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The Mediating Role of Moral Elevation in Cause-Related Marketing: A Moral Psychological Perspective

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Abstract

With the high frequency and intensity of worldwide disasters, cause-related marketing campaigns with sudden disasters are becoming increasingly popular. However, little is known about whether and how cause acuteness may influence consumer attitudes. This research aims to extend this research area through investigating the relationship between cause acuteness and consumer attitudes toward the product, as well as its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Based on a moral psychology perspective, we propose a theoretical model focusing on the mediating role of moral elevation in influencing consumer attitudes. This model also incorporates product-cause fit and information transparency as moderators underpinning necessary conditions that are likely to lead to positive consumer attitudes. Four empirical studies were conducted to test our model. Our research results reveal that consumers have more positive attitudes toward the product associated with a sudden disaster than with an ongoing tragedy. Furthermore, the positive effect of cause acuteness on consumer attitudes is mediated by enhanced moral elevation, which occurs under the conditions of high product-cause fit and high information transparency.

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Notes

  1. According to the 2015 World Disasters Report launched by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), 6311 disasters were reported worldwide from 2005 to 2014, including 3809 disasters related to natural hazards and 2502 related to technological hazards. Asia is the most vulnerable continent to disasters, and China is the country with largest total number of people killed and affected by disasters in Asia (IFRC 2015).

  2. Moral elevation belongs to one of the four types of moral emotion: (1) other-condemning type, such as contempt, anger, and disgust; (2) self-conscious type, such as shame, embarrassment, and guilt; (3) other-suffering type, such as compassion; (4) other-praising type, such as gratitude and elevation (Haidt 2003a).

  3. Flash drought refers to relatively short periods of warm surface temperature and anomalously low and rapid decreasing soil moisture (Mo and Lettenmaier 2016). Compared with traditional slow-onset and long-term droughts, flash droughts are unexpected and bring a grand challenge for early warning due to limited prior external signals, as well as lead to devastating impacts on crop yields and water supply (Wang et al. 2016).

  4. In this research, we focus on the foundation and test of a theoretical framework which investigates the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions that drive the positive effect of cause acuteness. Prior research has showed that in the theory falsification procedure, homogeneous respondents (i.e., students) would be preferred because they typically provide a stronger test of the theory (Calder et al. 1981). In addition, to ensure that respondents have some purchase or recommendation intentions toward the product, we select an attractive product (i.e., notebook, vacuum mug) for student respondents, as well as a stationary brand (i.e., Yinglijia, Haers) which is popular in Taobao (Koschate-Fischer et al. 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dongwu Business School, Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Ling Zheng

  2. School of International Business Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China

    Ling Zheng & Ruochen Jiang

  3. Business School, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Yunxia Zhu

  4. Institute of Shanghai Development, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China

    Ruochen Jiang

Authors
  1. Ling Zheng
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  2. Yunxia Zhu
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  3. Ruochen Jiang
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Correspondence to Ruochen Jiang.

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Appendix

Appendix

Complete Scenario Descriptions of Study 1–4

Scenario 1 (Cause Acuteness: Ongoing Tragedy; Product-Cause Fit: High)

This notebook is participating in Cares for Poor Children campaign launched by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA). Yinglijia Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this notebook to CFPA. CFPA will use the money to help providing school supplies to the children in China’s poor areas. So far, 202,792 notebooks have participated in this campaign.

Scenario 2 (Cause Acuteness: Sudden Disaster; Product-Cause Fit: High)

This notebook is participating in Cares for Poor Children campaign launched by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA). Yinglijia Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this notebook to CFPA. CFPA will use the money to help providing school supplies to the children in Qinghai Mengyuan earthquake stricken area. So far, 202,792 notebooks have participated in this campaign.

Scenario 3 (Cause Acuteness: Ongoing Tragedy; Product-Cause Fit: Low)

This notebook is participating in Cares for Poor Children campaign launched by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA). Yinglijia Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this notebook to CFPA. CFPA will use the money to help providing water purification facilities to the children in China’s poor areas. So far, 202,792 notebooks have participated in this campaign.

Scenario 4 (Cause Acuteness: Sudden Disaster; Product-Cause Fit: Low)

This notebook is participating in Cares for Poor Children campaign launched by China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA). Yinglijia Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this notebook to CFPA. CFPA will use the money to help providing water purification facilities to the children in Qinghai Mengyuan earthquake stricken area. So far, 202,792 notebooks have participated in this campaign.

Scenario 5 (Cause Acuteness: Ongoing Tragedy; Information Transparency: High)

This vacuum mug is participating in Gongyi Baobei Campaign launched by Taobao. Haers Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this vacuum mug to the Water Purification program of One Foundation. One Foundation will use the money to help providing water purification facilities and improving the quality of drinking water for the children in China’s poor areas. So far, 316,536 vacuum mugs have participated in this campaign.

By the end of 2015, One Foundation had installed purification facilities for 700 schools in China’s poor areas and benefited more than three hundred and ten thousand children. Now, one hundred and ten thousand schools in China’s poor areas are facing drinking water problems (i.e., water quality is substandard, lack water processing ability) and bring serious impacts on children healthy growth. We sincerely hope to have even more people into our activities and bring hope and joy to the children in poor areas.

Scenario 6 (Cause Acuteness: Sudden Disaster; Information Transparency: High)

This vacuum mug is participating in Gongyi Baobei Campaign launched by Taobao. Haers Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this vacuum mug to the Water Purification program of One Foundation. One Foundation will use the money to help providing emergency drinking water for the children in China’s flash drought disaster areas. So far, 316,536 vacuum mugs have participated in this campaign.

By the end of 2015, One Foundation had provided more than 5.14 million bottles of safe drinking water for six hundred thousand drought victims and speedily solved the problem of drinking water shortage in drought disaster areas. Recently, the flash drought disaster in Weinan City, Shanxi Province, has affected more than 1.15 million people, and more than 4.6 thousand people are lacking drinking water. In the disasters, children are often neglected. We sincerely hope to have even more people into our activities and bring hope and joy to the children in disaster areas.

Scenario 7 (Cause Acuteness: Ongoing Tragedy; Information Transparency: Low)

This vacuum mug is participating in Gongyi Baobei Campaign launched by Taobao. Haers Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this vacuum mug to help improving the quality of drinking water for the children in China’s poor areas.

Now eleven thousand schools in China’s poor areas are facing drinking water problems (i.e., water quality is substandard, lack water processing ability) and bring serious impacts on children healthy growth. For every vacuum mug you purchase, Haers Taobao flagship store will dedicate our love to the children in poor areas.

Scenario 8 (Cause Acuteness: Sudden Disaster; Information Transparency: Low)

This vacuum mug is participating in Gongyi Baobei Campaign launched by Taobao. Haers Taobao flagship store announces a commitment to donate 1% of the sales of this vacuum mug to help providing emergency drinking water for the children in China’s flash drought disaster areas.

Recently, the flash drought disaster in Weinan City, Shanxi Province, has affected more than 1.15 million people, and more than 4.6 thousand people are lacking drinking water. In the disasters, children are often neglected. For every vacuum mug you purchase, Haers Taobao flagship store will dedicate our love to the children in disaster areas.

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Zheng, L., Zhu, Y. & Jiang, R. The Mediating Role of Moral Elevation in Cause-Related Marketing: A Moral Psychological Perspective. J Bus Ethics 156, 439–454 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3614-3

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