1. Introduction
With growing concerns and interests in social and ecological issues, today’s consumers have become more interested in demonstrating such consciousness when purchasing products and services (Shaw, Grehan, Shiu, Hassan, & Thomson, 2005). Today’s consumers not only care about the social and environmental attributes of the products and services but also pay more attention to whether corporations are committed to societal issues (Mohr, Webb, & Harris, 2001).
Previous studies found that consumers have become considered the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) during the past decades (Carrigan & Attalla, 2001). The increasing number of ethical consumers has pushed firms to place a greater emphasis on communicating their corporate social responsibility efforts (Oh & Yoon, 2014). Accordingly, companies have set social messages that convey their corporate social responsibility activities, such as donations to a charity or environment-friendly activities, as a means of marketing communication tool to promote their brands and products (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). Such marketing strategy in which a company strategically links social and ecological issues to its own brand and products to generate profits is called “Cause-Related Marketing” (CRM) (Barone, Miyazaki, & Taylor, 2000). Cause-related marketing has now become a common vehicle for companies to express their corporate social responsibility efforts to consumers (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). By adopting cause-related marketing in promoting brand and products, firms can demonstrate what they stand for, how they fulfill corporate social responsibilities, and how society benefits from such activities. In turn, cause-related marketing attracts ethical consumers who want to make a contribution to society through their purchase behavior (Brønn & Vrioni, 2001).
On the corporate side, the adoption of cause-related marketing as a part of corporate social responsibility can bring economic benefits to the firms (Robinson, Irmak, & Jayachandran, 2012). The adoption of cause-related marketing increases consumers’ motivation to purchase, builds a strong relationship with customers, and enhances the corporate image (Kim & Johnson, 2013). For instance, throughout a three-month campaign, American Express Card successfully achieved in financial performance and non-financial performance by improving corporate image (Till & Nowak, 2000; Varadarajan & Menon, 1988). Causerelated marketing also lowers the barriers to entry into new markets and alleviates negative public opinion (Berger, Cunningham, & Drumwright, 2007). On the consumer side, cause-related marketing can create opportunities for consumers to participate in social activities and brings the benefits of experiencing ethical consumption. Consumers can experience a role as members of society through donations, which consequently brings emotional benefits such as moral satisfaction (Lichtenstein, Drumwright, & Braig, 2004). Based on consideration, cause-related marketing ultimately contributes to societal welfare in that it brings benefits to the members of society (Nan & Heo, 2007). Indeed, corporate social responsibility and causerelated marketing have become one of the essential elements in achieving sustainable development, as the United Nations has set ‘responsible consumption and production’ as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs: United Nations Global Compact, 2017). Therefore, a better understanding of cause-related marketing is necessary in the era of sustainable development.
The purpose of this study is to examine effects of proposed factors including perceived emotion, cognition, business ethics, and sustainability on consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing. This study also explores effects of attitude, intention to purchase, and expected satisfaction associated with cause-related marketing. This study investigates effects of cause-related marketing by classifying different perspectives of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs: United Nations Global Compact, 2017) and instrumental conditioning. Although previous research has examined the relationship between cause-related marketing and ethical consumption and business, there is a lack of studies explored with the context of the SDGs and types based on instrumental conditioning. To fill this gap, this study has focused on cause-related marketing that are classified based on SDGs and instrumental conditioning.
The following research questions were developed to investigate the factors that affect consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing and to examine the relationship between attitude, purchase intention, and expected satisfaction regarding cause-related marketing: i) how does emotion affect consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing?; ii) how does cognition affect consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing?; iii) how does business ethics affect consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing?; iv) how does sustainability affect consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing?; v) how do the above-mentioned factors affect cause-related marketing that is linked to issues in sustainable development goals (SDGs)?; vi) how do the proposed factors affect cause-related marketing that utilizes instrumental conditioning, specifically positive punishment and positive reinforcement?; vii) how does consumer attitude affect purchase intention toward cause-related marketing?; and viii) how does purchase intention affect expected satisfaction toward cause-related marketing?
