Search Results (28)

This paper studies the influence of moral emotions and beliefs on understanding charitable giving. While specific moral emotions such as empathy, guilt, and shame have been associated with prosocial behavior, how they impact giving behavior may depend on beliefs about the giving of others. Using a laboratory experiment, individuals participated in a dictator game with charity and completed measures of beliefs, empathy, guilt, and shame. Results show that while individual variation in empathy, guilt, and shame is important in explaining charitable giving, these effects depend crucially on individual beliefs. Full article

Charitable giving plays a vital role in advancing sustainable development, yet little is known about its determinants in transitional economies. This study addresses this gap by examining the socioeconomic and psychological drivers of prosocial financial behavior in Uzbekistan, integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Norm Activation Theory (NAT), and Well-Being Theory. Data from a sample of 348 individuals reveal two distinct pathways of giving: one shaped by resources (income, age) and another by subjective well-being (happiness). While income, age, and happiness emerged as significant positive predictors of charitable behavior, traditional TPB factors such as attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control were not supported in this context. A surprising finding was the negative association between personal norms and charitable giving, challenging assumptions of Western-centric models and pointing to the importance of cultural and institutional conditions, such as trust in charities and informal giving practices. The study contributes to sustainability research by showing that fostering well-being and targeting specific demographic groups can enhance philanthropy, while also emphasizing the need for culturally sensitive approaches in understanding prosocial behavior within emerging economies. Full article

Background: Charitable crowdfunding platforms have become widely used tools for raising funds to support social and humanitarian causes. As participation in these platforms is voluntary, understanding the influence of individual motivations and cultural values is essential, particularly when engaging donors across culturally diverse regions. Within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study explores whether consumers’ cultural orientations influence their motivations and levels of engagement in charitable crowdfunding. Methods: Data were collected through an online survey using the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) method from 680 participants recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the effects of three cultural dimensions—collectivism, power distance, and uncertainty avoidance—on charitable giving behavior, including their interactions with intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Results: Collectivism was found to positively predict charitable giving, while uncertainty avoidance had a negative effect. Power distance showed a mixed influence, depending on the underlying motivational factors. Comparative analysis revealed significant regional differences, particularly between respondents from the Americas and Europe, in the strength and nature of these relationships. Conclusions: The findings underscore the importance of integrating cultural factors into digital fundraising strategies and offer new insights into how individual cultural values shape prosocial behavior in online crowdfunding environments. Full article

Given the serious humanitarian crises encountered by the modern world, it is more crucial than ever to build a society based on solidarity, compassion, empathy, and a sense of teamwork and cooperation. This research provides insight into how the factors of personality traits, altruistic behaviors, and humanitarian actions can positively influence citizens’ behavioral intentions, allowing for a deeper understanding of the motives behind charitable giving. To this end, a study was conducted with 332 Greek respondents, which used a special purpose questionnaire, including the HEXACO-24 questions and 13 additional questions, that addressed attitude towards advertisement, charitable giving, as well as the behavioral intention to donate. The findings add to current research by underlining the relevance of individuals’ altruistic character, since our analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between charitable giving and behavioral intention to donate. All HEXACO personality traits, excluding emotionality, demonstrated a statistically significant positive relationship with the attitude towards advertising, while none of the personality traits exhibited a statistically significant positive relationship with the concept of charitable giving, which calls for further investigation. Our findings also revealed that attitude towards an advertisement had no drastic effect on charitable giving and behavioral intention. Full article

Studies of the relationship between individuals’ sense of power and donation intention have inconsistent findings. Classifying donor intention into two types, this study explored the mechanism through which a sense of power affects donation intention. Using a three-wave time-lagged survey of 1200 people, this study found that situational prevention focus mediates the positive effect of a sense of power on avoidance-based donation intention, and situational promotion focus mediates the positive effect of a sense of power on improvement-based donation intention. Furthermore, a strong perceived ethical climate strengthens the effects of a sense of power. These findings have practical implications for increasing charitable giving and improving the development of charitable programs. Full article

