Corporate giving and its impact on consumer evaluations: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis integrates the impact of factors of corporate-giving (fit between cause and brand/company, perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR), donation amount, donation type, cause proximity, and cause involvement) on consumer evaluations (attitude toward brand and company, purchase intention, and word of mouth). It also tests the effect of conceptual and study-related moderators on these effects. We used evidence from 114 papers (356 independent studies) with a cumulative sample size of 108,853. We used correlation coefficients as the primary effect-size metric and random-effect models for estimating aggregate effect sizes. We reveal the strength, order, valence, and statistical significance of the relationships between different corporate-giving attributes and consumer evaluations. In particular, our results indicate that perceived CSR is the strongest driver for all outcomes, but the hypothesized impact of cause proximity on brand attitude is not supported. The moderator analysis returns mixed results. This study resolves several conflicting claims in the literature and provides evidence-based directions to managers for better allocation of resources for corporate-giving and cause-related interventions.