Celebrity endorsements are a widely used marketing strategy, through which a popular celebrity is paired with the brand in order to enhance brand meaning in the eyes of consumers. However, endorsement strategies are not without risk, as evidenced by popular media revealing celebrities’ negative behavior. While much research has addressed factors enhancing endorsement effectiveness, limited research exists that examines the effects of negative celebrity information on consumer responses to the endorser and brand. The current research seeks to understand the potential differentiating effects of failure type (functional vs. nonfunctional) on related consumer attitudes and intentions. Three experiments (between subjects factorial design) were conducted to examine the phenomenon of interest. Contrary to expectations, results of the first two experiments suggest an absence of significant differentiating effects of failure type, overall, although various exceptions surfaced. These experiments represent a unique research attempt to disentangle the effects of functional and nonfunctional information on consumer responses to endorsement strategies. In addition, it contributes to the growing research interest in understanding the important effects of negative information on consumer attitudes and intentions.

The celebrity status is seen in a wide variety of domains that ranges from entertainment, to sport, to politic communities. It operates as a way of providing distinctions and definitions of success within those domains (Marshall, 1997). The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the paradigmatic elements of celebrity negative information across different celebrity domains. The word paradigmatic is used because over the years we have seen celebrities killing their careers as consequence of their wild behavior. In the other hand we have also seen celebrities booming their careers. This thesis is an attempt to improve our understanding on which factors are of relevance when celebrities’ meltdown causing potential sources of troubles to stakeholders related with them. In summations the objective is finding patterns among the paradox and inconsistencies over the years of real life celebrity cases. We first analyze how the consumptions of celebrity offering yields different type of values to consumers that construct an OVP optimal value point. This OPV can be seen as a combination of enabling attributes and enhancing attributes. Enabling attributes such as “quality and efficiency” are a must for a human brand to even achieve celebrity status. The enhancing type of attributes such as “ethics or charity” bring that extra mile or added value not necessary to obtain success but beneficial to their overall image. In addition a discussion if celebrity negative information caused by illegal or immoral behavior can lead to value destruction affecting consumption patterns is presented whereas a qualitative study based on real life cases was carried out. The results showed that “consistency” with the celebrity previous behavior and image are crucial to anticipate how the consumers will react to a case of negative celebrity information. The celebrity “domain” revealed some tolerance bringing or blocking effect towards negative celebrity information. In conclusion this exploratory study is a good starting point to prove that not all negative celebrity information is negative to a celebrity and thus there is no general recipe to study these incidents. By bringing a framework like the one presented it is easier to isolate and study one case at a time. At the end of the paper we applied the framework and anticipated the response of Swedish consumer’s to a real drugs case scandal involving a singer.

Traditionally, volume has provided the link between trading activity and returns. This study attempts to not only investigate the trading behavior of all aspects of investors by daily order imbalances, the better index than dollar volume, around firm-specific news releases, but also explore the relation between order imbalances and daily returns. This study contributes to the shot-run market reactions and trading behaviours from different three or five kinds of investors around seasoned equity offerings announcement in Taiwan. We have examined 306 SEOs listed on Taiwan stock exchanges from 1995 to 1998, and test five subsequent SEO-related signaling dates, such as the shareholders’ conventions date, the formal announcement date, the ex-right date and the listed date. Our findings indicated the anomalies on returns and order imbalance did exist with the publication of SEO news in Taiwan. The negative information effect is significant on the shareholders’ convention date. Further we find a strong relation between order imbalance from individuals and daily return in the five day window. We infer that individual investors are extreme sensitivity to any news released and that the majority of traders in TSE are comprised by individual can explain the phenomenon. Finally, we also find not only correlation among different type of traders but also that returns, cash per share and the interest rate influence trading decision deeply. / Traditionally, volume has provided the link between trading activity and returns. This study attempts to not only investigate the trading behavior of all aspects of investors by daily order imbalances, the better index than dollar volume, around firm-specific news releases, but also explore the relation between order imbalances and daily returns. This study contributes to the shot-run market reactions and trading behaviours from different three or five kinds of investors around seasoned equity offerings announcement in Taiwan. We have examined 306 SEOs listed on Taiwan stock exchanges from 1995 to 1998, and test five subsequent SEO-related signaling dates, such as the shareholders’ conventions date, the formal announcement date, the ex-right date and the listed date. Our findings indicated the anomalies on returns and order imbalance did exist with the publication of SEO news in Taiwan. The negative information effect is significant on the shareholders’ convention date. Further we find a strong relation between order imbalance from individuals and daily return in the five day window. We infer that individual investors are extreme sensitivity to any news released and that the majority of traders in TSE are comprised by individual can explain the phenomenon. Finally, we also find not only correlation among different type of traders but also that returns, cash per share and the interest rate influence trading decision deeply.

