The Cancel Culture Conundrum: Exploring the Risks for Influencer Marketing

Abstract: The emergence of cancel culture has become a widely recognised phenomenon, yet its implications for influencer marketing has not been acknowledged in academic research. The purpose of this study was thus to explore how cancel culture is affecting organisation’s perception of risk with influencer marketing and which strategies are adopted to mitigate the risk. Previous research and central theories within influencer marketing, cancel culture and decision making were presented and then integrated in a conceptual framework to contextualise them and explore the sequence between the related concepts. To achieve the research purpose, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews were conducted with influencer marketing professionals. The main findings suggested that perceived risk of cancel culture for influencer marketing varied to an extent, but that respondents could identify that aspects of the decision- making process had been affected by the emergence of cancel culture and that the strategies adopted by organisations to mitigate the risk of cancel culture were both proactive and reactive. The empirical findings suggest that cancel culture has managerial implications for influencer marketing, which require revision of the current decision-making processes. Furthermore, the integration of influencer marketing and cancel culture proved to contain rich units of data, providing a fruitful foundation for future research.