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This study mainly aims to examine whether entrepreneurs’ utilization of political connections is purely egoistic. Addressing this issue could shed light on traditional debate which concerns whether political connections still have strategic value at advanced stage of institutional transition today in China. Here, at the background of Chinese economic transformation, the utilization of political connections is studied, and a double-role model of the pro-self-mechanism and the pro-social mechanism between political connections and performance in China is put forward.

This study uses survey of questionnaires randomly from 363 entrepreneurs in Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong Provinces of China and adopts the first stage and direct moderation model in examination.

The results show that there exists mediated mechanism of both pro-self and pro-social mechanism in the relationship between political connections and firm performance. The authors conclude that utilization of political connections is not only purely egoistic but also altruistic. So, both dark-side and bright-side mechanisms of political connections in China are of equal importance. In addition, the authors take into consideration of the contingency effects of institution, industry and firm-level factors of this moderation model. The pro-self and pro-social mechanisms have differences in terms of moderator-within and moderator-between comparisons of these three contingency effects. Among these comparisons, the pro-self-mediating mechanism is most sensitive to changes of institutional quality, whereas the pro-social mediating mechanism is most sensitive to the uncertainty of industry competition.

This evidence furthermore verifies that the process of institutional transition is nonlinear and political connections still have strategic value in advanced stage of institutional transition today.

This study combines the dual perspectives of “give” and “take.” The former implies the pro-social motivation, while the latter implies the pro-self-motivation. Based on the framework of “resource-conduct-performance,” this study explores how these two mechanisms mediate the relationship between political ties and firm performance. In addition, the authors adopt the framework of “Strategy Tripod,” which was proposed by Peng et al. (2009) and examine the difference between pro-self and pro-social motivation at different level of institution environment improvement, industry dynamics and firm absorptive capacity.

This paper aims to examine the effect of anthropomorphic entities in the public service advertisements (PSA) on individuals’ pro-social behavior. In addition, the role of individuals’ need for affect and self-construal in moderating the effect of anthropomorphism toward pro-social behavior is explored.

An experimental research design is executed to identify the causal relationship between anthropomorphic representations in the advertisements and pro-social behavior.

The findings suggest that anthropomorphism in PSA is helpful in increasing compliance behavior amongst individuals. Besides, an individual’s need for affect was found to positively moderate pro-social behavior.

The authors extend the existing literature on the usage of anthropomorphism in social causes. The authors also explore the role of one of the intrinsic motivations, need for affect, in pro-social behavior.

The study demonstrates how best one could use anthropomorphization in PSA by sensitizing individuals to social causes and compliance behavior.

The study builds upon the existing research on anthropomorphization, need for affect and pro-social behavior in increasing compliance with PSA.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and employee dedication and the relationship between transformational leadership and pro‐social behaviour. This study seeks to extend Gill et al.'s findings regarding the impact of transformational leadership on job stress and the impact of job stress on burnout.

Hospitality industry employees were interviewed to find out if transformational leadership used by their managers improves employee dedication and pro‐social behaviour.

Results suggest that employee dedication and pro‐social behaviour are positively related to the improvement in the level of perceived transformational leadership implementation.

If employees perceive that their managers are using high‐level transformational leadership, employee dedication and pro‐social behaviour are perceived as higher level than if it is perceived as being used at lower level.

This paper offers useful insights for hotel managers based on empirical evidence.

Despite extensive study into various aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the effect on consumer behaviour is less explored. A growing amount of research is concerned with the phenomenon that CSR has a minor effect on actual purchases although CSR practices enhance consumers’ purchase intentions. This is documented as the CSR-consumption paradox and is yet to be resolved. The purpose of this paper is to further understand this paradox.

Questionnaires were administered face-to-face to consumers in Birmingham. These questionnaires concern consumer behaviour in relation to CSR practices of 21 popular apparel companies in the UK.

Results suggest that consumers’ pro-social priority is significantly related to pro-social consumption and that consumers’ awareness of CSR practices is insignificantly associated with their purchase behaviour. The pro-social consumption does not differ significantly among different demographic groups.

To explore the external motivational factors in consumers’ decision making will be a potential research direction in future.