2. Literature Review
2.1. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate social responsibility is an important conceptual basis to understand cause-related marketing. It is commonly viewed that corporate social responsibility and cause-related marking are closely related to each other and the two terms are often used synonymously, while corporate social responsibility includes broader concept (Sheikh & Beise-Zee, 2011). Bowen (1953) defined corporate social responsibility as “the duty of entrepreneurs to pursue desirable policies, make decisions or follow such actions from the perspective of our society’s goals and values”. According to McGuire (1963), corporations should fulfill their social and economic responsibilities beyond their economic and legal obligations to society. In regard to social responsibilities, Sethi (1975) also addressed corporate social responsibilities as “corporate behavior that goes beyond legal and economic obligations and harmonizes with social norms, values, and social expectations by actively finding social roles on their own, solving social and environmental problems, and complying with ethical principles”. Carroll (1979) suggested that corporate social responsibility has four-part conceptualizations including economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities.
2.2. Cause-Related Marketing (CRM)
2.2.1. Definition of Cause-Related Marketing
After applied by American Express Card as the fundraising campaign in 1983 (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988; Webb & Mohr, 1998), the concept of cause-related marketing has been actively discussed. The early definition of cause-related marketing focused on fund-raising activities or donations, wherein a portion of the firm’s profits from each product is donated to a certain social issue as a way of implementing cause-related marketing. In this respect, Mullen (1997) defined cause-related marketing as an activity in which a certain amount is donated to a designated non-profit activity, and a marketing activity that can generate profits for customers is planned and executed through the donation. Similarly, Varadarajan and Menon (1988) also defined cause-related marketing as “the process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when customers engage in revenue-providing exchanges that satisfy organizational and individual objectives”.
Later in the 1990s, Pringle and Thompson (1999) expanded the scope of cause-related marketing activities beyond the donation activities, describing that cause-related marketing is a positioning and marketing tool that strategically links a company or brand to a social issue for the mutual benefit of a company and the public interest. Barone, Miyazaki, and Taylor (2000) defined cause-related marketing as a strategy for promoting the achievement of marketing goals such as product sales by supporting the social public interest and as an important tool to differentiate it from competitors’ brands. This suggests that cause-related marketing involved various forms related to the public’s interests such as joint campaigns and sponsorships with nonprofit organizations in addition to donation activities (Berglind & Nakata, 2005). Therefore, cause-related marketing involved activities that pursue achieving a corporate’s economic goal and also fulfill social responsibility. Based on this comprehensive concept, this study applied advertising that conveys cause-related messages supporting social and ecological issues through various forms.
2.2.2. Effectiveness of Cause-Related Marketing
There has been a long period of research focused on the effect of corporate social responsibility activities on corporates and consumers. It is generally viewed that corporate social responsibility activities positively affect corporate financial performance and consumer attitude towards the corporates and products (Barone, Miyazaki, & Taylor, 2000). However, Öberseder, Schlegelmilch, and Gruber (2011) have stated that, even though consumers expect more corporate social responsibility information from corporations, the gap between the interest in corporate social responsibility and the actual purchase behavior exists. Yoon, Gurhan-Canli, and Schwarz (2006) have argued that, if the motives seem to be insincere, consumers tend to be skeptical, and corporate social responsibility activities might hurt a company’s image.
Further, there has been active academic debate on the effectiveness of cause-related marketing as firms widely employ cause-related marketing. Varadarajan and Menon (1988) have argued that cause-related marketing activities improve the image of corporates and create economic benefits in long term. Webb and Mohr (1998) also have argued that cause-related marketing helps to enhance the image of a company and brand, and consequently consumers evaluate the company as positive and tend to have higher intention to purchase the products and services when a company performs cause-related activities. In addition, according to Barone, Miyazaki, and Taylor (2000), causerelated marketing results in favorable consumer responses which in turn brings a higher probability that consumers will choose the products of the companies. At the same time, there have been several studies that address the negative aspect of cause-related marketing. Drumwright (1996) has raised concerns that cause-related marketing could reduce traditional philanthropy, by focusing only on public interest with high visibility, which could lead to an imbalance between the different public interests. Overall, the views claiming that cause-related marketing results in positive effect by influencing consumer attitudes and purchase behavior are more dominant in the recent discourse (Tian, Wang, & Yang, 2011).
