This study researched the effects of negative publicity on the performance of professional baseball athletes. Four athletes’ performance statistics were evaluated before a scandal that produced negative publicity, during the height of the negative publicity and after the scrutiny tapered off. Chipper Jones, Wade Boggs, Alex Rodriguez and David Justice were the athletes chosen for the study, and all four athletes experienced a similar scandal and negative publicity about their personal and professional lives. The results showed an effect on performance, but it was not always negative and could not be definitively linked to the negative exposure in the media. This suggests that further research is needed and should be continued on a broader scale.

Abstract The use of celebrity endorsement strategy is nowadays more frequently used by marketers in order to increase their sales and thereby extend their market shares. Many celebrities are used in various marketing campaigns and in most cases; the use of celebrities as endorsers is seen from mainly positive aspects. This made the authors curious whether the negative aspects, that also exists when using celebrities as endorsers, affects consumers in their purchasing decisions when a celebrity gets associated with negative publicity. Another cause of interest is which factors of a certain celebrity are most important and crucial in consumers’ perceptions, in the case of negative publicity. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study which factors consumers find important for a company to consider when a celebrity gets negative publicity, to maintain successful brand recognition. Literature review: The use of previous studies within the field of celebrity endorsement clarifies many important aspects when it comes to celebrity endorsement and this chapter is elaborated from 4 different perspectives; Company, Celebrity, Brand and Consumer. Based on previous studies, the authors identified 6 crucial attributes when using celebrities as endorsers and this can also be seen as a pre-study that the research process has been based upon. Furthermore, the 6 attributes are chosen from the three first mentioned perspectives in order to be able to fulfil the purpose. Hence, this thesis is conducted from a consumer’s point of view. Method: A quantitative method is used in this thesis since the authors want to base the results on collected data that is expressed in numbers and also to generate a general apprehension in this phenomenon. Moreover, the combinations containing the 6 attributes are used in the conjoint experiment. Conclusions: It was proven in this study that consumers do get affected by celebrities as endorser, when the attributes from the literature review are in a combination. But, the consumers’ perception of the attributes differs in different cases. However, the main finding was that there are two crucial attributes, trustworthiness and expertise that companies should take into account when using celebrities in their advertising campaign.

<p>Abstract</p><p>The use of celebrity endorsement strategy is nowadays more frequently used by marketers in order to increase their sales and thereby extend their market shares. Many celebrities are used in various marketing campaigns and in most cases; the use of celebrities as endorsers is seen from mainly positive aspects. This made the authors curious whether the negative aspects, that also exists when using celebrities as endorsers, affects consumers in their purchasing decisions when a celebrity gets associated with negative publicity. Another cause of interest is which factors of a certain celebrity are most important and crucial in consumers’ perceptions, in the case of negative publicity.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study which factors consumers find important for a company to consider when a celebrity gets negative publicity, to maintain successful brand recognition.</p><p>Literature review: The use of previous studies within the field of celebrity endorsement clarifies many important aspects when it comes to celebrity endorsement and this chapter is elaborated from 4 different perspectives; Company, Celebrity, Brand and Consumer. Based on previous studies, the authors identified 6 crucial attributes when using celebrities as endorsers and this can also be seen as a pre-study that the research process has been based upon. Furthermore, the 6 attributes are chosen from the three first mentioned perspectives in order to be able to fulfil the purpose. Hence, this thesis is conducted from a consumer’s point of view.</p><p>Method: A quantitative method is used in this thesis since the authors want to base the results on collected data that is expressed in numbers and also to generate a general apprehension in this phenomenon. Moreover, the combinations containing the 6 attributes are used in the conjoint experiment.</p><p>Conclusions: It was proven in this study that consumers do get affected by celebrities as endorser, when the attributes from the literature review are in a combination. But, the consumers’ perception of the attributes differs in different cases. However, the main finding was that there are two crucial attributes, trustworthiness and expertise that companies should take into account when using celebrities in their advertising campaign.</p>