The empirical results provide implications for UK apparel marketers and policy makers to engage and motivate socially responsible consumers so as to reap strategic rewards for their CSR efforts.

This paper contributes to the knowledge of socially responsible consumption and how it is affected by CSR.

The human side of the job demands–resources (JD-R) model was this study's focus, examining job resources' impact on employees' co-creation intention. It considered employee satisfaction, engagement (vigour, absorption and dedication) and self-construal affect as mediators, with optimism and employee pro-social behaviour as moderators.

In total, 214 responses from a survey questionnaire among service employees in Indonesia and Singapore were analysed with the partial least squares (PLS) method. Moderation and mediation analyses used multi-group analyses and bootstrapping.

Most job resource indicators were found to be significant antecedents of employee co-creation intention. Optimism and pro-social behaviour significantly moderated the relationships between job support, vigour and absorption. A partial mediation effect was evident in the employee satisfaction–engagement relationship. Employees' self-efficacy and self-construal affect had a higher influence on employee co-creation intention than satisfaction or engagement.

The study considered only job resource-based indicators of the JD-R model and not those based on job demands. The moderation effect in the optimism–pro-social behaviour relationship considered job support but not interpersonal relationships and job autonomy.

The study's findings would assist practitioners to motivate employees' co-creation intention through job resources and the employees' self-assessed emotions, such as optimism, pro-social behaviour and self-construal affect.

This study relates the JD-R model's job resources to service employees' co-creation intention, considering self-assessed emotions as mediators, while applying optimism and pro-social behaviour as moderators.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of company corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives on two consumers’ pro-social behaviors closely related to the social cause promoted by the company, such as consumers donating money and volunteering time. In addition, the role of moral elevation as a mediating variable in such relationships is tested.

After an exploratory study, the authors tested the role of moral elevation as a mediator that facilitates the effects of company CSR activities in social domains on two specific types of pro-social behavior displayed by consumers: donating money and volunteering time for the same cause sponsored by the company. The authors conducted two quantitative studies to test their hypotheses. In Study 1, they considered the two pro-social behaviors as intentions; in Study 2, they analyzed them as actual behaviors. In both studies, the authors conducted controlled experiments administered in the field. By using experimental and control conditions, they were able to manipulate corporate responsible actions in social contexts, and a mediational analysis was conducted.

The authors results show that moral elevation mediates the positive relationship between the CSR activity and consumer intention to donate (actual consumer donating behavior) to social causes, and the CSR activity and volunteering intention (actual volunteering behavior).

This paper contributes to furthering CSR theory by showing the positive effects of company CSR initiatives on two pro-social “secondary” outcomes and the mediating role played by moral elevation. Important implications for the role of CSR are derived for companies and society in general.

The emerging consumer-dominant logic of marketing captures consumers’ active and primary role in a range of mainstream marketing processes such as branding, product development and sales. However, consumers’ active role in driving pro-social behaviour change has not yet received close attention. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore consumer dominance in social marketing. The authors propose a definition of consumer-dominant social marketing (CDSM) and explicate five key elements which underpin the phenomenon.

This conceptual study offers an analysis informed by exemplars with significant representations of consumer-dominant pro-social behaviours and projects. The methodological approach is characterised as “envisioning conceptualisation”, which is explained in terms of MacInnis’ (2011) framework for conceptual approaches in marketing.

As a phenomenon, CDSM operationalises the following elements: power, agency, resources, value and responsibility. The authors demonstrate how these elements are interconnected and define their meaning, significance and implications in the context of social marketing and pro-social behaviour change. The authors also identify this new form of social marketing as existing on a continuum depending on the level of involvement or dominance of the consumer and of social marketers; at one end of this continuum, exclusive CDSM is entirely consumer-driven and does not engage with businesses or organisations, while on the other end, inclusive CDSM encompasses partnership with external stakeholders to achieve pro-social behaviour change.

The existence of inclusive and exclusive CDSM points towards an intricate power balance between consumers, mainstream social marketers and businesses. While this study identifies and explains this substantial distinction, it is an important task for future research to systematise the relationship and explore the optimal balance between consumer activism and involvement of formalised organisations such as charities and businesses in pro-social behaviour change projects.