2.3. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the global actions that aim to end poverty and hunger, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all, as agreed and adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 (United Nations, 2015). Along with the slogan “Leave No One Behind”, SDGs suggest the direction that human beings should take, particularly in five areas, including human, earth, prosperity, peace, and partnership (United Nations, 2015). SDGs urge all countries including both developed and developing countries to strive for the prosperity of human beings and to protect the environment (United Nations, 2015). To meet the goal of SDGs, the private sector has represented at the negotiation table and involved in designing a global sustainable development agenda alongside political and civil society actors (Schönherr, Findler, & Martinuzzi, 2017). Moreover, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) has been established as an initiative to promote corporate sustainability and to ensure the responsible businesses that align with their strategies and operations on sustainable development agenda (United Nations Global Compact, 2017). Amidst the advent of SDGs, there have been various studies that have reviewed the role of the private sector in achieving SDGs. Zhang, Morse and Ma (2019) have stated that corporate social responsibilities can make a contribution regarding current problems such as inequality, poverty, and environmental degradation in the context of achieving sustainable development. Within this context, this study approaches cause-related marketing as perspectives of sustainable development goals. This study focuses on cause-related marketing that is linked to SDGs, particularly for SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 13 (climate action). This study is to analyze how factors affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing that is noticeably related to SDGs.
2.4. Instrumental Conditioning
Instrumental conditioning, also known as operant conditioning, is one of the most frequently used approaches applied to marketing and consumer behavior studies (Wells, 2014). The instrumental conditioning model has first formally developed by Skinner (1938). According to the instrumental conditioning model, behavior is the learned result of consequences (Skinner, 1938). Skinner (1953) has stated that, operant conditioning in the form of reinforcements and punishments leads to an association between a behavior and its consequence. Among two types of reinforcement, positive reinforcement involves the addition of stimulus to increase desirable behavior, while negative reinforcement involves strengthened behavior by removing an aversive stimulus (Skinner, 1953). Among two types of punishment, positive punishment involves applying an unpleasant event after a behavior, while negative punishment involves removing something good or desirable stimulus to reduce the occurrence of a particular behavior (Skinner, 1953; Malouff, Thorsteinsson, Schutte, & Rooke, 2009).
Based on this background, this study focuses on instrumental conditioning in terms of cause-related marketing. The way firms convey cause-related messages can be characterized into two types: positive punishment and positive reinforcement. Regarding the social and ecological issues that firms connect with their products, positive punishment in cause-related marketing addresses removing or decreasing unpleasant events regarding the issues. Positive reinforcement in cause-related marketing addresses increasing or improving pleasant events regarding the issues.
3. Theoretical Background
3.1. The Theory of Reasoned Action
The Theory of Reasoned Action, first developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), articulates the relationship between attitudes and behavior within human actions. Within the framework of the Theory of Reasoned Action, behavioral intention is the key determinant that influences actual behavior and in turn the best predictor of behavior as well (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to this theory, there are two factors that affect behavioral intention: attitude and subjective norms (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. The subjective norm is the other antecedent factor of forming behavioral intentions and represents the social pressure or constraints in which individuals feel obligated to perform or not perform a particular behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980).
3.2. The Theory of Planned Behavior
Since its development, Theory of Reasoned Action has been widely applied to the explanation and prediction of behavioral intentions within the field of consumer behavior (Sheppard, Hartwick, & Warshaw, 1988). However, Theory of Reasoned Action has limitations in dealing with behaviors over which people have incomplete volitional control and measuring affective behavior (Ajzen, 1991). Further, Ajzen (1991) developed the Theory of Planned Behavior as an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action in order to better predict an individual’s intention to engage in behavior in multiple contexts. Ajzen (1991) has emphasized the need for considering perceived behavioral control as the third factor that determines attitude, along with belief and social norm that can be also interpreted as an individual’s perception of certain behavior outside his or her control (Terry & O’Leary, 1995). Theory of Planned Behavior has its meaning in that it considers not only individual voluntary factors but also involuntary factors by expanding Theory of Reasoned Action (Mowen & Minor, 1998).
