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The purposes of this study are to demonstrate the conditional effect of functional fit and image fit on consumer brand attitude through the altruistic attributions and identify the criteria for choosing a perfect social cause for managers.

Based on the existing research, a conceptual model is proposed, explained the moderating effect of social cause affinity on the indirect influence of functional fit and image fit on consumer brand attitude via altruistic attributions; these relationships were assessed through a bootstrap procedure. The model was estimated with a sample of 240 subjects. Two newly created, printed corporate social responsibility (CSR) information served as the basic stimulus of this article.

The main conclusions are as follows: first, social cause affinity moderates the effect of functional fit and image fit on altruistic attributions, and the combination of image fit and social cause affinity both on high levels can more easily lead to the emergence of suspicion of company's altruistic motives, contrary to functional fit. Second, contingent on social cause affinity, CSR fit has an indirect relationship with consumer brand attitude mediated by altruistic attribution. More specifically, the indirect effect will be more positive for functional fit with higher levels of social cause affinity, but for image fit with low levels of affinity.

The experiment relied on fictitious corporate name. Most of the responders were students from Changchun. This may reduce the generalizability of the results.

Besides functional fit and image fit, social cause affinity should be treated as a key criterion to choose social cause.

This work analyses and compares the indirect effect of functional fit and image fit on consumer brand attitude through altruistic attributions. The findings give some enlightenment on solutions to contradictions in existing research.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of two determinants of purchase intention in food label campaigns: altruistic attribution and brand equity.

A 2 × 2 between-group factorial experimental design was used, with 2 levels of altruistic attribution (high/low) and 2 levels of brand equity (high/low). The product used for the study was pork chops. A survey was conducted on 602 respondents representing the population of Quebec, Canada.

Structural equation modelling was used to evaluate the fit of the data with the proposed mod el. The results demonstrate that altruistic attribution and brand equity have an indirect impact on purchase intention via perceptions of taste and food safety. Altruistic attribution, but not brand equity, also has a direct impact on purchase intention.

The experiment in this study was conducted via an online consumer panel to increase internal validity. As a result, one of the limitations of the study concerns its external validity.

This research provides strategic guidelines for businesses or organisations that wish to develop food label campaigns. They must simultaneously consider both altruistic attribution and pre-existing brand equity.

This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the impact of altruistic attribution and brand equity on purchase intention in the context of food label campaigns. The study mobilises attribution theory and the multidimensional consumer-based brand equity scale.

Negative word-of-mouth has a variety of negative effects on companies. Thus, how consumers process and evaluate negative word-of-mouth is an important issue for companies. This research aims to investigate the effect of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on consumers' perceived helpfulness.

The research model was developed based on attribution theory. A four-study approach involving two field experiments and two online experiments was employed to examine the proposed hypotheses.

The results show that the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth negatively affects altruistic motive attributions, while altruistic motive attributions positively affect perceived helpfulness and plays a mediating role in the relationship between the emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth and perceived helpfulness. Consumers' self-construal moderates the effects of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness, with the negative effects of emotional intensity of negative word-of-mouth on altruistic motive attributions and perceived helpfulness being weaker for consumers with high interdependent self-construal than for those with high independent self-construal.

The findings not only have a significant theoretical contribution, deepening the understanding of the effects of negative word-of-mouth but also have useful implications for practitioners to improve the management of negative word-of-mouth.

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the moderating effect of consumer altruistic values upon two drivers of brand credibility in cause‐related marketing (CrM): cause‐brand fit and consumer attribution of altruistic brand motivations.

This is a quantitative study. Data have been collected through personal interviews at households using the random route sampling technique. The sample is formed by consumers of insurance and personal hygiene products, using different brand‐social cause combinations. Data have been analysed through structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis to test the moderation hypotheses.

Findings show that altruistic consumers use mainly altruistic attribution to form their judgement on brand credibility in CrM messages, whereas non altruistic consumers base their assessment on cause‐brand fit.

Real brands have been used in the empirical study and thus further research should replicate the study with fictional brands in order to avoid the effect of consumer prior information.

The findings have relevant implications for CrM campaign managers in helping them to understand how to increase brand credibility in CrM messages. They should emphasize altruistic motivations if their target comprises more altruists or brand‐cause fit if non‐altruists outweigh.

This study contributes to the literature by making explicit the moderating role of altruistic values on two antecedents of brand credibility (cause‐brand fit and altruistic attributions) in a CrM campaign.

This paper aims to examine the common situation where the sponsor of an event is replaced and the impact of this situation on consumers’ behavioral intentions toward the new sponsor.

An original conceptual framework was developed to account for consumers’ reactions toward a new sponsor in the context of a sponsorship change, depending on whether the former and new sponsors are competitors, the duration of the relationship between the former sponsor and the event (tenure length), and the level of congruence between the new and the former sponsor and the event. This framework, based on consumer motive attributions, was tested by means of three completely randomized experiments.

The results of the first experiment show that if the former and new sponsors are competitors, consumers’ behavioral intentions toward the new sponsor are more positive if the former sponsor’s tenure duration was short. When the former and the new sponsors are not competitors, the former sponsor’s tenure duration does not impact behavioral intentions. The second experiment demonstrates that consumers’ altruistic motive attributions are the underlying mechanism that explains these effects. Finally, the third experiment identifies a boundary condition, that is, these effects occur only if the new and the former sponsor are congruent with the sponsored property.

This research has not considered the situation where the former and new sponsors have different levels of congruence with the event (e.g. when the former sponsor is congruent but the new sponsor is incongruent with the event) and has examined only sponsorship tenure durations of one versus 15 years.