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Background and problem: Sustainabilty reporting is about companies reporting their work on economic, social and environmental aspects. An industry that is under great pressure on a number of sustainability issues is the automotive industry. For this reason, various stakeholders have also submitted demands on the car companies, which in turn means that the companies in this industry run a greater risk of damaging their reputation when reporting their CSR work. The global framework GRI provides guidelines that the company can follow when preparing their sustainability reports and according to GRI, companies must report both positive and negative information in the sustainability report. However, the reporting of negative information creates a dilemma for companies because it jeopardizes companies' legitimacy. Because legitimacy is a neccessity for a company's survival, companies tend to present negative information in a strategic way so that it does not damage their legitimacy. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies in the automotive industry report negative information Method:This study was conducted in the form of a muliple case study. Furthermore, a qualitative method has been used with quantitative elements where a targeted content analysis has been performed on the companies' sustainability reports. The collected data has been entered into an encoding scheme and an encoding manual has benn used. Conclusion: Based on the study's empirical data and analysis, it can be stated that the companies surveyed use legitimacy strategies when reporting negatives information in the sustainability reports. This is done by companies for the purpose of maintaining, creating or repairing legitimacy. / Bakgrund & Problem: Hållbarhetsredovisning handlar om att företagen ska redovisa deras arbete gällande ekonomiska, sociala och miljömässiga aspekter. En industri som är under stort tryck på ett flertal hållbarhetsfrågor är bilindustrin. Av denna anledning har också olika intressenter lagt fram krav på bilföretagen, vilket i sin tur innebär att företagen inom denna industri löper en större risk av att skada sitt rykte vid redovisningen av deras CSR-arbete. Det globala ramverket GRI tillhandahåller riktlinjer som företagen kan följa vid upprättandet av deras hållbarhetsrapporter och enligt GRI ska företag ska redovisa både positiv samt negativ information i hållbarhetsredovisningen. Redovisningen av negativ information skapar dock ett dilemma för företagen eftersom det äventyrar företagens legitimitet. På grund av att legitimitet är en nödvändighet för ett företags överlevnad tenderar företagen att presentera negativ information på ett strategiskt sätt för att inte skada deras legitimitet.  Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur företagen inom bilindustrin redovisar negativ information.  Metod: Denna studie är genomförd i form av en flerfallsstudie. Vidare har en kvalitativmetod använts med kvantitativa inslag där en riktad innehållsanalys har utförts på företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar. Den insamlade datan har förts in i ett kodningsschema och en kodningsmanual har använts.  Slutsats: Utifrån studiens empiri och analys kan det konstateras attde undersökta företagen använder legitimitetsstrategier vid redovisningen av negativ information i hållbarhetsrapporteringen. Detta gör företagen i syfte av att behålla, skapa eller reparera legitimitet.