3.3. Affective, Behavior, and Cognitive (ABC) Model
It has long been viewed that attitude consists of three elements: affect, behavior, and cognition (Ostrom, 1969). Affect can be defined as feelings, moods, emotions, and sympathetic nervous system activity that people have experienced in relation to an attitude object and subsequently associate with it (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998). Cognition refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and knowledge an individual has about an attitude object (Ostrom, 1969). The core idea of the ABC model is that emotion and cognition interplay in forming attitudes (Edwards, 1990).
4. Hypothesis Development
This paper focuses on cause-related marketing as perspective of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Among SDGs, this study applied SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 13 (climate action), since these concepts have been widely applied in causerelated marketing. This study hypothesized factors that affect attitudes associated with each SDGs that are adopted in cause-related marketing. In addition, this study hypothesized effects with two types of instrumental conditioning including positive punishment and positive reinforcement that are often applied in cause-related marketing.
4.1. Effects of Emotion on Attitude
As the ABC model (Ostrom, 1969) suggests, the affective element, also called the emotional element, is one of the dimensions that compose attitude. The affective component reflects feelings and emotions regarding the object of attitude (Ladero, Casquet, & Singh, 2015). Previous consumer studies have investigated the role of emotion in consumer’s decision-making process. The researchers have found that people evaluate and judge the target items, such as products, brands, and advertisements, based on their current emotion (Kim & Johnson, 2013). Cause-related marketing is a setting in which emotion is evoked through marketing stimuli and advertising (Laros & Steenkamp, 2005). Thus, it is reasonable that emotion aroused after evaluating the cause-related advertising affects attitude toward cause-related marketing. Guerreiro, Rita, and Trigueiros (2015) have revealed that emotion influenced consumer’s decisions whether to purchase cause-related products. On this rationale, this study has hypothesized that emotion affects consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing.
H1a~b: Emotion affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H1c~d: Emotion affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H1e~f: Emotion affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
4.2. Effects of Cognition on Attitude
According to the ABC model (Ostrom, 1969), cognition has been one of the key factors in attitude formation along with the emotion factor. Cognition has referred to the individual’s information, beliefs, and knowledge about an object (Ladero, Casquet, & Singh, 2015). Many scholars have assessed how cognition influences consumer attitude. Ruiz and Sicilia (2004) have stated that cognition determines the effectiveness of advertising. With regard to corporate social responsibility, Pomering and Dolnicar (2009) have found that consumer’s awareness of corporate social responsibility initiatives affects consumer attitude and purchase intention, and in turn, determines the success of corporate social responsibility implementation. Nameghi and Shadi (2013) have addressed that cognition is significantly related to consumer attitudes. In. addition, Guerreiro, Rita, and Trigueiros (2015) have revealed that consumers’ choice of cause-related products is driven by cognitive motivation. Thus, this study has hypothesized that cognition affects consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing.
H2a~b: Cognition affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H2c~d: Cognition affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H2e~f: Cognition affects consumer attitudes toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
4.3. Effects of Sustainability on Attitude
Sustainability refers to “satisfying the current needs without compromising the future generation’s needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Sustainability is the core attribute in cause-related marketing since it emphasizes engagement in social and ecological issues within their brands or products (Barone, Miyazaki, & Taylor, 2000). Along with the growing interest in social and ecological issues, sustainability has become one of the key elements that both corporates and consumers consider. Communication of sustainability is considered as a marketing tool which allows the corporates to attract new customers and new investors (Baldassarre & Campo, 2016). Regarding the relationship between sustainability and consumer behavior, previous studies revealed the impact of sustainability on consumers. Miotto and Youn (2020) have stated that sustainability aspect of corporates affects altruistic motives, and consequently affects consumer’s trust toward brand and purchase intention. That is, sustainability is explicitly and implicitly related to consumer buying decisions (Zhang, Zhang, & Zhou, 2021). On this basis, this study has hypothesized that sustainability affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing.
