Measured Societal Value and Its Impact on Donations and Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Experimental Approach

Abstract

Collaborations between nonprofits and corporations aim to serve both social and commercial goals. This study posits that social sponsorships can increase donations to nonprofits and simultaneously benefit corporations by communicating signals of measured societal value. Studies 1 and 2 provide evidence that communication of measured societal value, endorsed by a credible source, can increase willingness to donate to nonprofits through individuals’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility. Study 3 generalizes these findings, simultaneously showing that communication of measured societal value can reduce perceptions of hypocrisy toward corporations. It also examines the underlying mechanism of these results by investigating the serial mediation effects of corporate social responsibility perception and functional fit in the causal relationships from measured societal value to both increased willingness to donate to nonprofits and reduced perceptions of corporate hypocrisy. Furthermore, the work demonstrates that these effects are due to communication of measurement, not the source of the communication.