Exploring the Motive and Effect between Altruistic and Strategic Corporate Giving: An Experimental Design Study

Abstract

Corporate giving has evolved into more than altruistic actions to include strategic considerations. Drawing on attribution and signaling theory, this study designs two social giving scenarios with one designed to be more sales related, tending to take the advantage of social cause than the other. Our goal is to examine whether the public recognize the difference between the two and how they interpret such a signal in relation to the firm’s standing in reputation, consumer attitude and purchase intention. The results support largely the conceptual framework in that corporate giving strategy could be more beneficial when it is designed to be more altruistic.