’s doing something for the greater good.”
It would be easy for an online retailer like Zappos to set up
shop anywhere and ignore its surroundings. But that’s not
Zappos. Instead, the firm made a deal to renovate the vacant Las
Vegas City Hall for $40 million, bringing about 2,000
employees to downtown Las Vegas—an area that could use an
economic and social boost. CEO Tony Hsieh admits that
originally he thought about building a “dream corporate
campus,” much like those of Apple, Google, and Nike. But
when the Las Vegas opportunity came along, Hsieh and other
Zappos managers thought: “Let’s not be like the other
companies. Let’s not be insular and only care about our
employees. We want to help contribute and help build a
community and really integrate into a community around our
campus.” City officials predicted that the economic impact to
the downtown area could top $336 million, bolstering real
estate, health care, restaurants and hotels, retailers, and other
businesses. “I think this is part of what our brand is about,”
observes Matt Burchard, senior director of marketing, photo,
and video. “We’ve added a core tenet of what we stand for, and
that’s community.”
Burchard notes that Zappos is committed to investing in things
beyond its core business, like the infrastructure of downtown
Las Vegas. Recently, The Downtown Project (founded by Hsieh
and others) partnered with Venture for America to attract new
college graduates for two-year stints to help startup businesses
get off the ground in Las Vegas. In addition, The Downtown
Project has bought up Las Vegas properties, such as an old
Motel 6, a 7-Eleven building, and numerous condominiums for
demolition or renovation. The idea is to revitalize the entire
area—both economically and socially.
Zappos fulfills the four levels of the social responsibility

3. pyramid: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. The
company is stable and profitable, giving it a solid platform from
which to launch social responsibility initiatives. It operates with
a strong legal and ethical base. Recently, when Zappos became
the target of a cyber attack that gained access to its internal
network (and the accounts of 24 million users), the firm acted
fast, putting nearly every employee to work assisting in its
response to the breach. Even though the breach did not reach
complete credit card numbers or other critical data, the
company notified its customers and reset all of their passwords.
Zappos also warned customers to be on the lookout for phishing
emails and other scams. Finally, Zappos is generous in its
philanthropic efforts, donating money, shoes, and employee
time to its various causes. “We don’t overanalyze it,” says Rob
Siefker, director of the customer loyalty team. “We just know
who we are and who we want to be. We act on that.
Sources: Company website, www.zappos.com, accessed June 27,
2012; Goodie Two Shoes Foundation, www.goodietwoshoes.org,
accessed June 27, 2012; Joe Schoenmann, “Zappos CEO Buys
Motel, Strikes Deal to Bring Young Talent Downtown,” Las
Vegas Sun, March 27, 2012, www.lasvegassun.com; Dave
Toplikar, “Las Vegas City Council Approves Final Deal
Bringing Zappos Downtown,” Las Vegas Sun, February 1, 2012,
www.lasvegassun.com; “100 Best Companies to Work For,”
CNN Money, January 19, 2012, http://money.cnn.com; Andy
Greenberg, “Zappos Says Hackers Accessed 24 Million
Customers’ Account Details,” Forbes, January 15, 2012,
www.forbes.com.
© Cengage Learning
Critical Thinking Questions
Using information from the case, answer the following
questions (1 & 2). (Be sure you read and understand the
concepts in Chapters 3 & 4 to answer the following questions.)
1. Briefly explain how Zappos has implemented social

4. responsibility programs into its business. (Include at least a 50-
word response)
2. How have charitable giving and volunteer engagement
programs helped Zappos foster social responsibility? (Include at
least a 100-word response)
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be
scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible
website, in whole or in part.
Application: Can You Use Persuasion or Social Influence to
Change Prejudice or Stereotyping?
Given all you know about how to change people at this point in
the course, can you apply your knowledge to tackle one of the
most important and difficult problems in society? The goal of
this final Application Assignment is for you to think of creative
new ways to use social influence and persuasion processes to
change the negative attitudes, beliefs, and behavior that that
underlie intergroup conflict.
To prepare for this assignment:
Review Chapters 4, 5, 7 and 11 in the course text, and think
about the various ways that people are motivated to change their
behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, etc.
Then think about ways of using a foot-in-the-door and door-in-
the-face strategy to facilitate positive behavior toward a
disliked group.
Consider what behavior you would like to encourage and the
steps necessary to initiate change.

5. Now consider how you might use cognitive dissonance to
change negative attitudes towards a stigmatized group. Then
think about using the induced compliance and/or justification of
effort procedure strategies to motive change.
Lastly, create and describe a persuasive message to promote
appreciation of multicultural diversity. Think about the
audience, the use of central route to persuasion, and three
strong arguments you could use to promote appreciation of
diversity.
The assignment (1–3 pages):
Create and describe a foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face
strategy that can facilitate a positive behavior toward a disliked
group. After you identify the group and the target behavior,
explain whom you would try to change and what steps would be
necessary to initiate commitment or reciprocity processes. Do
you think this would lead to long-term change? Why or why
not?
Use cognitive dissonance to change negative attitudes towards a
stigmatized group. First identify and briefly describe the
stigmatized group and the negative attitudes that your audience
holds toward them. Then, using either an induced compliance or
justification of effort procedure, explain how you would get
your target audience to commit a discrepant act that would
cause dissonance. Then explain how you would provide the
means to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes toward
the stigmatized group.
Create and describe a persuasive message designed to promote
the appreciation of multicultural diversity. Identify the audience
and, in order to use the central route to persuasion, explain how
you would motivate them and provide the ability to process your
message. Identify three strong arguments you would use to
persuade them to appreciate multicultural diversity. Finally,

6. assuming some people in the audience may not be motivated or
have the ability to process the arguments, describe a positive
source cue that you would include to influence these audience
members through the peripheral route.
Support your Application Assignment with specific references
to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to
provide a reference list only for those resources not included in
the Learning Resources for this course.
Submit your assignment by Day 7.
Reading
Course Text: Persuasion: Psychological Insights and
Perspectives
Chapter 11, "Changing Prejudice" (pp. 249–280)