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Evolving Cross-Sector Collaboration in the Arts and Culture Sector: From Sponsorship to Partnership
Abstract
The arts and cultural sector offers a beneficial field of cross-sector collaboration for businesses as it is closely related to contemporary consumers’ lifestyle and civilization. This study examined the impact of two prominent cross-sector collaborations (i.e. partnership and sponsorship) on corporate reputation in the arts and culture sector, with the focus on a specific stakeholder group – the millennials. 154 millennials were recruited for an online experiment, using a convenience sampling through posting an open-call on the Facebook pages of the 100 most visited art museums in the world. The results show that partnership and sponsorship both indicate a positive effect on corporate reputation, whereas partnership is more appealing to the millennials than sponsorship. We also examined the moderation effects of sincerity, value alignment and credibility on the relationship of cross-sector collaboration and corporate reputation. All three moderators are found to strengthen the relationship, while the impact of credibility is the strongest among them. The findings imply that companies should be aware of the need to present themselves as a trustworthy collaborator and the necessity to fulfil their duties deriving from the engagement in a particular cross-sector collaboration.
... Relatedly, Appelman and Sundar (2016) proposed that message credibility includes the constructs of accuracy, authenticity and believability. A wide body of research has investigated message credibility in diverse contexts such as in journalism (Kiousis, 2006), online consumer forums (Cheung et al., 2009) andCSR (Eberle et al., 2013;Wang and Holznagel, 2021). Credibility is often positioned as a mediator that connects perceptions about media messages to consumer attitudes and beliefs (e.g. ...
... Credibility is often positioned as a mediator that connects perceptions about media messages to consumer attitudes and beliefs (e.g. Sundar, 2008;Cheung et al., 2009) like reputation (Wang and Holznagel, 2021). Given the vast amount of online information originating from a multitude of sources, cognitive heuristics such as argument quality or credibility are critical and may shape consumer perceptions and attitudes (Sundar, 2008). ...
... Credibility in CSR messaging. Echoing previous work on corporate reputation (Eberle et al., 2013;Wang and Holznagel, 2021) and consumer attitudes (Cheung et al., 2009;Sundar, 2008), the current study confirms the role that message credibility plays in motivating organizational reputation for nonprofits. Interestingly, message credibility was a mediator between corporate reputation and nonprofit outcomes except for (1) the relationship between likeability and volunteer intention in the low-reputation condition and (2) OSR and volunteer intention in the high-reputation condition. ...
Purpose
While research has shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can enhance a company's reputation, less is known about the effects of CSR communication on nonprofits. Hence, the current study seeks to understand how corporate reputation, message credibility and message source may impact consumers' attitudinal and behavioral intentions toward nonprofits.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (corporate reputation: low vs high) × 2 (CSR communication source: newspaper blog vs nonprofit blog) between-subjects online experiment was conducted. Real-world corporations (Toyota and Volkswagen) and a nonprofit (World Wildlife Fund) were chosen based on a pretest.
Findings
Nonprofit reputation increased after reading a CSR message, especially when it involved a partnership with a low-reputation corporation. Nevertheless, CSR partnerships with high-reputation corporations evoked higher volunteer intentions. Message credibility mediated the relationship between corporate reputation and nonprofit reputation. When the communication source was the nonprofit and the partnership involved a high-reputation corporation, positive evaluations of nonprofit likeability and competence resulted.
Practical implications
Nonprofit communication managers should understand the merit of communicating CSR partnerships with their constituents, regardless of medium. Additionally, the choice of a corporate partner is important for certain nonprofit outcomes. Lastly, message credibility is another important factor that should be considered.
Originality/value
The study bridges literature in communications that typically examines CSR by focusing on its effects on corporate outcomes with literature in nonprofit management that looks at nonprofit outcome measures. This study demonstrated that nonprofit–corporate alliances can also influence nonprofit reputation and donation/volunteer intentions based on the reputation of the corporate partner.
... Arts sponsorship is beneficial for building local community relations, by which organisations create a brand image that they are fulfilling social obligations toward the community, but the relation is non-linear as it is influenced by other factors (Dean 2002;Wang and Holznagel 2021). According to Kim and his colleagues (2012) two factors influence the sponsor image by consumers which are affective and cognitive associations. ...
... When corporations are perceived as exploiting the sponsorship of non-profits for their own interests rather than a philanthropic act, communities will have cynicism and are unlikely to construct a positive image of the sponsor (Webb and Mohr 1998). Nevertheless, corporate sponsorship of a well-liked event or popular non-profit organisation with causes that are aligned to the community, such as artistic exhibitions or social impact, is likely to enhance positive corporate community relations regardless of the explicit corporate interest (Dean 2002;Wang and Holznagel 2021). Overall, corporate sponsorship decisions of art museums are intended to yield positive outcomes with regards to stakeholders' relations. ...