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to assess whether the extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes change when the consumers are exposed to negative publicity of the brand, and when exposed to a company’s response to negative publicity, differ depending on the consumers’ degree of brand loyalty and depending on how positive the consumers’ initial brand attitudes are. Design/methodology/approach: The study had a deductive research approach with a single cross-sectional descriptive and exploratory design. Archival analysis was used to collect relevant theories and to conduct the preparatory data collection through data mining, both in which secondary data was gathered. Survey was used when collecting qualitative primary data in the preparatory data collection through focus groups, and when collecting primary data in the main data collection through a questionnaire. The main data was further analyzed through a one-way ANOVA within a non-parametric Levene’s test. Findings: The extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when consumers were exposed to negative publicity of the brand differed depending on if the consumers’ initial brand attitudes were positive or negative. Consumers with negative brand attitudes had a smaller attitude change compared to consumers with positive brand attitudes, opposed to what was assumed in the current study. The extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when consumers were exposed to negative publicity of the brand did not statistically differ depending on the consumers’ degree of brand loyalty. Neither did the extent to which consumers’ brand attitudes changed when the consumers were exposed to a company’s response to negative publicity differ depending on how positive the consumers’ brand attitudes were, nor on the consumers’ degree of loyalty toward the brand. Research limitations/suggestions for future research: The information concerning the negative event and the company’s response strategy was very concentrated in the questionnaire. In real life, consumers would have had different perceptions of both the event and the response since some parts require consumers to actively search for information. Hence, suggestion for future research is to measure the attitude changes where the consumers have gained information in a natural course. Implications: The new perspective brought forth through the study could be useful for brand managers to bear in mind when setting up strategies on how to manage a negative publicity situation such as the Apple/Foxconn case.

Nowadays, about one fourth of all prime time commercials in the United States feature celebrity endorsers. Previous research has identified numerous benefits of this powerful marketing strategy. Unfortunately, celebrities have been increasingly involved in negative publicity in the recent past. Using event study methodology, I examine the influence of negative celebrity endorser publicity on immediate and subsequent stock returns, covering 59 events during a 25 year period from 1988 to 2012. My research shows that firms do not have to take losses for granted. By choosing proactive versus reactive/passive strategies, firms can successfully counteract the subsequent negative stock returns. Thus, it is not the negative event itself that drives the subsequent financial performance, but rather the immediate response of firms. Although immediate firm reactions increase the salience of the event and cause stock prices to drop initially, they also build up investors' trust and confidence again, ultimately leading to increased stock returns in the subsequent weeks. On the flipside, a reactive/passive strategy shows a lack of control and leadership, which can lead to substantial financial losses in the subsequent weeks. I show that this main effect is attenuated for subsidiary (vs. corporate) brands. Further, the appropriateness of the reaction (match between expected and actual firm reaction) is also crucial. Overall, this dissertation helps to advance the knowledge regarding the financial risk of negative celebrity endorser publicity and provides firms with advice to best manage the situation. / Ph. D.

