EXPRESS: Consumers Prefer that Corporations Donate Periodically

Abstract

How should firms best communicate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts? Across seven preregistered studies (two large field studies and five online lab experiments), we find that making a series of periodic contributions, e.g., donating $20,000 per month for 12 months, rather than donating an equivalent aggregate amount, e.g., donating $240,000 in a year, improves outcomes for donor companies such as reputation, customer engagement, and purchase likelihood. The benefits of periodic donations arise primarily due to heightened judgments of the donor’s authentic prosocial motivation, which affects outcomes in two ways. Via one process pathway, the consistency of periodic donations increases judgments that the donor gave due to authentic prosocial motives, which then increases favorable donor evaluations. Via a second process pathway, heightened judgments of the donor’s authentic prosocial motivation also increase the perceived impact of the donation, further boosting favorable donor evaluations. Additional studies demonstrate when and why periodic donations may benefit, or in some cases even harm, evaluations of the donor. Taken together, this research highlights consumers’ sensitivity to cues of consistency, and the importance of perceived authentic prosocial motivation, when consumers grant charitable credit in CSR.