Previous researchers have examined the motivations and effects of arts sponsorship from the perspective of the sponsor, but without a clear aggregate implication on the sponsee. This study examines the development of arts sponsorship with reference to cultural policies, and identifies the rationale and effects on art museums. Building on marketing and arts literature and a comparative case study of the United Kingdom and France, this study shows that marketization policies and volatile public funding are pushing art museums to focus on self-funding sources including corporate sponsorship as a private funding source. Arts sponsorship has become more commercial than philanthropic because it carries institutional, stakeholders, and corporate social responsibility objectives. The positive effects of arts sponsorship on the sponsee are financial support for arts and enhancing cultural enrichment, while the negative effects include diminishing artistic autonomy and a contradiction between the type of sponsor and the mission of the sponsee. The study proposes a way forward to mitigate damages through cultural policies, as arts sponsorship is becoming an inevitable source of funding for arts.
... the third theme let's hear it for our partners captured all the posts made about corporations that had been involved in the general operations of nZo or who had contributed to specific shows. We intentionally use the term 'partners' instead of 'sponsors' as corporate sponsorship of the arts has long been considered problematic (lewandowska, 2016;Wang & holznagel, 2021) because of the tension between money and art (the former is perceived as undermining the integrity of the latter). therefore, arts organisations such as nZo treat corporate sponsors as 'partners' to emphasise the mutual benefits of the relationship rather than just the revenue-generating potential of the sponsor. ...
Creating and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between organisations and their publics is at the core of public relations practice. Social media has created new opportunities to nurture these relationships through mediated interactions. Ideally, if organisations and publics participate in these interactions with a dialogic orientation, they are likely to have an authentic relationship.Arts organisations globally, however, are known to utilise public relations more as a way of managing impressions, promoting the experiential nature of their creative products, and garnering ticket sales. We, therefore, conducted a thematic analysis to examine if this was also the case with a New Zealand arts organisation.On examining New Zealand Opera’s Facebook™ posts and their accompanying comments; this study found that social media was only being used for one-way impression management, without any dialogic intention to stimulate the public into authentic engagement.
... Third, companies support arts and culture as part of their CSR activities (Tang and Li 2009). The arts and culture sector is closely connected with consumers' lifestyles, making it a useful avenue for cross-sector collaboration among companies (Wang and Holznagel 2021), such as Starbucks artist support activities (Starbucks 2017). ...
Companies engage in philanthropic corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities not only to genuinely support certain organizations and people but also to promote and improve brand recognition and image. CSR activities target the environment, sports, and arts and culture. However, surprisingly, few studies have explored all of these and demonstrate their effectiveness in core businesses. This study investigated the impact of CSR activities on the perceived value of products and advertising in the Japanese and American markets. The target brands were Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nestle, and Starbucks. We collected online surveys from 754 people in the two countries and applied structural equation modeling. Environmental and sports activities positively affected core business factors, whereas arts and cultural activities had a negative effect. Increasing environmental awareness and sports interest could lead to the observed positive effects. Companies make art-related investments to receive tax breaks, and art and cultural activities are limited to society’s elite, which could have led to the negative effects observed. This study provides valuable insight for the food industry to formulate strategies for allocating limited internal financial and human resources to CSR activities.
... CSR is defined as conducts' [aligned] with the standards and demands embraced by its primary stakeholders and serves to meet the expectations of a variety of stakeholders (Schoeneborn, Morsing, & Crane, 2020). Its roots are embedded in the theory, which states that a company's long-term success is dependent on its relationships with a number of key stakeholders (Wang & Holznagel, 2021). ...
The focus of this research was to investigate consumer attitudes about CSR (corporate social responsibility) strategies used by organizations, using a non-western perspective. Today every organization intent to go global, raising every organization’s concern with acquiring legitimacy by incorporating their stakeholders’ expectations into their overall business plan. Globalization running parallel with the lack of corporate self-regulation has challenged global businesses to justify their actions in the name of CSR. Understanding consumer perceptions of various CSR initiatives will aid in aligning business behavior with stakeholder expectations, which is vital to ensure the corporation’s long-term survival. The findings of the study indicated that consumers are influenced by CSR platforms, initiatives, and specific marketing strategies. Analysis of the data collected through an online survey provided insight into how businesses may use numerous CSR factors to improve customers’ satisfaction, loyalty and assess consumers’ inclination towards delivering socially desirable answers. The study is grounded within the framework suggested by Carroll (1991) and subsequent modifications provided by Visser (2005, 2008). The outcomes of the study will assist the practitioners, particularly those belonging to emerging economies, in properly strategizing and planning for their business’s future development. A cross-cultural perspective has been provided in the study.
