Managing reputational damage with relationship marketing : A qualitative study on how relationship marketing can help organizations with reputational repair

Abstract: Date: 1st of June 2022 Level: Master’s thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr  Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalens University  Authors: Filip Nilsson & Andrej Matic (92/08/25) (95/08/10) Title: Managing reputational damage with relationship marketing - A qualitative study on how relationship marketing can help organizations with reputational repair   Supervisor: Stylianos Papaioannou Keywords: Reputational damage, reputational management, reputational repair, reputational adversity, relationship marketing.  Research question: How can relationship marketing repair a company's reputation after a reputational damage incident? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze and gain knowledge on the effects that reputational damage has on a company and the different internal organizational changes that occur. Followed by the different learning outcomes to restore their corporate reputation after experiencing reputational damage. Furthermore, this study aims to assess and contribute to the existing academic knowledge on reputational management.  Method: A qualitative research method was chosen for this paper where the empirical gathering had its starting point in interviews with three companies that have experienced reputational damage. An analysis model was created to bring light on different key factors and this was then used to analyze the gathered empirical information with the chosen theories. Conclusion: The result of the study shows clear correlations between the research question, the gathered data and the chosen theories. After analyzing the different theoretical concepts and conducting three interviews with three different companies the authors could see clear connections and draw the conclusion that all three companies showed great benefits from the use of relationship marketing in their general strategies. This helped them build strong and solid relationships that showed to be tested when the actual reputational damage occurred.