Sponsorship managers learn that replacing a sponsor that was supporting the event for a short rather than a long period of time is more beneficial, but only if replacing a competitor that is congruent with the sponsored property. The reason is that such a replacement triggers more altruistic motive attributions compared with contexts where the former sponsor is not a competitor or incongruent with the sponsored property. Suggestions of sponsorship activation strategies known to increase perceptions of altruism are provided to enhance sponsorship effectiveness for new sponsors.

This study is the first to look at how consumer responses to a new sponsor vary depending on the former sponsor’s tenure length, competitor status and event congruency.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the dual nature of social cause‐brand fit by studying the influence of two cause‐brand fit categories, functional fit and image fit, on the formation of brand corporate social responsibility consumer perception (CSR perception) in a cause‐brand alliance (CBA) context.

A theoretical model is proposed, based on previous research, which explains the effect of functional fit and image fit on altruistic attributions, brand credibility and CSR image; these relationships were assessed through structural equation modelling. The model was estimated with a sample of 299 Spanish consumers of toiletries and cosmetics products, randomly selected. Two newly created, printed CBA advertisements served as the basic stimulus of the study.

This research shows that consumers perceive functional and image fit differently, and each has its own mechanism for influencing brand CSR perception. While functional fit has a direct, although gentle influence on CSR perception, image fit has an indirect influence, as it is used as a cue to evaluate altruistic brand motivations and brand credibility.

The chosen research approach may reduce the generalisability of the results. Further empirical testing using alternative brands and outcome measures is encouraged.

Both types of fit influence the formation of CSR perception, and should therefore be postulated as decision criteria to brand managers for choosing the CBA partner. Specifically, brands which are likely of being perceived as not credible or egoistic when associating with the cause, must pay special attention to image fit.

This work analyses and compares simultaneously the influence of functional fit and image fit on CSR brand perception formation in the context of a CBA strategy.

This study aims to investigate how organizations can utilize sport sponsorship to build their corporate social responsibility (CSR) image effectively, by examining the attributes of a sports property that are most conducive to a sponsor gaining CSR image benefits.

A between-subjects experimental design was used, which simulated different sponsorship scenarios by varying community proximity (operationalized by property scope) and property engagement in community initiatives. Hypotheses were tested with a non-parametric bootstrapping-based procedure, using a panel sample of 400.

The results show that a sporting property’s proactive community engagement is conducive to an enhanced CSR image for its sponsor, especially when the property operates on the national rather than grassroots level. Further analysis also demonstrates the critical contribution of altruistic motive attributions in the process.

This study advances knowledge on how organizations may build their CSR image while leveraging on the strong audience involvement and the mass appeal of sport sponsorship. It is the first to offer insights into the extent to which a sports property’s proactive engagement in the community, rather than that of the sponsoring firm itself, enhances the CSR image of the sponsor, particularly if the property’s community proximity is low. Furthermore, our results provide an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms determining the benefits that sponsors can reap from a property’s activities.

The complementarity factor stipulates that a sponsorship leveraging strategy can lead to suboptimal consumer responses unless advertising complements, rather than reinforces, the nature of the event-sponsor relationship. Study 1 showed that the best strategy when the sponsor is an official product provider for the event is to leverage the sponsorship through advertisements that emphasise its overall image and value as opposed to its products. However, the reverse is true when the sponsor is an official event partner, where a product-oriented sponsorship leveraging yields the best outcomes. Study 2 replicated the complementarity factor effect using a different event and different set of stimulus brands. It showed that consumer attributions, with respect to the sponsor's motivations, are the key mediating psychological mechanism.

Previous research suggests that firms should articulate incongruent sponsorships to provide a rationale for the relationship between sponsor and sponsorship object. Fit articulation is a strategy that communicates shared associations between sponsor and object. Based on conclusion explicitness theory, this paper aims to conceptualize and tests two fit articulation strategies in sponsorships: open-ended and closed-ended.

Research hypotheses were tested in two experiments.

Only open-ended fit articulation improved brand attitudes. Mediation analyses show that while open-ended articulation influenced brand attitudes through brand image (Study 1 and Study 2) and altruistic motive attributions (Study 2), there was an indirect effect of closed-ended articulation on brand attitudes through global fit perceptions (Study 2).

The results from two experiments suggest that incongruent sponsors should use open-ended conclusions about a shared image dimension. Although explicit arguments may increase global perceptions of fit, they may impede a positive impact on the articulated brand image dimension and generation of altruistic motive attribution. Therefore, sponsorship managers should be careful in terms of using explicit arguments for fit when the sponsorship is incongruent because such arguments may hinder articulation from generating goodwill and a positive brand image.

This is the first paper to develop and test different types of fit articulation strategies in sponsorships.

This paper investigates the effects of advising strength of a recommendation agent on users' trust and distrust beliefs and how the effects are moderated by perceived brand familiarity.

A research model is evaluated using a laboratory experiment with 149 participants.

Results reveal that a strong advising tone leads to higher trust in terms of users' credibility and benevolence beliefs and lower distrust in terms of their discredibility beliefs (the trustor's concerns regarding the trustee's dishonesty and competence in engaging in harmful behavior) when perceived brand familiarity is high. By contrast, when brand familiarity is low, strong advising tone results in low trust in terms of users' credibility belief and high distrust in terms of their beliefs in discredibility and malevolence (concerns regarding the trustee's conduct in terms of a malicious intention that can hurt the trustor's welfare).

This paper contributes to the trust and distrust literature by studying how each of the dimensions of trust and distrust can be affected by an RA's design feature. It extends the attribution theory to the RA context by studying the moderating role of brand familiarity in determining the effects of the advising strength of an RA. It provides actionable guidelines for practitioners regarding the adoption of an RA's appropriate advising strength to promote different types of products.