Casual Day project literature review

The literature review I wrote below, was incorporated into the final report…

In published research, the concept of behavioural intention (BI) has shown applicability in the context of donating (Netemeyer, Andrews, & Durvasula, 1993). In addition, it has been suggested that BI is a close predictor of behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Behavioural intention models provide a structure for this study within which to examine the behaviour of donating and understanding what drives positive behavioural intention towards the act of donating.

As far back as the 1960s, researchers have been investigating the concept of behavioural intention and current research on behavioural intention finds its roots in theories such as the theory of propositional control (Dulany, 1961). The researchers Ajzen and Fishbein’s work on behavioural intention is often cited in the literature (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977). In the 1980s, the suggested model of BI was expanded on to suggest two further models of behaviour. These models are the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behaviour. The two models mentioned above have direct applicability to donation behaviour and build on each other with the first, the theory of reasoned action at the base.

The theory of reasoned action suggests that behaviour is preceded by an intention to act and that intention is determined by an individual’s attitude towards the behaviour to act and their perception of what relevant others think (in other words, a social consideration). The theory of planned behaviour builds on the theory of reasoned action by suggesting that goal-directed behaviour plays a part in subsequent behaviour. It proposes that successful behavioural performance is a measure of perceived behavioural control – the subjective belief on how easy or difficult performing a behaviour will be.(Ajzen, 1991).

Based on the premises of these theories, other research has been undertaken on the decision to donate, this decision being described as having economic, sociological and psychological underpinnings (Drollinger, 1997). These underpinnings are closely related to an intention and a motivation to donate, factors which Drollinger (1997) examined in the context of donating to charity. She concluded that income, education, further education, affiliation to a religious organisation and pro-social experiences while growing up were of relevance. A year earlier Hibbert and Horne (1996) described the donor decision process as involving personality traits, subjective information processing, level of personal meaning, subjective perception of the situation and social learning and conditioning. More recent research suggests that intention to donate is influenced by moral norms in addition to the factors of attitude, perceived behavioural control and past behaviour.

In South Africa, the precepts of behavioural intention models have been applied to cause-related marketing models. In a recent study (Human, 2016), specific consumers’ knowledge and opinions about cause-related marketing was explored and the independent and interactive influence of selected campaign structural elements on consumer responses was investigated. Several structural elements pertaining to cause-related marketing were investigated. These elements were product involvement (high; low), donation recipient specificity (specified; vague), donation magnitude (high; low) and donation expression format (actual amount; percentage-of-price). Although cause-related marketing cannot be fully equated with direct donation, lessons can be learnt from this research. For example amongst others, a specified donation was found to be one of the variables to have the most positive impact on consumer responses.

Another study dealing with cause-related marketing, although not conducted in South Africa, has direct bearing on the current study and was conducted in 2013 (van Steenburg). van Steenburg explored the effect of advertisements from non-profit organisations on donating behaviour. He argued that an advertisement that involved the viewer was the “primary driver for behavioral intention in a nonprofit context over one’s preexisting attitudes and beliefs” (p. i) (referring back to the theory of reasoned behaviour) but there is a strong social element coming into play. He found that increased propensity to donate occurred when the advertising message showed that others supported the cause and when there is personal involvement in the cause. What becomes clear through the research is the importance

In research conducted in Belgium in 2010 (Weymans, 2010), it was suggested that prosocial behaviour, namely voluntary actions intended to help another individual or group, can be determined from a number of predicting attributes such as altruism, motivation, beliefs, past behaviour, socio demographic situation and empathy. In addition, characteristics of the organisation itself could predict whether prosocial behaviour will occur. This was found to be the case when

The organisation is inefficient and doesn’t achieve its social mission
The organization is inefficient and does not achieve much with the money donated to it
Managers, employees, or board members are seen to misuse their power to control funds by inappropriately allocating excessive benefits to themselves
The organisation takes on excessive risks

Research has also been undertaken with regards to advertising and the impact this can have on donating behaviour. A study by Strongman (2000) investigated the use of images in advertising. They found that images are cognitively processed and their results clearly showed that:

Images of children used by charities can provoke emotional reactions.
Images of children that evoke negative emotions appear to produce more and greater potential donations than those that evoke positive emotions.
Within the range of emotional intensity which we manipulated, the stronger the negative emotion evoked by an image of a child then the greater was the level of stated potential donating.(Strongman, 2000, p. 578)