Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of perceived overall justice and the moderating effect of self- and other-centered motives in the relationship between organizational corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational attractiveness using a sample of job applicants.

The hypotheses were tested using a 2-by-2 experimental design and a sample of 376 South Korean University students.

The results showed that organizational CSR positively influenced job applicants’ perceived overall justice. Moreover, it was found that perceived overall justice mediated the influence of CSR on organizational attractiveness. However, contrary to the hypotheses, the indirect effect of CSR on organizational attractiveness through perceived overall justice was significant only for job applicants who attributed self-centered motives to CSR.

As it was found that job applicants who attributed other-centered motives to organizational CSR had high levels of perceived overall justice regarding organizations, independent of the actual level of engagement in CSR, it is crucial that organizations show sincerity in executing CSR. In addition, small- and medium-sized organizations may not have sufficient resources for CSR, but it is especially crucial for them to focus on CSR activities that are aligned with their business, implement CSR programs consistently, and focus on CSR itself rather than on advertising in order to facilitate, among job applicants, the attribution of other-centered motives to their CSR.

From the perspective of overall justice and attributed motives, this study intensively explores the internal mechanism by which organizational engagement in CSR influences organizational attractiveness among job applicants. In practical terms, this study shows that it is important for organizations to consistently invest in CSR with authenticity, even when CSR activities are insubstantial and doing so may be attributed to self-centered motives. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

It is recognized that employees’ helping and voice behaviors are dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior used by supervisors to evaluate their job performance. However, existing empirical studies of these relationships have shown inconsistent findings. From the perspective of attributional theory, the purpose of this paper is to explain when subordinates’ helping and voice behaviors are more positively related to job performance by considering supervisor-attributed prosocial and impression management motives.

Using a sample of 200 supervisors in South Korea, the authors tested the hypotheses with hierarchical multiple regression analyses.

Results indicate that the positive effects of helping and voice behaviors on job performance were stronger when supervisors attributed such behaviors as driven less by impression management motives related to self-interest. However, contrary to the expectations, the positive influences of helping and voice behaviors on job performance were stronger when supervisors perceived low prosocial motives.

Findings suggest that supervisors need to avoid making the wrong attributions with regard to their subordinates’ helping and voice behaviors during the evaluation process. In addition, subordinates need to have clear motives and demonstrate consistent behavioral stances when engaging in such behaviors.

Using social information theory and attribution theory, this study contributes to explain when helping and voice behaviors improve evaluations of employees’ job performances by considering supervisor-attributed motives.

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is an increasing popular marketing strategy in which a firm donates a specific amount to a designed cause when customers engage in revenue-providing exchanges. Based on balance and attribution theory, this paper aims to explore the interaction effect of donation amount and ad orientation, two important factors of formulation and communication of CRM, respectively, on consumer response and the mediating effect of consumers’ perceived company motives.

Two 2 (donation amount: small vs large) × 2 (ad orientation: product- vs cause-oriented) between-subjects experimental studies were conducted in marketing course with 284 and 157 Chinese undergraduate students participating in Studies 1 and 2, respectively. ANOVA and regression were used to test the hypotheses.

Study 1 shows the significant interaction effects of donation amount and ad orientation on consumers’ response. When CRM has a large donation amount, cause-oriented (vs product-oriented) ad leads to consumers’ more positive company attitude and higher purchase intention. The opposite is true for the small donation amount condition. Study 2 shows that the above interaction effect is mediated by consumer-attributed company motives. The attributed motive of sincerely caring about social cause has significant positive effect on consumer response, whereas the attributed motive of increasing sales or improving corporate image does not.

This paper contributes to the literature by empirically examining the interaction effect of donation amount and ad orientation on consumer-inferred motives and behavioral response. The findings are valuable because they indicate the importance of matching between factors at formulation and communication stage. In addition, this paper found that consumers are “tolerant” of companies using CRM to promote product sales and improve brand image.

Taking attribution theory as an overarching framework, the study aims to examine how employees attribute and respond to a colleague's approach crafting.

Two complementary studies, including a scenario experiment (Study 1; N = 114) and an online survey (Study 2; N = 220), were conducted to test the hypothesized model.

Study 1 found support for the attribution of a prosocial motive to approach crafting, which in turn led to more social support and less social undermining among observers. This mediation was stronger when the job crafter was perceived as less other-oriented. Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 and further showed that when observers attributed both high impression management and prosocial motives to approach crafting, the positive relationship between their prosocial motive attribution and social support for the job crafter got weakened, while the negative relationship between their prosocial motive attribution and social undermining of the job crafter was strengthened.

The findings demonstrate that approach crafting gives rise to specific attributions and reactions toward the job crafter, which enrich the understanding of the social consequences of job crafting in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model that describes when helping is considered helping from the recipient’s point of view.

The theoretical model was conceptually developed by drawing upon attribution theory, self-consistency theory and social cognitive theory, as well as relevant literature.

The authors propose that receiving help encompasses three sequential stages: the pre-help-receiving stage, the help-receiving stage and the post-help-receiving stage. Additionally, the authors theorize that the more other-oriented helping motives are attributed by the recipient, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping, that the more self-esteem preserving behaviors along with helping actions the recipient receives from the helper, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping and that the more gaps between actual and desired level of task performance are closed by the helper’s help, the more likely the recipient views the helper’s help as helping.

From a theoretical standpoint, this paper offers a process approach that may guide future research on help receiving in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agreement between supervisors and subordinates concerning the motives of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and how the supervisors’ attributions affect their OCB ratings.