According to Faircloth, Capella &amp; Alford, (2001), a brand is one of the most important assets a company can possess. A brand is what the consumers relate to when differentiating one com-pany from another and therefore plays a vital role for determining competitive advantage. How-ever, in the modern world, with the increasing technology advances, companies are losing more and more control of what is said and spread about their brands. What takes companies years to build can nowadays be destroyed in just a short amount of time. When dealing with negative publicity, a company‟s actions have a crucial role in determining the outcome of the negative publicity. The theoretical literature suggests that strong respective weak corporate response, will decide whether the consumers‟ brand attitude will be improved or wors-ened. Furthermore, it is also argued that consumers‟ commitment level can temper the effects of negative publicity in the sense that the more committed a consumer is, the more he/she will re-sist a change in brand attitude. Therefore, the purpose of this study is "to examine if consumers’ atti-tude towards a brand is changed depending on strong or weak corporate response to the negative publicity. A significant aspect is to investigate and further associate the commitment variable to the outcome of change in attitudes as a result of the negative publicity." In order to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between corporate response and brand attitude, an experiment was conducted where corporate response was the independent variable and brand attitude was the dependent variable. Furthermore, the commitment variable was in-cluded as a covariate; an independent variable not manipulated by the experimenter but still ex-pected to affect the outcome. Three different questionnaires were created: 1) Negative publicity with weak corporate response, 2) Negative publicity with strong corporate response, and 3) Negative publicity only. The experiment was conducted on consumers in Jönköping. The results indicate that whether a company decides to reply with a strong or weak corporate re-sponse to negative publicity, it will in the end have an effect on the consumers‟ brand attitude. Furthermore, the results also reveal that a consumer‟s level of commitment reinforces the effect of corporate response on his/her attitude towards a brand. In other words, the degree of the consumers‟ commitment towards a brand can temper the effect of negative publicity, ultimately saving companies from the consequences of negative publicity. / Ett varumärke är enligt Faircloth, Capella &amp; Alford (2001), företagets viktigaste tillgång. Varu-märket spelar en viktig roll i att avgöra ett företags konkurrensfördel, då konsumenter relaterar till ett varumärke för att kunna differentiera mellan olika företag. I takt med de ökande teknolo-giska framryckningar i den moderna världen, har företag däremot börjat förlora alltmer kontroll över det som sägs och sprids om företagets varumärke. Det som tar företag åratal att bygga upp kan numera förgöras under en kort tidsperiod. När det gäller att handskas med negativ publicitet har företagets handlingar en stor inverkan på konsekvensen av den negativa publicitet som företaget har utsatts för. Den teoretiska litteraturen föreslår att stark respektive svag företagsrespons kommer att avgöra om konsumenternas attityd gentemot varumärket kommer förbättras eller försämras. Dessutom menar man att konsumen-tens lojalitetsnivå har en dämpande effekt på negativ publicitet. Ju lojalare en konsument är, des-to mer kommer han/hon att motstå en ändring i attityd gentemot varumärket i fråga trots den negativa publiciteten. Därmed är syftet med denna uppsats att ”undersöka om konsumenters attityd gentemot ett varumärke ändras beroende på stark eller svag företagsrespons i förhållande till den negativa publici-teten. En betydelsefull aspekt är att utreda och associera den kompletterande variabeln, lojalitet, med de utfallande ändringarna i attityd till följd av negativ publicitet”. I avsikt att utröna orsak-och-verkan relationen mellan företagsrespons och varumärkesattityd, ut-fördes ett experiment där företagsrespons var den oberoende variabeln och varumärkesattityd var den beroende variabeln. Därutöver, var lojalitetsvariabeln inkluderad som en covariate, dvs. en oberoende variabel som inte var manipulerad av forskarna men som ändå förväntades påver-ka resultatet. Tre olika enkäter var utformade: 1) Negativ publicitet med svag företagsrespons, 2) Negativ publicitet med stark företagsrespons, och 3) Endast negativ publicitet. Experimentet ut-fördes på konsumenter i Jönköping. Resultaten påvisar att vare sig ett företag väljer att hantera negativ publicitet genom stark eller svag företagsrespons, kommer resultatet att ha en inverkan på konsumenternas varumärkesatti-tyd. För övrigt visar resultaten att nivån av konsumentens lojalitet gentemot ett varumärk kom-mer att förstärka effekten av företagsresponsen på kundens varumärkesattityd. Med andra ord, graden av konsumenters lojalitet mot ett varumärke kan dämpa effekten av negativ publicitet och därmed rädda företag från degeneration av varumärket till följd av negativ publicitet. / Grade: VG, (ECTS) A

Background: A brand’s reputation can take many years to build up, although the value of the brand is not forever. Accidents, scandals or product safety incidents associated to a certain corporation can affect a brands reputation. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 led to much information being spread around regarding BP, the company behind the accident. The environment took damage and BP endured a lot of negative publicity. Purpose: To gain knowledge about the effects on a company suffering from negative publicity and how they could proceed in order to minimize the damage. Delimitations: This study is based on the company BP and their incident in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The investigation was done in the United States of America on American customers with a population restricted to car owners as the study examines purchase behavior. Method: The research was conducted through a deductive quantitative approach. The data sources were collected by an archival analysis and an electronic questionnaire. Conclusion: If the information received from media and from word-of-mouth after an incident (like BP’s oil spill) is considered as negative towards the company, this leads to a decrease in positive attitudes among customers that in turn affects purchase behavior negatively. It is important to implement strategies in the company as a foundation against negative publicity. The study shows that the most influencing strategies on consumer attitudes were corporate social responsibility followed by brand positioning.

