An exploratory qualitative study on the impact of cancel culture on the consumer - beauty influencer relationship.

Sammanfattning: ABSTRACT Date2022-06-01 Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalens University Authors Ayari, Loïs                  Yousef, Nina (00/10/25)                  (99/10/21) Title: An exploratory qualitative study on the impact of cancel   culture on the consumer-beauty influencer relationship. Tutor: Safari, Aswo Keywords: Influencer, beauty, cancel culture, consumer, trust, commitment Research question: How does the cancel culture phenomenon affect the relationship between the consumer and the beauty influencer? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the cancel culture phenomenon affects the relationship between the consumer and the beauty influencer. Method: This study was conducted through a qualitative research method with an abductive approach. The conceptual model was based on the theoretical concepts and the actors within the relationship. Three focus group interviews conducted consisted of 6, 7 and 6 participants. The focus groups interviews were transcripted manually by the authors. The data extracted from the focus groups were analyzed using a thematic analysis based on the conceptual model. Conclusion: The findings and the analysis of this study provided an answer to the research question. It showed that the consumer’s trust is negatively affected by cancel culture and thus, decreases when this phenomenon occurs. This happens mainly because of a disruption of the perceived shared values and the beauty influencer’s failure. Moreover, the findings revealed that the consumer’s commitment is negatively affected by the cancellation. This was motivated by the decrease in the consumer’s trust along with the disruption of perceived shared values. Therefore, the consumer and beauty influencer’s relationship is negatively affected by the cancel culture phenomenon.