Americus Reed II, Karl Aquino, & Eric Levy
Executive Summary
Charitable giving of time versus money is an important issue for business organizations, charities, and society. Yet little is known about why consumers would prefer to give time rather than money, how organizations can increase their brand equity and perceptions of corporate social responsibility through these types of donations, or how charities should organize their staffing needs through consumers’ willingness to provide these two resources. Several controlled laboratory experiments indicate that a consumer’s morality plays a vital role in determining preferences for giving time versus money. In particular, consumers are much more likely to prefer to give time than to give money when they perceive themselves as moral or when a setting or situation occurs that causes a consumer to temporarily view him- or herself as a moral person. This result holds even when the economic costs or subjective utility costs of the two moral acts are equivalent, and it occurs because giving time versus money more directly connects consumers to others and enhances the extent to which the giver of time morally identifies.
This preference is shown to hold for donating a person’s own time, perceptions of corporations that donate time, and as a countervailing force to the time constraints that harried corporate executives face. The authors discuss the results in terms of specific strategies that charities can use to staff their organizations and solicit donations of time and money, as well as ways that for-profit corporations can build brand equity and encourage employee involvement through the donation of time. By focusing on strategies to boost donations of time, corporations have the opportunity to increase social goodwill and community involvement, which in turn should lead to more long-term loyalty to the firm and its products.
Biography
Americus Reed II is the Arthur Anderson Term Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His research centers on the self-concept and how its multiple identities impact on emotions, attitudes, and behaviors. He has several articles and book chapters on the topic published in outlets such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Sloan Management Review. He has been a past editorial review board member for Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Journal of Consumer Research.
Karl Aquino is an Associate Professor in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Management Division of the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. He conducts research in the areas of moral behavior, forgiveness and revenge, workplace victimization, status and social dominance, and organizational justice. He has numerous articles and book chapters on these topics, published in outlets such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Northwestern University.
Eric Levy is a doctoral student in the department of Marketing and International Business at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research examines moral and social identity and charitable consumer behavior and has been published in Journal of Marketing Research and Journal of Marketing. He previously worked in various marketing positions and received his MBA from Temple University.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 71, No. 1, January 2007
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