Examining the donation attitude-behaviour gap in the context of celebrity-endorsed charities

Riahi Pour, Parichehr (2019) Examining the donation attitude-behaviour gap in the context of celebrity-endorsed charities. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Current thesis advances the understanding of donation attitude-behaviour gap in the context of celebrity-endorsed charities. By integrating three research streams, including, celebrity endorsement, donating to charities, and the attitude-behaviour gap, this thesis develops and tests two models of behaviour prediction in the context of donation to celebrity-endorsed charities. It moves beyond the formation of intentions (Study 2) and empirically examines actual donation behaviours (Study 3). Present thesis adopts a sequential mixed-methods design, wherein the data was first gathered via 17 semi- structured interviews in exploratory qualitative Study 1, followed by quantitative Studies 2 and 3 which were undertaken online, utilising Facebook groups/pages and a crowdsourcing online panel. The sample size in Study 2 was 860, and 200 participants took part in Study 3. This thesis is consisting of three studies in accordance with the proposed research questions. In line with RQ1, Study 1 employed semi-structured interviews to identify the influential intervening donation, charity and celebrity-based variables. Next, Studies 2 and 3 utilised quantitative data, acquired from online questionnaires, to test the developed models with the aim of responding to RQ2. Therefore, the positive role of “Charity Trustworthiness”, “Positive Anticipated Emotions”, “Congruence”, “Celebrity’s Authenticity” and “Celebrity’s Positive Motivations” on “Donation Attitude” were supported. “Celebrity’s Negative Motivations” exposed a negative relationship with “Donation Attitude”. The positive impacts of both Celebrity “Expectancy” and “Relevancy” on “Congruence” were confirmed. The positive impacts of “Negative Anticipated Emotions”, “Social Norms” and “Self-Efficacy” and “Donation Attitude” in inducing “Donation Desire” were confirmed. “Donation Attitude” had a positive effect on “Donation Intention”. The strong positive relationship between “Donation Desire” and “Donation Intention” was also evidenced. Furthermore, the analysis revealed the positive relation between “Charity Self-Identity” and “Donation Intention” in Study 2. With respect to Study 3, it has been confirmed that “Action Controlling” positively influences both “Planning” and “Donation Behaviour”, which is in turn positively affected by “Commitment”. This thesis offers a number of theoretical and empirical contributions. It includes 15 different charity and 9 distinct celebrity categories of data, which exceeds further than most prior studies that usually investigated one or a few charity and celebrity types at most. This thesis also outlines several managerial and marketing implications for charity brands relying more than ever on a shrinking pool of individual donors, yet depending significantly on celebrities in the UK.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Charities, donations.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Supervisor's Name: Anker, Dr. Thomas and Deirdre, Professor Shaw
• Date of Award: 2019
• Embargo Date: 24 April 2024
• Depositing User: Dr Parichehr Riahi Pour
• Unique ID: glathesis:2019-41182
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 24 Apr 2019 08:28
• Last Modified: 05 Mar 2020 21:29
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.41182
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/41182