Creating, producing and listening to podcasts has become an increasingly popular way for cultural transmission. Among an infinitely number of genres true crime has been rising in popularity during the last decade. By consuming true crime- podcasts we also affirm the relevance of the cultural exchange. The aim of this study is therefore to examine what this contemporary cultural exchange consists and in what way the transmission affect the actors.  The study was implemented by interviewing creators of true crime- podcasts as well as women consuming numerous podcasts within the genre. By applying Bourdieus theoretical concepts combined with Boltanski and Thevenots theory about orders of worth in the analyses of the empirical material we can acquire a profound understanding of individual practices as well as how they legitimize their actions. From the comprehensive material generated from the interviews we found some distinctive results. First, the creators aim to educade, inform and engender a reflective practice within the consumers. The podcastconsumers assigned that they are listening to true crime- podcast in the purpose of entertainment and the acquisition of information. Also, they keep listening although many of them have experienced feelings of fear and have become more cautious towards their surroundings. The cultural exchange that takes place within the podcast is the creation of meaning and reflection itself.

SAMMANFATTNING ” Hållbarhetsredovisning – En studie om informationsbalansen i high profile och low profile industries”   Datum:        2017-06-05     Nivå:            Kandidatuppsats i Företagsekonomi, 15 HP   Institution:  Akademin för Ekonomi, Samhälle och Teknik, EST, Mälardalens Högskola   Författare:   Björn Sandfeldt                  Henrik Robertsson                       3 mars 1994                        5 maj 1992   Titel:             Hållbarhetsredovisning – En studie om informationsbalansen i high profile och low profile industries   Handledare: Staffan Boström   Nyckelord:   Hållbarhetsredovisning, GRI, negativ information, branschtillhörighet, transparens och balans.   Frågeställning: I vilken utsträckning presenteras negativ information i hållbarhetsredovisningar? Påverkar företags branschtillhörighet frekvensen av negativ information i hållbarhetsredovisningar?   Syfte:            Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka informationsbalansen i hållbarhetsredovisningar genom att studera i vilken utsträckning negativ information presenteras. Uppsatsen undersöker även om branschtillhörighet påverkar frekvensen av negativ information.     Metod:         I studien tillämpats en kvantitativ metod med innehållsanalys. Teoriinsamlingen är baserad på vetenskapliga artiklar som handlar om hållbarhetsredovisning, branschtillhörighet, GRI, legitimitets-, signal- och intressentteorin. För att samla in data användes ett urval av 150 hållbarhetsredovisningar. Resultaten har analyserats genom deskriptiv analys och Chi2-tester.         Slutsats:       De slutsatser som gjorts i denna undersökning är att företag redovisar mer positiv än negativ information, men att skillnaden inte var speciellt stor. Branschtillhörigheten påverkar frekvensen av negativ information. Det visade sig att företag i miljökänsliga branscher kommunicerar två gånger mer negativ information än företag i icke-miljökänsliga branscher. / ABSTRACT “Sustainability reporting – A study on the information balance in high profile and low profile industries ”   Date:            June 5th 2017   Level:           Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 ECTS   Institution:  School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University   Authors:      Björn Sandfeldt                  Henrik Robertsson                       3th Mars 1994                     5th May 1992   Title:             Sustainability reporting – A study on the information balance in high profile and low profile industries   Tutor:          Staffan Boström   Keywords:   Sustainability reporting, GRI, negative information, industries, transparency and balance.     Questions: In what volume does negative information get presented in sustainability reports? Does the sector of firms influence the amount of presented negative information in sustainability reports?   Purpose:      The purpose of this essay is to examine the information balance in sustainability reporting, by studying the amount of negative information presented. The essay also studies if the sector of firms influences the amount of negative information.     Method:       The essay uses a quantitive research method with content analysis. The theory of the studie is based on academic journals that contains information about sustainability reporting, sector, GRI, legitimacy-, signaling- and stakeholder theory. The primary data consist of a sample of 150 sustainability reports. The results have been analyzed by descriptive analysis and Chi-squared tests.                  Conclusion: The conclusion of the thesis is that firms present more positive than negative information in sustainability reports, however the difference was not that great. The industry affiliation effect the frequency of negative information. It shows that firms in environmentally sensitive sectors communicate twice the amount of negative information than firms in non-environmentally sensitive sectors.

