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This purpose of this article is to identify important factors that influence consumers’ responses to pro-social loyalty programs (pro-social LPs). These positive marketing programs reflect represent an emerging phenomenon in relationship marketing associated with companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The test of the proposed model relied on data from 350 US consumers, obtained through web-based experiments. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling.

The results showed that consumers’ CSR-driven cognition (CSR beliefs) and reciprocal emotion (feeling of gratitude) enhance their attitudes toward pro-social LPs and increased participation intentions. The perceived value of pro-social LPs also improved consumer attitudes and participation intentions.

Pro-social LPs offer a noteworthy approach to relationship marketing that benefits both service providers that engage in CSR and society overall.

This study contributes to the literature on LP and CSR by investigating the roles of CSR-driven cognition, reciprocal emotion and value perception in explaining consumers’ responses to an innovative approach of LPs and pro-social LPs.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of CSR initiative preference, customer helping orientation and customer participation on willingness to engage in CSR and to demonstrate the influence this engagement has on their commitment and loyalty to the organisation.

This study entailed an online survey of customers from a large not-for-profit organisation (n = 210). Choice modelling is used to test a structural equation model of drivers and outcomes of willingness to engage in CSR.

Results demonstrate the CSR initiative preferred by customers has a stronger impact on their willingness to engage with the CSR initiative (volunteering their time, effort, money) than either customers' helping orientation or customer participation. Furthermore, willingness to engage in CSR influences customer commitment and loyalty to support and recommend the organisation.

The results clearly demonstrate the significant impact that customers' preferences for and willingness to engage in CSR initiatives have on customers' relationship with not-for-profit organisations.

The results highlight the importance of taking into account customer preferences for CSR issues to encourage customers to engage in CSR initiatives designed to benefit society.

Traditionally CSR literature has focused on how commercial firms' engagement in CSR creates value for the firm and society. The marketing literature has focused on how customer engagement in brand communities benefits the firm. This study extends the research by exploring customers’ willingness to engage in CSR with not-for-profit organisations. It uses Choice modelling to demonstrate the impact of customer preferences for local and aligned CSR initiatives on customer willingness to engage.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether education and training affect pro‐social behavior. Economics students are often accused of being less pro‐social. The explanations given are that less pro‐social people choose to study economics or that economics studies indoctrinate students to selfish behavior. The paper experimentally tests these postulations.

The paper uses the prisoner's dilemma game and stag hunt game to study cooperation across different groups of students.

The experiment supports neither of the postulations: economics students would be indoctrinated or less pro‐social people choose to study economics. However, the study shows that police cadets, who go through an education where teamwork and cooperation is promoted, become more cooperative and pro‐social after their completed education.

In contrast to earlier studies, this paper does not simply study economics students, but also examines if students in educational programs that promote loyalty and cooperation and encourage teamwork are more pro‐social than other students.

Loyalty programs (LPs) worldwide are maturing even as such programs are growing at a sluggish pace and losing appeal among consumers. This creates a need (and a potential opportunity) for firms to redesign their LPs that better resonates with their customers. The purpose of this paper is to identify that reorienting LPs to focus on societal and environmental causes, in addition to economic causes, can revive the growth of LPs.

This study uses a triangulation approach to integrate knowledge from past research, managerial insights and the popular press that is used in two ways. First, this study identifies a dominant logic in the evolution of LPs toward a focus on societal and environmental causes. Second, based on this evolving logic, this study advances a framework to design cause-related LPs that is an integration of a firm’s economic, societal and environmental imperatives.

The proposed framework submits that designing a LP consisting of tangible and intangible characteristics will lead to the increased adoption of LPs by the focal industry firms, and the increased acceptance of LPs by customers across all focal industry firms, while moderated by the competitive pressure faced by firms, and the prevailing regulatory framework. Further, the adoption and acceptance of LPs by firms and customers, respectively, will lead to the realization of established LP outcomes, while moderated by the intensity of customer usage.

Based on the proposed framework, this study identifies important implications for customers, firms, society and the environment worldwide in redesigning their LPs.

By integrating various sources of knowledge (academia, business and press) from multiple domains (e.g. marketing, sociology, environmental studies and finance), this study presents an integrative framework that presents a holistic approach in redesigning LPs.

The question of why workers support unions is one of the most fundamental in employment relations. Using Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior we conduct a selective review of literature and evidence on union voting, joining, and participation. We focus primarily on the question of motivation as stemming from self-interest or from pro-social considerations. Secondary attention is given to the influence of others’ views (subjective norms) and worker perceptions that they can achieve desired behaviors (perceived control or self-efficacy). We find support for the notion that workers are concerned with neither member self-interest (“just us”) alone, nor pro-social (“justice”) alone, but rather that they are motivated to form, join, and participate by both considerations. This micro-foundation for considering unions as institutions suggests that unions are neither narrow self-interested institutions nor purely pro-social movements, but “a little bit of both.” We offer propositions and consider implications for theory, practice, and future research.

Given the controversial nature of the effectiveness of loyalty programs (LPs), this paper examines the effect of a new type of LP, namely green LPs, on consumers' perceived value of LPs. Specifically, the authors identify three types of green LP design and test their impact on perceived value.

An experimental protocol involving 1,016 shoppers was adopted in order to analyze the three types of green LPs identified in the literature.

Supported by social exchange theory (SET), the results show that a green LP can influence the perceived value of LPs. Such programs can drive psychological value in addition to the economic value linked only to monetary incentives. LPs rewarding sustainable behavior appear to be the most significant generators of value.

Since corporate social responsibility (CSR) is now critical to a company's success, this study investigates how firms can integrate it in order to improve the effectiveness of their LP design.

This paper examines the effectiveness of a sport loyalty program in fostering fan relationships with a team and its sponsors. The study of 268 US baseball spectators revealed that, in the mind of the fan, loyalty programs generally consist of three underlying components. When these components perform well, they can fuel a member's sense of attachment to a team and their tendency to purchase sponsor products. Recommendations to improve loyalty program performance focus on tactics that build member relationships and identification with the team.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how some of the key aspects of employee motivation and their perception of volunteering programs impact their participation in corporate volunteering. Specifically, this study argues that employee’s self-oriented motives to significantly influence employee participation than other-oriented motives. Similarly, this study also hypothesized that the corporate volunteering program characteristics to significantly relate to employee participation in corporate volunteering.

The data were collected from 461 employee volunteers representing various industries across four different locations in India. A self-reported method was used to collect the data by administering the questionnaires.

The structural equation modeling results indicate that other-oriented motives (altruistic) and characteristics of corporate volunteering programs to significantly predict employee participation in corporate volunteering and self-oriented motives did not show significance in predicting employee participation.

Results suggest that employee participation in volunteering is a function of not merely employee motivation but also how the volunteering programs are conceptualized and implemented.

This research study moves beyond mere role of employee motives analysis and considered the role of characteristics of corporate volunteering programs to impact employee volunteering behavior. Further, it highlights there is a differential impact of self- and other-oriented motives in predicting employee participation.