H3a~b: Sustainability affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H3c~d: Sustainability affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H3e~f: Sustainability affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
4.4. Effects of Business Ethics on Attitude
Lewis (1985) has defined business ethics as rules, standards, codes, or principles which provide a guideline for morally right behavior and truthfulness in specific situation. Previous studies have examined the role of business ethics in consumer behavior. Creyer and Ross Jr (1997) have stated that firm’s ethical behavior is significantly important aspect that affects consumer purchase behavior. Folkes and Kamins (1999) have addressed that the information about a firm’s ethical behavior significantly influences consumer attitudes. More modern studies have also examined that consumer preferences for brands are promoted through appeals to business ethics (Ferrell, Harrison, Ferrell, & Hair, 2019). This implies that business ethics is one of the influential factors related to consumer attitudes. Hence, this study has hypothesized that business ethics affects consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing.
H4a~b: Business ethics affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H4c~d: Business ethics affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H4e~f: Business ethics affects consumer attitudes toward cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
4.5. Effects of Attitude on Purchase Intention
The bottom line of the Theory of Reasoned Action has been that attitude influences behavioral intention, which in turn influences behavior as a consequence (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Within this framework, extensive studies have explored the association between attitude and purchase behavior. Various studies have examined that positive consumer attitude significantly enhances their intention to purchase (Conner & Armitage, 1998). In regard to corporate social responsibility and cause-related marketing, scholars examined the linkage between attitude and purchase intention. According to Oh and Yoon (2014), attitude has positively affected consumption intention regarding socially responsible and ethical products. Lii, Wu, and Ding (2013) have examined that the positive attitude toward corporate social responsibility initiatives affects consumer’s purchase intention. Duarte and Silva (2018) have revealed that a better attitude toward a cause increases the intention to purchase cause-related products. Thus, this study has hypothesized that attitude affects purchase intention on cause-related marketing.
H5a~b: Attitude affects purchase intention regarding causerelated marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement
H5c~d: Attitude affects purchase intention regarding causerelated marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H5e~f: Attitude affects purchase intention regarding causerelated marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
4.6. Effects of Purchase Intention on Satisfaction
Satisfaction is one of the central marketing concepts that scholars in the field of consumer behavior have extensively explored. According to Oliver (2010), satisfaction is defined as the summary psychological state and a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment that result from linking a product’s perceived performance to their expectations. In other words, consumer satisfaction is based upon the gap between the expectation and the actual outcome. Consumer satisfaction generally occurs during consumption or after consumption, but it may also occur prior to choice of products or even in the absence of purchase (Giese & Cote, 2000). Even though numerous previous studies investigated the level of consumer satisfaction in cause-related marketing, the relationship between purchase intention and expected satisfaction is little known. Considering that consumer satisfaction may occur prior to actual purchase, this study hypothesized that purchase intention affects expected satisfaction toward cause-related marketing.
H6a~b: Purchase intention affects expected satisfaction regarding cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H6c~d: Purchase intention affects expected satisfaction regarding cause-related marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement.
H6e~f: Purchase intention affects expected satisfaction regarding cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with
5. Methodology
5.1. Data Collection
This study was conducted to examine factors affecting attitude towards cause-related marketing. To address the aims of this study, a quantitative analysis was carried out. Data used in this study were collected through online survey. The survey was distributed through web-based and online communication platforms (e.g., Naver, KakaoTalk, email). In order to avoid potential bias, the surveys were distributed with an anonymous link. The response rate was 48.75%. A total of 240 online surveys were distributed, and 117 were completed and validated.