<p> </p><p> </p><p>According to Faircloth, Capella & Alford, (2001), a brand is one of the most important assets a company can possess. A brand is what the consumers relate to when differentiating one com-pany from another and therefore plays a vital role for determining competitive advantage. How-ever, in the modern world, with the increasing technology advances, companies are losing more and more control of what is said and spread about their brands. What takes companies years to build can nowadays be destroyed in just a short amount of time. When dealing with negative publicity, a company‟s actions have a crucial role in determining the outcome of the negative publicity. The theoretical literature suggests that strong respective weak corporate response, will decide whether the consumers‟ brand attitude will be improved or wors-ened. Furthermore, it is also argued that consumers‟ commitment level can temper the effects of negative publicity in the sense that the more committed a consumer is, the more he/she will re-sist a change in brand attitude. Therefore, the purpose of this study is <em>"to examine if consumers’ atti-tude towards a brand is changed depending on strong or weak corporate response to the negative publicity. A significant aspect is to investigate and further associate the commitment variable to the outcome of change in attitudes as a result of the negative publicity." </em></p><p>In order to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between corporate response and brand attitude, an experiment was conducted where corporate response was the independent variable and brand attitude was the dependent variable. Furthermore, the commitment variable was in-cluded as a covariate; an independent variable not manipulated by the experimenter but still ex-pected to affect the outcome. Three different questionnaires were created: 1) Negative publicity with weak corporate response, 2) Negative publicity with strong corporate response, and 3) Negative publicity only. The experiment was conducted on consumers in Jönköping. The results indicate that whether a company decides to reply with a strong or weak corporate re-sponse to negative publicity, it will in the end have an effect on the consumers‟ brand attitude. Furthermore, the results also reveal that a consumer‟s level of commitment reinforces the effect of corporate response on his/her attitude towards a brand. In other words, the degree of the consumers‟ commitment towards a brand can temper the effect of negative publicity, ultimately saving companies from the consequences of negative publicity.</p><p> </p><p> </p> / <p>Ett varumärke är enligt Faircloth, Capella & Alford (2001), företagets viktigaste tillgång. Varu-märket spelar en viktig roll i att avgöra ett företags konkurrensfördel, då konsumenter relaterar till ett varumärke för att kunna differentiera mellan olika företag. I takt med de ökande teknolo-giska framryckningar i den moderna världen, har företag däremot börjat förlora alltmer kontroll över det som sägs och sprids om företagets varumärke. Det som tar företag åratal att bygga upp kan numera förgöras under en kort tidsperiod. När det gäller att handskas med negativ publicitet har företagets handlingar en stor inverkan på konsekvensen av den negativa publicitet som företaget har utsatts för. Den teoretiska litteraturen föreslår att stark respektive svag företagsrespons kommer att avgöra om konsumenternas attityd gentemot varumärket kommer förbättras eller försämras. Dessutom menar man att konsumen-tens lojalitetsnivå har en dämpande effekt på negativ publicitet. Ju lojalare en konsument är, des-to mer kommer han/hon att motstå en ändring i attityd gentemot varumärket i fråga trots den negativa publiciteten. Därmed är syftet med denna uppsats att ”undersöka om konsumenters attityd gentemot ett varumärke ändras beroende på stark eller svag företagsrespons i förhållande till den negativa publici-teten. En betydelsefull aspekt är att utreda och associera den kompletterande variabeln, lojalitet, med de utfallande ändringarna i attityd till följd av negativ publicitet”. I avsikt att utröna orsak-och-verkan relationen mellan företagsrespons och varumärkesattityd, ut-fördes ett experiment där företagsrespons var den oberoende variabeln och varumärkesattityd var den beroende variabeln. Därutöver, var lojalitetsvariabeln inkluderad som en covariate, dvs. en oberoende variabel som inte var manipulerad av forskarna men som ändå förväntades påver-ka resultatet. Tre olika enkäter var utformade: 1) Negativ publicitet med svag företagsrespons, 2) Negativ publicitet med stark företagsrespons, och 3) Endast negativ publicitet. Experimentet ut-fördes på konsumenter i Jönköping. Resultaten påvisar att vare sig ett företag väljer att hantera negativ publicitet genom stark eller svag företagsrespons, kommer resultatet att ha en inverkan på konsumenternas varumärkesatti-tyd. För övrigt visar resultaten att nivån av konsumentens lojalitet gentemot ett varumärk kom-mer att förstärka effekten av företagsresponsen på kundens varumärkesattityd. Med andra ord, graden av konsumenters lojalitet mot ett varumärke kan dämpa effekten av negativ publicitet och därmed rädda företag från degeneration av varumärket till följd av negativ publicitet.</p> / Grade: VG, (ECTS) A

