From Receiving to Giving: The role of Prosocial Signaling Interactions at Point-of-sales Donation
(A2020-64538)

AUTHORS

Soumya Singh, University of Hyderabad; Prakash Satyavageeswaran, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur

KEYWORDS

Cause Marketing; Prosocial Signals; Consumer Wellbeing

ABSTRACT

Consumers in the emerging nations are more than willing to give back to the community through prosocial spending; almost 60% of the Indian consumers care about the social impact of the firm they are associated with (Nielsen, 2014). However, firms in India, an important emerging market, have been slow to strategize on this need with their emphasis being on incentive-based campaigns such as P & G’s Shiksha. Apprehensive of profitability of strategic CSR, they are promoting cause marketing even with its inefficient fundraising capability, limited donation premium and criticism of “commoditizing” societal issues. Through our study, we provide the firms interested in cause marketing with insights into how they can efficiently leverage on already provided discounts to raise funds for social causes and add meaning to customers. Our study draws on signaling, donation, and TCR literature to examine the interactional influence of signaling motivations in promoting donations and loyalty.