Despite being a foundational practice in Islam, deeply rooted in law and reflected in the theological and spiritual concepts of wealth and sustenance (rizq), discussions of applying obligatory alms (zakāh) rulings to majority non-Muslim countries are limited. The Muslim’s spiritual attitude toward finances is informed by a theological view that all forms of wealth ultimately belong to God. Sunni Muslim theologians define rizq to be what one actually (not potentially) consumes and benefits from (not possesses), which, alongside plentiful verses and Prophetic traditions, continuously motivate philanthropic giving without fearing scarcity. This article aims to investigate some major issues resulting from the unregulated procedures of zakāh collection and disbursement as practiced by North American Muslim organizations and religious leaders. The article (1) doctrinally analyzes how North American practices diverge from the rules of Islamic law (fiqh) regarding zakāh distribution, (2) examines the ramifications of contemporary Eastern–Western legal opinions (fatāwā) expanding the eligibility of charitable institutions to receive zakāh, and (3) investigates the practices of administering zakāh resources. Full article

As important components of differentiation strategy, charitable giving and R&D innovation can have a profound impact on the survival and growth of high-tech enterprises. However, the strategic interaction between them has not been studied in depth using the whole-life-cycle perspective. With Chinese A-share-listed high-tech enterprises in the 2015–2020 period as the research sample, the Tobit model was used to empirically test the interaction between charitable giving and R&D innovation and analyze differences in their utility over different life cycles. The results show that there was a strategic synergy between charitable giving and R&D innovation and charitable giving could significantly improve R&D innovation, but its utility was affected by changes in the life cycle of firms. Among them, the synergy utility was highest for maturing firms, followed by declining firms, but not significant for growing firms. A further study on the synergistic utility of mature firms found that, for non-state firms where executives have an R&D background, charitable giving could promote integration of external advantageous resources and R&D innovation development. Finally, the regression findings remained significant after accounting for possible endogeneity and heteroskedasticity between charitable giving and R&D innovation. Full article

In the post-pandemic era, it will become normal for family enterprises to seek innovative development. They have become more committed to building socially responsible companies and are more willing to actively promote corporate values in order to create long-term benefits. Therefore, this paper uses listed family companies entering the intergenerational succession period from 2018 to 2020 as the research object and empirically tests the influence of family involvement on firm performance, as well as the moderating effects of family members’ overseas experiences and family firm’s charitable donation behaviors. The results show that the ownership and management involvement of family members can significantly improve the performance of family enterprises. The overseas experience of family members has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between the two, while the charitable giving behavior of family enterprises has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the two. The above research provides countermeasures and reference for family enterprises to realize the family business and the lasting development in the process of intergenerational inheritance, upgrading, and transformation. Full article

This study examines the impact of the 2018 “environmental protection fee to tax” policy on the charitable giving of polluting firms between 2015 and 2019 using a differences-in-differences method. This study found that implementing the “environmental protection fee to tax” policy reduced the level of charitable giving by polluters. The decline in charitable-giving levels was more pronounced among firms classified as heavy polluters, firms from the East of China, and non-state firms. The results suggest that the “environmental protection fee to tax” policy cannot only encourage firms to become more environmentally conscious but can also be used to determine the motivations behind firm charitable donations. The policy of changing environmental protection fees to taxes needs to be effectively implemented in China and strengthen the implementation effect.This study enriches the literature on environmental policies and firm charitable giving and provides empirical evidence on the economic consequences of the “environmental protection fee to tax” policy. It can also help polluters and regulators to understand the “environmental protection fee better to tax” policy and help the government to improve the external systems that regulate and guide corporate social responsibility. Full article

During the past decades, academics and practitioners have basically reached a consensus on the relationship between corporate charitable giving and enterprise innovation. However, so far, few research studies have explored the essential reasons and the influencing mechanisms behind the relationship, through sufficient theoretical or empirical study. To clarify this relationship, this paper collects and reviews 196 related articles which include the topics of corporate philanthropy and corporate innovation over the period of 1966–2022, and analyzes their content in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Based on the literature analysis, it clarifies the current state and the differentiation trends of research topics in this field, then discusses the industry operations and theoretical development of corporate charitable giving. Through literature reviewing and practical analysis, this paper summarizes the mechanism and path of the influence of charitable giving on enterprise innovation from four perspectives: technical network, political reputation, media attention and resource adjustment, and proposes the external factors at macro- and meso-levels. By constructing a multi-level theoretical framework, this paper clarifies the preconditions, key factors and mediating mechanisms of charitable donation affecting enterprise innovation. This paper contributes a novel theoretical perspective for further theoretical development and for effectively managing corporate charitable giving and enterprise innovations. The paper concludes by offering several suggestions for future research on corporate charitable giving. Full article