5.2. Research Design
The survey questionnaires have been consisted of a total of three sections. The first section of the questionnaires has contained warming-up questions to bring initial attention of respondents. In this section, a brief explanation of the concept of cause-related marketing was provided with visual examples. After seeing the description and examples, the respondents were asked to answer if they had ever seen or heard of cause-related marketing and had ever purchased any products that used cause-related marketing. The second section of the survey has contained the main questions. Respondents were provided with different examples of cause-related marketing. The examples of cause-related marketing used in the survey was selected based on the literature review, with perspectives of the SDGs and instrumental conditioning. According to Laffrety and Edmondson (2014), the causes that are most likely to be used for cause-related marketing campaign has fell into four categories: health, human services, animal, and environment. On this basis, the cause-related marketing in this study has been classified to three types in the context of sustainable development goals: SDG 2 (zero hunger) SDG 3 (Health and Well-being), and SDG 13 (Climate action). In terms of instrumental conditioning, cause-related marketing in this research has focused on positive punishment and positive reinforcement. In the setting of cause-related marketing, the causes relating to the SDGs has been presented within the advertising message, which can be interpreted as a stimulus. Cause-related marketing that involves adding a stimulus has been categorized into two types: positive punishment and positive reinforcement. Therefore, a total of six different examples of cause-related marketing were selected, based on the combination of the linked SDGs and instrumental conditioning. After seeing each of the examples, respondents have been asked to answer six sub-part questions, which related to emotion, cognition, sustainability, business ethics, attitude, purchase intention, and expected satisfaction. The survey questionnaires have adopted a 5-point Likert scale. With regard to the main questions mentioned earlier, respondents have been asked to answer whether they agree or disagree by choosing a number between 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). Lastly, the third section asks the close-ended questions regarding socio-demographic information including gender, age, education level, marital status, employment status, and monthly income.
To check reliability, this study conducted Cronbach’s Alpha ( 𝛼) test prior to the main analysis. Table 1 summarizes results of Cronbach alpha in the cases of different types of SDGs with instrumental conditioning.
Table 1: Summary of Cronbach’s Alpha
* AD1: SDG 2 with positive punishment; AD2: SDG 2 with positive reinforcement; AD3: SDG 3 with positive punishment; AD4: SDG 3 with positive reinforcement; AD5: SDG 13 with positive punishment; AD6: SDG 13 with positive reinforcement
Sociodemographic findings from a total of 117 respondents show that 74.5% are female and 26.5% are male. Among the age group, 65% of the respondents are between 20 to 29 years, 23.9% are 30 to 39 years, 8.5% are 40 to 49 years, 1.9% are 50 to 50 years, and 0.9% are 60 to 60 years. In terms of educational background, 56.5% of respondents hold or pursue a bachelor’s degree, 29.1 % are working on or hold a master’s degree, 9.4% hold a high school diploma, and 5.1% hold or pursue a doctoral degree. In terms of the marital status of respondents, 76.9% of the total respondents are married and 23.1% are unmarried. With regard to the employment status, 48.7% of respondents are full-time employed, 9.4% are part-time employed, 23.9% are currently students, 7.7% are housewives, 0.9% are retired, and 9.4% are others, such as freelancer and job seekers. In terms of income, 37.6% of respondents have a monthly income of less than 2,000,000won, 33.3% have monthly incomes between 2,000,000 and 29,999,999won, 18.8% have monthly incomes between 3,000,000 and 39,999,999won, 4.3% have monthly incomes between 4,000,000 and 49,999,999won, 4.3% have monthly incomes of 6,000,000 won and above, and 1.7% are not applicable (Table 2).
Table 2: Demographics of the Respondents
6. Data Analysis
To check the validity of the major constructs, this study applied factor analysis with using Principal Component Analysis as an extraction method and with a varimax rotation of Kaiser Normalization. To extract factors for independent variables, a total of 14 items were used, and it yielded a total of four factors. This procedure was repeated for each of the six examples of cause-related marketing. In addition, the attitude, purchase intention, and expected satisfaction were all extracted as one factor with the same procedure repeated. The overall items used in the survey came out with values of factor loadings all above 0.8, with all Eigen values greater than 1.00. Thus, the items with the high loadings were relevant to represent the constructs of each variable. Table 3 to Table 8 summarized the result of factor analysis for factors that affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing for each case: emotion, cognition, sustainability, and expected satisfaction.