With the permission of seven large organizations in Macau, the authors conducted a survey of 500 employee-supervisor-co-worker triads. The final sample stood at 176 such triads with three hypotheses tested.

First, supervisors are more accurate when judging altruistic motives of subordinates’ OCB than with egoistic motives. Second, supervisor attribution of subordinates’ altruistic motives positively affects the supervisors’ OCB ratings. Third, employees who are motivated by altruistic motives perform more OCB actions those egoistically motivated.

The study adds to knowledge of how supervisor attribution of subordinates’ OCB motives affects their evaluation of the subordinates. It also provides evidence about the effect of OCB motives on the actual engagement in OCB. Findings of this study support the work of Organ et al. regarding the motives behind OCB and strengthen the role of attribution theory in studying OCB.

This paper aims to show how environment-related worldview beliefs, in addition to specific persuasion knowledge, can influence how a consumer responds to ads about corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects.

Two experiments manipulated ad copy and consumers’ persuasion knowledge to examine the effects of consumers’ environmental worldview beliefs on their judgments of a firm’s CSR reforestation project.

When an ad presented ambiguous information, both consumers’ persuasion knowledge and their environmental worldview influenced the attribution of the firm’s motives. When an ad presented environment-specific information, however, consumers’ worldview did not influence their attribution of motives. Attributions, in turn, predicted attitudes toward the ad and attitudes toward the brand and were associated with intentions for information-seeking and referral behavior.

A consumer’s core beliefs can play an important role in understanding the application of persuasion knowledge, and the reinforcement-of-meaning principle expands the persuasion knowledge model’s explanatory power.

Marketing communications that involve social responsibility projects must take into account how core beliefs can influence the way consumers respond to projects.

This research demonstrates the importance of worldview beliefs in communication that takes place in the public sphere.

The experiments’ results contribute to a more robust understanding of the persuasion knowledge model, particularly as it applies to CSR messages and introduces the reinforcement-of-meaning principle.

This study aims to investigate how judgments of firms’ underlying motives are affected by corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication which features percentages of profit allocations to CSR causes. It also examines how firm size interacts with CSR spending allocations affecting motive attributions for firms of different sizes.

Two experiments were carried out manipulating CSR spending allocations (smaller vs larger percentage of profit) and firm size (small vs large firm).

A larger percentage of profits allocated to CSR enhanced value-driven motives and inhibited inferences of manipulative intent, which produced lower egoistic-driven motives. Large firms allocating smaller percentages to CSR were judged as less value-driven and were more prone to elicit manipulative intent.

Two routes of motive attributions were identified – a direct route, contingent on CSR spending allocations and firm size; and an indirect route via inferences of manipulative intent, which inhibited favorable motives and prompted unfavorable ones. Both routes resulted from numerical cognition associated with the processing of numbers. Managerial implications include suggestions for firms wishing to overcome negative consumer bias arising from communication featuring CSR spending allocations and firm size.

This study aims to examine the effect of the perceived sponsor ubiquity on sponsor favorability via perceived sponsor sincerity and the moderating effect of perceived sponsor–property fit.

Two studies via a questionnaire survey of spectators attending a Japanese professional basketball game were conducted, and Hayes’ PROCESS macro was used for data analyses. Study 1 (n = 134) assessed how perceived sponsor ubiquity affected sponsor favorability via perceived sponsor sincerity. Study 2 (n = 206) examined a moderated mediation model incorporating a perceived sponsor–property fit.

In Studies 1 and 2, spectators perceiving a higher degree of sponsor ubiquity reported a lower degree of sponsor sincerity compared with those perceiving a lower degree of sponsor ubiquity and less favorability toward sponsors. In Study 2, the less positive effect of highly perceived ubiquity was weakened when spectators perceived a higher degree of sponsor–property fit.

The findings provided sponsors with insights into effectively communicating perceived ubiquity and perceived sponsor–property fit. Hence, sponsors must be careful about their ubiquitous sponsorships, as their engagement in each property can be perceived as less distinctive among consumers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to highlight the mediating mechanism of perceived insincerity between perceived ubiquity and favorability toward sponsors. Furthermore, evidence that fit acted as a moderator on perceived ubiquity–outcome relationships extended previous studies mainly treating fit as a direct antecedent of sponsor response.

Charities depend on giving behaviors of organizations to fulfil their purpose, whereas corporations seek to improve their image in return. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to investigate optimal donation thresholds for organizations to enhance their corporate social responsibility (CSR) image.

Experiment 1 (N = 482) tests whether CSR image improves with donation amount up to the point at which it becomes excessive (H1) and whether this point differs between firms in a positive versus negative economic situation (H2). Experiment 2 (N = 432) examines the role of consumer attribution of firm motives through mediation of these effects (H3), while also exploring consumer donation expectations by testing an “undefined” amount. Experiment 3 (N = 400) validates the role of attributions through the moderating effect of motives.

The experiments demonstrate an optimal interval between inferior and superior donation amounts that maximize the impact of corporate giving on CSR image through the attribution of society-serving motives. Furthermore, the economic situation of the company alters these thresholds – higher donations are required to positively influence the CSR image when the company is in a favorable situation.

This research answers a long-term call to provide more reliable tools on which to base charitable giving decisions. It also identifies perceived donating motives as the psychological process underlying consumers’ response to donation magnitudes.

The authors determine psychological donation thresholds by examining amounts perceived as insignificant in comparison to excessive and provide managers with an easy-to-implement method to determine optimal donation amounts from their target market.

By examining charitable giving at the micro-level, this research provides practical advice to companies on how to determine, ahead of time, how much to donate and what exactly to communicate in which economic situation.