y's partners Analyzes Standard Lifespan of Major Corporate Crises in Korea Over Past 15 Years

• y's partners conducts Korea’s first lifespan analysis on 62 corporate crisis cases and finds median lifespan to be 4 months

• Crises involving moral responsibility sustain significantly longer media coverage, while presence of legal liability shows no statistical correlation

• Lifespans differ by up to 100 times depending on crisis type, from Environment and Safety at 1 month to Labor and Industrial Accidents at 112 months

y's partners, a K-Governance & Crisis response advisory firm, disclosed today on July 21 the statistical results of its analysis on how long corporate crisis issues persist in the media, based on a sample of 62 major corporate crisis cases in South Korea from 2010 to 2025.

This study represents South Korea's first attempt to apply the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis—a method typically used in medicine and engineering—to corporate reputation risk management. The firm defined the crisis lifespan as the duration from the onset of a crisis until intense national media attention subsides. Ongoing cases were treated as matters that will eventually end but have not yet, utilizing censoring data techniques to enhance analytical precision.

According to the analysis, the median lifespan during which a corporate crisis receives concentrated media coverage was identified as 4 months. This means half of the crisis situations fade from intense media spotlight within 4 months. However, lifespan varied drastically depending on the crisis type. Issues where regulatory agencies intervened to swiftly resolve the situation—such as product recalls or personal data leaks—generally subsided within 1 to 3 months. Conversely, matters involving financial crises or corporate rehabilitation dragged on for up to 22 months, while labor and industrial accident-related issues lasted up to 112 months. This extended duration occurs because recurring follow-up events, such as rehabilitation proceedings, litigation, and reinstatement struggles, create a chain reaction of ongoing coverage.

The most notable finding is that whether a crisis persists depends not on legal violations, but on moral responsibility. When comparing cases divided into those with legal liability versus those involving moral responsibility, crises involving moral responsibility generated statistically significant longer media coverage (p=0.026). In contrast, the difference based on legal liability was statistically insignificant (p=0.594). In multivariate analysis controlling for multiple variables, the probability of an issue resolving dropped to nearly half when moral responsibility was involved. This indicates that even if an issue could be settled through administrative fines or civil compensation, the moment it is framed as unfair, media attention becomes prolonged.

Actual cases support these analytical findings. Sillajen, where executive breach of trust and stock manipulation were exposed, saw continuous coverage for over two years due to the arrest and imprisonment of its CEO and the threat of delisting. Similarly, the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering affair, involving a 5 trillion KRW accounting fraud, faced long-term media tracking through executive indictments and compensation lawsuits. The Namyang Dairy agency power-trip scandal and the SsangYong Motor crisis serve as prime examples of prolonged crises due to strongly highlighted moral responsibilities. Conversely, product recall-type crises, where companies acted swiftly to identify causes and propose compensation, subsided in a short period. Cases combining structural financial crises with stakeholder damages—such as the recent large-scale settlement defaults in retail and e-commerce—are classified as long-lasting crises under the statistical model, continuing to draw media attention today.

James Choi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of y's partners, who led the research, said "Until now, Crisis response has relied solely on experience and intuition to answer the fundamental question of how long an issue will last. This analysis provides a statistical foundation for that question, empirically proving the premise that a loss of moral legitimacy prolongs a crisis far more than mere illegalities do. This will serve as a starting point for companies to move away from defensive, reactive measures, enabling them to predict a crisis's lifespan and proactively design defense strategies."

Yvonne Park Founder & CEO of y's partners said "The decisive variable determining a crisis's lifespan lies in the strategy chosen during the initial golden time. Companies must assess legal and moral risks, as well as stakeholder relationships, from multiple dimensions, rapidly designing initial response strategies and differentiated communication to shift the crisis into a controllable range. y's partners will be a trusted advisor helping companies systematically restore trust by capturing risks early and managing reputational trends through data."