Non-profit, social, arts and heritage marketing

Citation

Bennett, R., Kerrigan, F. and O'Reilly, D. (2011), "Non-profit, social, arts and heritage marketing", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 45 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2011.00745eaa.001

Non-profit, social, arts and heritage marketing

Article Type: Guest editorial From: European Journal of Marketing, Volume 45, Issue 5

The importance of non-profit, social, arts and heritage (NSAH) marketing is beyond contention. On average 5 per cent of the annual gross domestic products of the OECD nations arises from these sectors, and governments throughout the world are increasingly involved in NSAH marketing communications, campaigns and regulation. A large amount of academic research is now being undertaken in the NSHA area; dedicated colloquia and tracks within conferences on NSHA marketing are commonplace, and the major academic marketing journals routinely publish articles on NSAH topics. Today, courses in non-profit, social, arts and heritage marketing are taught or are being developed in universities across the globe. Research institutes and centres specialising in one or more facets of NSAH marketing have been established in Britain, Australasia, several countries in continental Europe and in North America.

NSAH marketing research has huge relevance for user communities, given the immediate applicability of so many of its outcomes. The constantly rising level of the intellectual rigour of NSAH research means in addition that it has much to offer to marketing theory. It is timely and useful therefore for the European Journal of Marketing, as one of the world’s leading outlets for advanced marketing research, to publish this Special Issue, which showcases some of the latest thinking and empirical investigation in the NSAH research domain.

The Special Issue begins with a stimulating paper by Zoe Lee and Adrian Sargeant that explores the important problem of the “social desirability bias” that often arises when members of the public complete questionnaires concerning sensitive topics. After reviewing 50 years’ research on the subject, the authors conclude that pre-existing measures of social desirability bias are inadequate, and hence set about the construction and validation of a completely new scale. Lee and Sargeant find that social desirability bias is multi-dimensional in nature and, disturbingly, that it is extremely common among charity donors who self-report the amounts they give.

In the next paper, Dionysis Skarmeas and Haseeb Shabbir explore possible connections between religiosity, self-construal, the manners whereby donors interpret the quality of their relationships with charity and donors’ future giving behaviour. A model of suggested inter-relations among these variables is constructed and tested on a sample of 227 donors to British charities. Religiosity and self-construal exerted powerful effects on perceived relationship quality, which in turn had a significant influence on donor intentions. Hence, Skarmeas and Shabbir’s research highlights the critical role of identity-based constructs in the determination of giving behaviour, a finding with many implications for charity fundraising.

Melanie Randle and Sara Dolnicar examine the question of whether individuals who possess different types of self-concept prefer to volunteer for disparate genres of non-profit organisation. The issue is addressed across a range of organisations with particular sorts of organisational mission. Outcomes to the study suggest that people who express distinct predilections to volunteer for specific forms of organisation do indeed differ substantially in their self-concept. Linkages between the congruence of a non-profit organisation’s public image with a person’s self-concept, and hence with the individual’s willingness to volunteer for that organisation, were also analysed. The more conspicuous the public profile of an organisation, the more likely that self-congruity would play a part in a decision to volunteer for the organisation.

Next, Isabelle Szmigin, Andrew Bengry-Howell, Christine Griffin, Chris Hackley and Willm Mistral investigate the role of social marketing in tackling the problem of binge drinking and the “culture of intoxication” that has arisen among young people in the UK. The paper critiques the approach adopted by many anti-drinking campaigns, whereby messages based on notions of individual responsibility are used to discourage excessive consumption of alcohol. An empirical study compared young people’s perceptions of the amounts they drink with those of the government bodies that seek to control their behaviour. Substantial differences emerged, due in part to the social and community involvement aspects of drinking that caused individuals to regard officially “safe” levels of alcohol consumption to be too low to be taken seriously. The outcomes to the research suggest many lessons for the construction of anti-binge drinking campaigns and messages.

Heath McDonald explores the manners whereby “heritage” may be consumed by members of the public. A mixed methods investigation was completed to establish how a sample of Australians assessed:

1. 1.

   various components of Australia’s heritage;

2. 2.

   which of these were deemed to be the most important to protect; and

3. 3.

   how the respondents engaged with heritage-related activities.

It appeared that heritage was generally regarded as critical to the participants’ identities and that the sample members would experience a deep sense of loss if certain aspects of heritage were lost. The author concludes that, whilst measures to stimulate public interest in heritage issues do not seem to be necessary, challenges do arise vis-à-vis the conversion of public concerns for the preservation of heritage into behaviour that encourages a sustainable heritage management system.

Krzysztof Kubacki and Robin Croft examine the attitudes of jazz musicians towards the marketing of performances, focusing on possible conflicts between artistic integrity and the need, for financial reasons, to achieve popular success. The research was completed in Poland, a country with a long and rich tradition in jazz. Musicians participating in the study were divided into those who regarded music as a way of life rather than as a source of employment, and those who saw the marketability of their performances as a primary consideration. A clear divide existed between the two groups. The authors conclude that identity formation may have resulted from the degree of formality of a person’s musical training, suggesting a role for the inclusion of marketing and entrepreneurial elements in musical education.

Finally, the paper by Ian Fillis and Lee Boram investigates the internationalisation activities of five Korean dance companies that participated in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The authors argue that many pre-existing internationalisation constructs are not relevant to internationalising arts organisations. Hence, constructs pertaining to small businesses in the creative and artistic industries are applied and their influences evaluated. The findings of the study indicate that tolerance of risk and entrepreneurial marketing competencies help to minimise the consequences of problems encountered by performing arts organisations during the internalisation process. Parallels are drawn among the disciplines of arts marketing, small business marketing, internationalisation and entrepreneurship.

The papers in this Special Issue demonstrate unequivocally the academic rigour and intellectual maturity of research in NSAH marketing. They develop knowledge and understanding of critical NSAH marketing issues, explore fresh concepts, and challenge pre-existing orthodoxies. Collectively the seven papers in this Special Issue furnish valuable insights into the current state of the art of research in the field. Importantly, moreover, they demonstrate forcibly the potential value of (and hence the pressing need for) future empirical, interpretative and epistemological investigations in the area.

Roger Bennett, Finola Kerrigan and Daragh O’ReillyGuest Editors