Skandalen "insats torsk" och cancel culture i dagligvaruhandeln : En kvalitativ forskning om kriskommunikation

As companies are expected to take major responsibility towards their stakeholders, there are also some risks involved. Cancel culture is a new societal phenomenon that is taking an increasing part in our everyday lives. The aim of the study is to understand whether and how Swedish companies' crisis communication, and above all preventive crisis management, is affected by a business partner's crisis, in the era of cancel culture. Based on the aim, the following questions have been formulated: "How did the company Paolo's retailers act in its crisis communication to protect and improve its reputation in connection with the crisis?" "How did Paolo's retailers communicate the decision to distance themselves from the company externally on social media?" To support the results of the study, Situational crisis communication theory has been applied, this is further supplemented with the crisis communication aspect preventive crisis management, as well as the phenomenon of cancel culture. The methods used are data collection of text and image, qualitative interview method, semiotic image analysis and qualitative content analysis. These have been used to collect and analyze relevant material to further answer the research questions. The results of the study clearly show that a crisis in the era of cancel culture is often difficult to stop - no matter how prepared you are. Of course, you can reduce the consequences by setting up a clear crisis plan, but depending on how transparent and accommodating you are, the consequences can be reduced. It is often said that it is not a crisis that defines the company, but how to handle it, which fits in well with this situation. As cancel culture is still a new and unexplored field, we hope with this study to contribute to new research. Future research hopes to serve as a guide for how companies can handle cancel culture without the consequences being devastating.