Syfte: Syftet med denna studien är att se hur de etiska strömningarna påverkan modeföretags beslut om att utöka storlekarna och implementera större storlekar. Forskningsfrågorna är 1.  Av vilka anledningar väljer svenska modeföretag att utöka sitt storleksutbud med större storlekar? och 2. Vad har sociala medier och etiska strömningar för inverkan på legitimitetsskapande affärsbeslut?   Teoretiskt ramverk: Denna studie använder sociala medier, den kroppspositivistiska rörelsen och konsekvenser av negativ publicitet som teoretisk bakgrund. Studien är även baserad på viktiga begrepp från institutionell teori; legitimitet, decoupling och mimetic isomorphism. Metod: Denna studie är baserad på en kvalitativ forskningsmetod  med hjälp av intervjuer hos två svenska modeföretag. De anställda som blev intervjuade hade alla roller som antingen varit involverade i beslutet om att utöka storlekar eller som har påverkats av det.   Resultat: Resultaten av studien visar att den kroppspositivistiska rörelsen har haft en inverkan på de studerade företagens beslut att utvidga deras storlek. Andra orsaker som hittades var att undvika negativ publicitet samt skapa legitimitet. / Purpose: The purpose of this study is to see how ethical currents affect fashion companies' decisions to widen their size range and implement bigger sizes. The research questions are 1. For what reasons do Swedish fashion companies decide to widen their size range with bigger sizes? and 2. What influence does social media and ethical currents have on legitimacy based business decisions? Theoretical foundation: This study uses theoretical background on social media, the body positivity movement and consequences of negative publicity. The study is also based on important concepts taken from the institutional theory; legitimacy, decoupling and mimetic isomorphism. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative research method involving two Swedish fashion companies. The employees who were interviewed all have roles that are either involved in the decision to widen the size range or have been affected by it. Findings: The results of the study shows that the body positivity movement has had an impact on the companies' of this study’s decision to widen their size range. Other reasons found were to avoid negative publicity and create legitimacy.

The fashion industry is one of the most criticized industries when it comes to their sustainability performance, where consumers have very high demands and expectations. This study aims to investigate how Swedish companies in the fashion industry use legitimacy strategies in their sustainability reports to repair their legitimacy after receiving negative publicity in the media. The study is based on negative publicity between the years 2016-2021. The researchers in this study have used a qualitative research method in the form of a deductive approach, as the study is based on theories. The data that was collected from the reports was relevant to the media incident. As the starting point was the media incident, the researchers were able to adapt the review of the sustainability reports to find relevant information in line with the negative publicity. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that companies use at least one of Lindblom's four legitimacy strategies in order to repair their legitimacy. The results also showed that the more attention the negative publicity receives from society, the more the companies put emphasis on reporting the event in their sustainability report. / Modebranschen är en av de mest kritiserade branscherna när det gäller deras hållbarhetsarbete, där konsumenterna har väldigt höga krav samt förväntningar. Denna studie har som mål att undersöka hur svenska företag inom modebranschen använder sig av legitimitetsstrategier i sina hållbarhetsrapporter för att reparera sin legitimitet efter att ha fått negativ publicitet i media. Studien är baserad på negativ publicitet mellan åren 2016-2021. Forskarna i denna studie har använt sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod i form av en deduktiv ansats, då studien styrs av teorier. Datan som samlades in från rapporterna var det som var relevant till den mediala händelsen. Då utgångspunkten var den mediala händelsen kunde forskarna anpassa granskningen av hållbarhetsrapporterna till att finna relevant information i enlighten med den negativa publiciteten. Utifrån studiens resultat drogs slutsatsen att företagen använder minst en av Lindbloms fyra legitimitetsstrategier i syfte att reparera sin legitimitet. Resultaten visade även att ju mer uppmärksamhet den negativa publiciteten får av samhället, desto större vikt lägger företagen på att redogöra för händelsen i sin hållbarhetsrapport.