This thesis builds on the literature of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. The following three chapters study the potential impacts of disclosing voluntarily negative information in a company’s own CSR communication within the contexts of pharmaceutical, textile and chocolate companies, respectively. Incorporating survey and experimental methodologies, these studies aim to help identify effective solutions for ethical issues by revealing the appropriate contexts in which companies can discuss them transparently and, thus, be rewarded for responding and acting in good faith and due diligence. Our results suggest that companies might benefit from voluntary disclosure of ethical issues if they also intend to disclose their specific actions for eliminating such infractions. Additionally, we highlight the role of public awareness in how negative information by the relevant stakeholders is evaluated. These studies reinforce the concept that acknowledging ethical issues would lead to higher levels of ethical behavior in business. / La siguiente tesis se basa en la literatura sobre comunicación de responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) de empresa. Se analizan los posibles efectos de divulgación voluntaria de información negativa en la comunicación (RSC) en contextos de empresas farmacéuticas, textiles y de chocolate. Estos estudios tienen como objetivo ayudar a identificar soluciones efectivas a cuestiones éticas al revelar los contextos donde las empresas puedan debatir de manera transparente, y ser recompensadas por responder y actuar de buena fe y con diligencia. Los resultados sugieren que las empresas pueden beneficiarse de la divulgación voluntaria de aspectos éticos negativos si también divulgan sus acciones específicas para la eliminación de tales infracciones. Además, se destaca el papel de la sensibilización del público sobre como la información negativa se evalúa por las partes interesadas. Estos estudios refuerzan la idea de que reconocer problemas éticos conduce a niveles más altos de comportamiento ético en el mundo empresarial.

Statligt ägda bolag ska sedan 2007 hållbarhetsrapportera i enlighet med GRI eller annat internationellt ramverk. Detta för att öka bolagens transparens för dess intressenter och samhället. I statens ägarpolicyn är det av stor vikt för bolagen att verka transparenta, vilket innebär att såväl positiv som negativ information ska tas upp i hållbarhetsrapporterna. Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka i vilken omfattning svenska bolag med statligt ägande rapporterar negativ information och vilka företagsspecifika faktorer som kan påverka negativa avslöjanden. Den teoretiska referensram som har legat till grund för att förklara detta fenomen är Intressentteorin, Legitimitetsteorin, Konsumentskepticism och Two-Sided CSR. Undersökningens metodologiska tillvägagångssätt baseras på en innehållsanalys som vidare analyserades med stöd av korrelationsanalys och multipel regressionsanalys för att finna samband mellan studiens variabler. Resultatet kunde påvisa att bolag med statligt ägande rapporterar negativ information i högre utsträckning inom Sociala aspekter, där Miljöaspekter kom tätt efter. Studien konstaterade att den företagsspecifika faktorn Antal sidor kunde påvisa ett statistik samband till avslöjande av negativ information. / Since 2007, State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) must produce sustainability reports in accordance with GRI or another international framework. This is to increase the companies' transparency for its’ stakeholders and society. In the state's ownership policy, it is of great importance for the companies to appear transparent, which means that both positive and negative information must be included in the sustainability reports. The purpose of this study has been to investigate the extent to which Swedish State-Owned Enterprises report negative information and which company-specific factors can affect negative disclosures. The theoretical framework that has been used to explain this phenomenon is Stakeholder Theory, Legitimacy Theory, Consumer Skepticism and Two-Sided CSR. The methodological approach is based on a content analysis which was further analyzed with the support of correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis to find connections between the study variables. The results showed that State-Owned Enterprises report negative information to a greater extent in Social Aspects, where the Environmental Aspects came closely behind. The study states that the company-specific factor Number of pages could demonstrate a statistical significance to the disclosure of negative information.