The study provides social marketing professionals with an understanding of the benefits of harnessing consumer empowerment to enhance the impact of social marketing interventions.

The study makes a theoretical contribution by introducing, defining and explicating consumer dominance as a substantive area of social marketing.

An interesting conundrum exists in India with its rise as an economic powerhouse. On one front, there is tremendous pride in asserting its Indian identity. On another front, it seeks to embrace Western practices to announce its entry into the world economy. This paper aims to examine the extent to which Indian information technology (IT) firms adopt Western concepts of a high performance work system (HPWS) and the correlates of such a system (pro-social organizational behavior and employee attitude). Data from 211 IT employees in India show widespread adoption of a HPWS, and more importantly several approaches to assessment indicate that a HPWS positively correlates to pro-social organizational behavior and employee attitude.

The sample consisted of IT professionals in India having a minimum of three years of work experience. The study has used a snowball strategy to generate the sample. Eight HPWS practices were included in the survey questionnaire to assess three dimensions of HPWS. Analysis was conducted to examine differences between the highest (i.e. top 10 per cent) and the lowest (i.e. bottom 10 per cent) and bivariate correlations of the surveyed employees regarding pro-social organizational behaviors related to altruism, job involvement and work involvement, and regarding employees attitudes related to job satisfaction, intention to stay in organization, level of morale and optimism.

HPWS is positively associated with employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behavior. It reflects the reality that HPWSs, at least as conceived by researchers from the West, have penetrated organizations in India. Moreover, they seem to complement each other and together they seem to have a positive association with employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behavior. As organizations in India continue with the march toward servicing the world in the IT sector, the present study suggests that they have a potent tool in a HPWS to keep employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behaviors high.

The criticism of survey methodology approach adopted in the present study is that it has common method bias. That is, in the survey, respondents tend to score along a path with a common response. As a validation, the study has performed a treatment-by-subjects analysis of variance with matched participant scores on the three pro-social behaviors to determine whether the means of altruism, job involvement and work involvement were significantly different. As to convergence, much more causal data would be needed to make a definitive conclusion on the findings of the present study.

This is the first study of its kind to examine the adoption of Western concepts of a HPWS in Indian IT Industry.

Factors such as globalization and market size have made India a major consideration for multinational firms and their salespeople. Despite the appeal of the market, the majority of theories and empirical studies of sales have been based on Western thought and within a Western context. This study seeks to address the issue of what interpersonal traits impel outcomes and behaviors of Indian salespeople.

A model was tested using survey data collected from salespeople and their respective sales managers within a print media company located in India. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses.

The results suggest an interesting interplay between interpersonal traits and pro‐social sales behaviors. Empathy proneness was positively related to helping behaviors targeted at other salespeople, while guilt proneness was positively associated with behaviors targeted at customers.

The research suggests that a salesperson's capacity for empathy does not always translate into customer‐based behaviors. Hence sales training and other interventions targeted towards building empathy may actually impact on behaviors between salespeople versus the interface between the salesperson and the customer. Theoretical and managerial applications are also discussed.

The paper combines a data collection of salesperson‐sales manager dyadic responses and examines whether the theoretical undergirding of the Western‐based pro‐social literature is appropriate to apply in Eastern cultures such as India.

This study aims to use pro-social and pro-environment attitudes as indicators of social and environmental sustainability to empirically examine the relationship between the two pillars of sustainability.

Self-reported survey responses of undergraduate students of the University of Utah are used for conducting a two-stage quantile regression analysis wherein social support serves as an instrument for identifying pro-social attitude for estimating the relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes.

The estimates show that students who receive more social support tend to be more pro-social, and more pro-social students are more pro-environment.

University students may not necessarily be representative of the broader human society. Studies need to examine this question for different segments of the society.

These results reiterate that universities can enhance sustainability education by adopting a more holistic approach wherein social and environmental sustainability are co-integrated. Additionally, by strengthening their role as a vital source of social support for students, universities can further enhance the synergistic relationship between pro-social and pro-environment attitudes of university students.