Communication During War

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created global turmoil and affected nations and corporations across the world. This paper examines how the situation in Ukraine changes the leeway of large Danish corporations with activities in Russia, how these corporations react to new stakeholder demands, and how their strategic responses affect their reputation. Evidence from interviews, a sentiment-analysis of media exposure and various other sources pose that the situation in Ukraine is an extraordinary event with a highly unequivocal demand from stakeholders; that corporations should exit the Russian market immediately. The analysis consists of four sections, each examining different parts of the problem field, which altogether leads to a conclusion to our research question. 10 Danish companies with Russian activities were selected, which became the subject of analysis for this paper. It was found that these have various strategies for responding to the crisis, which affected their position and reputation on the Danish market. Conclusively, we found that these companies have no significant legitimacy to gain from conforming to institutional pressure, and that they can only mitigate reputational damage. Furthermore, it was found that B2C-companies with low cognitive legitimacy were more exposed to reputational damage, and that the effect of strategic communication diminishes when a highly biased narrative is present. The paper argues that even though some distinct patterns are found, there is no specific best-practice approach for maneuvering in the nuanced and complex situation that ensues from the war in Ukraine.