... Corporate social responsibility (CSR), defined as "behaviors [aligned] with the norms and demands embraced by their main stakeholders" (Maignan and Ferrell, 2004, p. 6), serves to meet the expectations of various stakeholders (Agarwal and Berens, 2009;Clarkson, 1995;Schoeneborn et al., 2020). It has its roots in stakeholder theory that the sustainable growth of a company rests on its relationship with a variety of important stakeholders (Carroll, 1991;Wang and Holznagel, 2020). In recent decades, the digitalization-driven CSR challenge is even conforming to ethical decision-making and the social norms (Smeltzer and Jennings, 1998;Salmones et al., 2009;Bennett and Kottasz, 2012;Krasodomska, 2015). ...
Purpose
This study investigates the mechanism through which banks employ corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment to engage in employees. The values of different types of CSR engagement (i.e. philanthropic CSR vs ethical and legal CSR) are distinguished and their influences on employee identification are analyzed. The moderation effect of CSR communication through corporate social media is examined in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 254 respondents was collected through surveying the employees of one of the largest banks in Turkey.
Findings
Findings suggest that ethical and legal CSR is perceived more importantly than philanthropic CSR by employees in the banking industry. In addition, the level of transparency and frequency of CSR communication through corporate social media moderates the CSR types–employee identification relationship distinctively.
Practical implications
Special attention should be paid to the conditions under which CSR communication takes place effectively, as skeptics toward certain types of CSR initiatives may occur along with the disclosure of information about them.
Social implications
If organizations use social media communication in a way that would bring the CSR interests of their employees to light, it is likely that CSR initiatives will become more meaningful and have a greater societal impact.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the CSR literature through identifying the value of different types of CSR initiative and confirming the importance of transparent and proactive CSR communication on employee identification in the banking sector.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise millennial cultural consumers (MCCs) to bring together strands of consumer theory with branding theory to consider how to attract and retain younger audiences in arts organisations. Within that the authors single out for attention how “brand community” theory might apply to MCCs.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper is a conceptual paper that reviews and comments on concepts relevant to helping arts organisations develop strategies to attract and retain younger consumers in their audiences.
Findings
– Thoughtful conceptual insights and four research propositions for further work by academics and/or practitioners on Millennials and the art and culture world are derived from this review and commentary. Managerial implications are also drawn out.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes to the knowledge development of such concepts as value and brand communities. It also provides an explanation of these concepts conncecting academic thought on value with pressing management challenges for arts organisations, suggesting ways to apply brand community thinking to innovatiely conceptualised MCCs.
A substantial amount of research has analyzed business benefits that derive from arts sponsorship and philanthropy. However, very little has been investigated about the influence of partnerships with the arts on businesses. This article highlights the particular nature of partnership and compares sponsorship and partnership with respect to business benefits. The quantitative methodology was applied, collecting data from 239 companies that collaborate with arts organizations. The study shows that partnership collaboration with the arts increases creativity and learning, and enhances positive relationships with communities and stakeholders.
Corporations sponsoring causes may hope to create the appearance of "good citizenship." Using attribution theory, the authors develop and test a cognitive explanation of sponsorship effects. Results of the experiment suggest that a good fit between a company and the cause it sponsors generates consumer attributions of altruistic sponsor motives and enhances sponsor credibility and attitude toward the sponsor. Mediation analysis results indicate that congruence effects on sponsor attitudes were mediated by sponsor credibility.
Abstract Studies have shown that the fit between a sponsoring
brand and the sport, art, or charity sponsored influences
outcomes such as brand awareness and image. This research
adds the role of sponsor–sponsee similarity to the discussion
of fit. The authors argue that similarity interacts with fit when
conditions evoke suspicion or disrupt typical inferences regarding
sponsorship relationships. Interaction is particularly
important when the sponsor seeks to develop its image by
association with a cause, and is also of consequence for the
cause in terms of its branding. Three studies test sponsorship
effects with respect to blood donation and cancer prevention
organizations. Results support the predicted moderated mediation
model, showing that similarity between a corporate
sponsor and a sponsored cause can interact with fit, influencing
sponsorship evaluations directly and shaping attitudes and
behavioral intentions toward constituents indirectly. This
work reveals a counterintuitive effect of similarity for some
sponsorship relationships.
Building on existing studies suggesting that corporate social performance (CSP) is important in the job choice process, the authors investigate job seekers’perceptions of importance of CSP and explore effects of CSP dimensions on organizational attractiveness. Job seekers consider CSP important to assessment of firms and rate five specific CSP dimensions (environment, community relations, employee relations, diversity, and product issues) as more important than six other CSP dimensions. Using signaling theory and social identity theory, the authors hypothesize differences in effects of CSP data on ratings of employer attractiveness and find that environment, community relations, and diversity dimensions have the largest affect on attractiveness ratings.