Table 3: Factor Loadings for AD1
Table 4: Factor Loadings for AD2
Table 5: Factor Loadings for AD3
Table 6: Factor Loadings for AD4
Table 7: Factor Loadings for AD5
Table 8: Factor Loadings for AD6vvvv
This study has applied factor scores for regression analyses to test the significance of the factors affecting cause-related marketing. Table 8 has represented the result of multiple regressions that shows the effects of factors on consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing. Table 9 summarized the results of ANOVA from the regression analysis. All showed significant at 0.01 and 0.05.
Table 9: Summary of ANOVA
As shown in Table 10, the findings indicate that. H1a, H1b, and H1f are accepted, but not H1c, H1d, and H1e. In other words, emotion affects attitude towards cause-related marketing linked to SDG2 with either positive punishment or positive reinforcement. Also, emotion affects attitude towards cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive reinforcement. Regarding cognition factor, the findings suggest that H2b, H2c, H2e, and H2f are accepted, but H2a and H2d are rejected. That is, cognition affects attitude towards cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive reinforcement, and cause-related marketing linked SDG 3 with positive punishment. Also, cognition affects attitude towards cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment and positive reinforcement. The finding also represents that H3a, H3d, and H4e are accepted, but not H3b, H3c, and H3f. Sustainability factor affects attitude towards cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment, SDG3 with positive reinforcement, and SDG 13 with positive punishment. Lastly, H4a, H4b, H4c, H4d, H4e, and H4f are all accepted. In other words, business ethics factor affects attitude towards cause-related marketing in every case.
Table 10: Effects of Factors on Attitude
*** Sig at 0.01; ** Sig at 0.05; * Sig at 0.1
Table 11 summarized the results of ANOVA from the regression analysis. All showed significant at 0.01. Table 12 represents the result of regression analysis on the effects of attitude on intention to purchase on cause-related marketing. As shown in Table 10, H5a, H5b, H5c, H5d, H5e, and H5f are accepted, meaning that attitude affects purchase intention on cause-related marketing for every case. Table 9 also represents the result of regression analysis on the effects of purchase intention on expected satisfaction on causerelated marketing. As shown in Table 9, findings indicate that H6a, H6b, H6c, H6c, H6d, H6e, and H6f are all accepted. Therefore, purchase intention affects expected satisfaction on cause-related marketing for every case.
Table 11: Summary of ANOVA
Table 12: Effects of Attitude on Purchase Intention
*** Sig at 0.01; ** Sig at 0.05; * Sig at 0.1
7. Conclusion
7.1. Findings
The purpose of this study was to examine effects of factors including emotion, cognition, sustainability, and business ethics on consumer attitudes towards cause-related marketing. In particular, this study explored effects based on selected sustainable development goals, including SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 13 (climate action) and different usage of instrumental conditioning, including positive punishment and positive reinforcement that are widely applied in cause-related marketing. This study filled the gap as applications of SDGs and instrumental conditioning on the analysis of causerelated marketing were rarely examined in previous studies.
The result of this study found that some of proposed factors showed significant on consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive punishment, emotion, sustainability, and business ethics affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing, but not the cognition factor. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 2 with positive reinforcement, emotion, sustainability, and business ethics affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing, but not the sustainability factor. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive punishment, cognition, sustainability and business ethics affects consumer attitude toward causerelated marketing, but not the emotion factor. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 3 with positive reinforcement, sustainability, and business ethics affect consumer attitude, but emotion and cognition do not significantly affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive punishment, cognition, sustainability, and business ethics affect consumer attitude toward causerelated marketing, but not emotion factor. In the case of cause-related marketing linked to SDG 13 with positive reinforcement, emotion, cognition, and business ethics affect consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing, but not the sustainability factor.
An interesting finding based on the analyses is that, among the factors, business ethics shows significant effect on consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing regardless of the types of SDGs and the types of instrumental conditioning. In addition, regardless of the cases of cause-related marketing, consumer attitude affects purchase intention, and purchase intention affects expected satisfaction on cause-related marketing. In terms of the emotion and cognition factor, consumers might a have different emotional and cognitive perception based on the way firms convey cause-related messages. The results might have been caused by the selected advertising examples based on different visualization in advertising, the images, the display of the brand logo, and the description of the amount of donation. Previous study found that message framing and visual image affect emotion and cognition (Seo, Dillard, & Shen, 2013). Thus, these differences in advertising have differently affected consumer’s emotion and cognition for each case of the examples. Regarding the sustainability factor, respondents have perceived the sustainability based on their prior knowledge or preferences of the companies. The examples used in this study have been global brands with high level of popularity. Even though those corporates are generally considered as global brands, the respondents might have been a different level of familiarity, preference, trust toward the companies and brands. Besides, the level of fit between sponsoring brand and the social cause enhances the brand image (Nan & Heo, 2007). Such factors could affect how consumers view and consider the sustainability of the firms.
7.2. Managerial and Policy Implications
The results of this study have provided managerial implications for producers and marketers in terms of a way to adopt cause-related marketing for better effectiveness. This study has found that business ethics affects consumer attitude toward cause-related marketing, regardless of the types of the cause and conditioning. This has implied that business ethics is one of the key factors that strongly influence consumer attitude. This finding of this study has suggested that firms should consider better communication strategy that emphasizes ethical consumption and business. If the messages that clearly convey the ethical outcomes of purchasing cause-related products are provided within cause-related marketing, consumers might have been more likely to have positive attitude and higher intention to purchase cause-related products. The results of this study also have suggested that marketers might consider to adopt instrumental conditioning that is rarely used such as negative reinforcement and negative punishment. Marketers could have attempted to adopt different types of instrumental conditioning by considering message types of cause-related advertising and identified which effect is the most influential to form consumer attitude.
Further, marketing and communication practitioners of companies and advertising agencies should design causerelated advertising that can create a positive consumer attitude and perception toward cause-related marketing and corporate social responsibility in long term. According to the result of this study, positive attitudes lead to high purchase intention, and high purchase intention leads to high expected satisfaction. In order to create positive consumer attitudes and to truly fulfil corporate social responsibility, companies could provide concrete results on how they made contribution to society through cause-related marketing, moving forward from a short-term cause-related marketing activity
This study also offers policy implication in the context of the sustainable development goals. In considering significant effects on consumer attitude toward causerelated marketing linked to SDG 2, SDG 3, and SDG 13, the results imply that consumers are generally conscious regarding the SDGs issue. These findings can be used to influence public policy and urge policymakers to actively communicate with both private and public sector to bring people’s attention to the SDGs. As discussed earlier, the United Nations engage the private sector in mainstreaming the SDGs agenda by setting responsible consumption and business as one of the goals, meaning that the SDGs can be achieved through collaboration between all sectors, including governments and the private sectors (United Nations, 2015). Policymakers can strategically consider collaborating with corporates to enhance sustainability through cause-related marketing. Consumers and corporates can both contribute to achieve sustainable development goals, and policymakers can facilitate achieving sustainable development. The ultimate purpose of the SDGs is to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all (United Nations, 2015). In order to achieve the ultimate goal, it is necessary for all the members of a society to work together. Cause-related marketing is one way of engaging all the stakeholders for achieving sustainable development through their responsible actions.
7.3. Limitations and Future Research
This research contains some limitations. Due to the constraints, the survey questionnaires were distributed only through an online format, which resulted in a relatively low response rate. Sample size could be improved in future research. There is also a scope for future study to be conducted to investigate the factors affecting consumer attitude towards cause-related marketing. In terms of the selection of examples for research designing, this study used cause-related marketing adopted by global corporates. Further research might examine Korean corporates’ causerelated marketing efforts and compare how consumer attitude differ based on the nationality of the corporates. In addition, further research may need to be supported by indepth qualitative research and experiments. Structural equation model can be applied to explore the relationship of factors, attitude, purchase intention, and satisfaction on cause-related marketing. Future studies could investigate the cross-cultural differences in factors that affect attitude, purchase intention, and satisfaction on cause-related marketing.
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