In this paper I theorize about how a company’s corporate reputation and visibility can be affected by a scandal. Scandals are associated with negative outcomes such as bad reputation but this thesis investigates if there are some positive side-effects of a scandal in terms of increased visibility. The idea of it being better for companies to be infamous than unknown is studied using the empirical example of the payment service company Klarna AB, their scandal in April of 2014 is the focus of the thesis. The results show that the company’s visibility was affected in a positive way following the scandal since the number of articles about Klarna did increase after the scandal compared to before the scandal. Klarna’s visibility was also shown to increase through the higher number of customer reviews after the scandal. The measurements for corporate reputation of Klarna rose significantly after the scandal in comparison to before the scandal indicating that also Klarna’s reputation was positively affected by the scandal. The conclusion is that it is better to be infamous than unknown since there was something to gain from the scandal in terms of visibility and corporate reputation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-298331 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Johansson, Linnea |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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