Measures of corporate reputation currently in widespread use suffer from fundamental methodological and conceptual weaknesses. This paper begins with a brief overview of the reputation construct and its expected dimensionality. It then examines some of the major indices in use and documents their principle weakesses. A new instrument is proposed - the 'reputation quotient' - to measure corporate reputations and establish its empirical validity and reliability through focus groups and pilot studies. It concludes that the reputation quotient is a robust measure of corporate reputations that considerable improves the state of the art in reptuation measurement.
Purpose
Organization legitimacy is a general reflection of the relationship between an organization and its environment. By adopting an institutional approach and defining moral legitimacy as “a positive normative evaluation of the organization and its activities”, the goal of this paper is to investigate which corporate communication strategy adopted in online social media is more effective to create convergence between corporations' corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda and stakeholders' social expectations, and thereby, to increase corporate legitimacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the entire Twitter social graph, a network analysis was carried out to study the structural properties of the CSR community, such as the level of reciprocity, and advanced data mining techniques, i.e. topic and sentiment analysis, were carried out to investigate the communication dynamics.
Findings
Evidence was found that neither the engaging nor the information strategies lead to alignment. The assumption of the more the dialog, the more the communality seems to fail to portray the complexity of the communicational dynamics, such as the persistence of different, or simply a dialog without alignment. Empirical findings show that, even when engaging in a dialogue, communication in social media is still conceived as a marketing practice to convey messages about companies.
Originality/value
This paper originally investigates organizational legitimacy in the context of social media by applying advanced data‐mining techniques that allow the analysis of large amounts of information available online.
ABSTRACT Addressing issues such as health care, low-income housing, and economic development often involves building intersectoral partnerships (ISPs) -- relationshipsbetween organizations based in the state, market and civil society sectors. But because of the substantial differences between these sectors, building these relationships is a difficult and lengthy process with many unusual problems. Reviewing international experiences brings to light some valuable lessons about building successful ISPs. This paper looks at inter-organizational partnerships in general, and then ISPs in particular through five stages of ISP development: (1) identifying preconditions for ISPs, (2) convening actors and defining problems, (3) setting shared directions, (4) implementing joint action strategies, and (5) expanding and institutionalizing success. It concludes with nine lessons to guide ISP formation. DEFINITIONS AND KEY CONCEPTS Intersectoral Partnerships, or ISPs, is a term that refers to activity that involves collaboration between
Project-based cross-sector partnerships to address social issues (CSSPs) occur in four “arenas”: business-nonprofit, business-government, government-nonprofit, and trisector. Research on CSSPs is multidisciplinary, and different conceptual “platforms” are used: resource dependence, social issues, and societal sector platforms. This article consolidates recent literature on CSSPs to improve the potential for cross-disciplinary fertilization and especially to highlight developments in various disciplines for organizational researchers. A number of possible directions for future research on the theory, process, practice, method, and critique of CSSPs are highlighted. The societal sector platform is identified as a particularly promising framework for future research.
This research relied on a field experiment involving a real-world instance of corporate philanthropy to shed light on both
the scope and limitations of the strategic returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, the authors demonstrate
that the impact of CSR in the real world is not only less pervasive than has been previously acknowledged but also more multifaceted
than has been previously conceptualized. The findings indicated that contingent on CSR awareness, which was rather low, stakeholders
did react positively to the focal company not only in the consumption domain but in the employment and investment domains
as well. Stakeholder attributions regarding the genuineness of the company’s motives moderated these effects.
The increasingly important role played by sponsorship in the marketing mix has given rise to the view that it should be considered a strategic activity with the potential to generate a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. This paper extends that line of argument through the development of a conceptual model of the sponsorship – competitive advantage relationship. In particular, it argues that two levels of competitive advantage need to be considered, namely the competitive advantage of the sponsorship and competitive advantage in the market. Critical to attaining an advantage in the competitive world of sponsorship is the deployment of a range of organisational resources to support the sponsorship investment. A series of research propositions are advanced showing the relative importance of different organisational resources. Effectively resourced sponsorships generate a competitive advantage in the “market” for sponsorships, which in turns leads to competitive advantage and superior performance in product markets. The implications for research and practice are discussed and conclusions are drawn.
Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to understand and distinguish the mainstream of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in culture and art in Turkey. It aims to examine all parties related to CSR in culture and art (corporations, artists, art institutes and art communities) and their expectations of CSR. It is also aimed to understand the relationship between government and art institutions, communities and organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
– To be able to understand the general tendency, applications and problems of CSR in culture and arts, 17 in‐depth interviews were implemented with corporations, art institutes, communities and individual artists from different art fields. All interviews were digitally audio taped. All digital recordings were encoded and analyzed after the interviews and findings were grouped under four general topics.
Findings
– General environment, comments and problems are defined in situation analyses. