Social Connectedness in Cause Marketing: Is Donation Amount Benefits or Monetary Sacrifice?

Abstract

A clear understanding of how donation amount affects consumer response is important for CM success. The impact of donation amount on participation intentions in CM remains a controversial topic. However, recent research proposes consumers process donation amount information in two different ways (benefits or monetary sacrifice) depending on their construal level. Our study finds that the interaction effects of donation amount and construal level occur only when consumer social connectedness is low. These findings indicate that high social connectedness plays a role in lowering the perception of monetary sacrifice while enhancing CM participation intentions. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.