Metastasis-Associated in Colon Cancer 1 (MACC1) is a strong prognostic biomarker inducing proliferation, migration, invasiveness, and metastasis of cancer cells. The context of MACC1 dysregulation in cancers is, however, still poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether chromosomal instability and somatic copy number alterations (SCNA) frequently occurring in CRC contribute to MACC1 dysregulation, with prognostic and predictive impacts. Using the Oncotrack and Charité CRC cohorts of CRC patients, we showed that elevated MACC1 mRNA expression was tightly dependent on increased MACC1 gene SCNA and was associated with metastasis and shorter metastasis free survival. Deep analysis of the COAD-READ TCGA cohort revealed elevated MACC1 expression due to SCNA for advanced tumors exhibiting high chromosomal instability (CIN), and predominantly classified as CMS2 and CMS4 transcriptomic subtypes. For that cohort, we validated that elevated MACC1 mRNA expression correlated with reduced disease-free and overall survival. In conclusion, this study gives insights into the context of MACC1 expression in CRC. Increased MACC1 expression is largely driven by CIN, SCNA gains, and molecular subtypes, potentially determining the molecular risk for metastasis that might serve as a basis for patient-tailored treatment decisions. Full article

We study how commitment of entrepreneurs to sustainability practices might effectively improve the social and environmental impact of market competition. To this end we devised a market experiment in which profit maximization and socially and environmentally concerned behavior were both potential goals of producers. Our subject pool included two distinct types of students having different prosocial attitudes. The two types adopted significantly different strategies in the treatment group, where producers could contribute to a positive externality, whereas they behaved similarly in the control group, where the only objective was profit maximization. Subjects who were ex-ante more prosocial chose to produce with more focus on the positive externality than their counterparts. However, they failed to actually deliver a larger social impact as a consequence of the market outcome. We conclude that producers often commit to social responsibility, even though well-meaning conducts do not necessarily beget equally good outcomes. Full article

This paper investigates the charitable giving of Chinese firms from the perspectives of four sustainable development goals (SDGs), including Economy, Operation, Harmony, and Management. By converting corporate financial data into four independent variables, namely Economy, Operation, Harmony, and Management, this study explores philanthropic giving for SDGs. The empirical evidence shows that corporate philanthropy has a significant and positive effect on Economy, Operation and Harmony, and it is negatively related to Management. This study finds that the sample firms would undertake some social responsibilities for the economic and political benefits of legitimization or corporate philanthropy. Full article

The donation-based crowdfunding platforms witness a mix of different entities seeking funding for numerous campaigns, adding complexities in understanding the donor behavior and factors that motivate donation. This study builds upon the economic theory of charitable giving and examines the ethical dilemma that donors face during the selection process. Using the data from Ketto.org, the biggest crowdfunding platform in India, this paper investigates the rank-order preference of donors while making a selection across heterogeneous entities and campaigns. The results show that campaigns run by non-profit organizations registered with causes that qualify for a tax-deduction receive a higher level of funding. Donors then fund unregistered non-profit organizations, followed by campaigns run by individuals. Demonstrating legitimacy by using subtle cues, like tagging “with tax-benefit,” motivates the donors to provide a higher amount of funding. Full article

We investigate whether revealing the identities in a public good game that includes a donation incentive leads to higher contributions to the public good. Previous evidence suggests that contributions to a public good increase significantly when these take place in public. Also, the amount of money given in charitable donations seems to be sensitive to the revealing of identities. Using a laboratory experiment, we implement a 20% donation share that is dependent on participants’ contributions to a public good. The donation is either costless (because it is financed by the experimenter) or deducted from a team’s contributions. In both settings, we explore whether informing participants that group members’ identities will be disclosed at the end of the experiment leads to higher contributions to the public good. Non-parametric statistics indicate that when donations are costly for the participants, the announcement of subsequent identity disclosure results in significantly higher contributions in the second half of the repeated public good game. In contrast, revealing identities in settings with costless donations reduces contributions to the public good significantly. The regression results indicate that conditional cooperators might be one subgroup driving these results. Full article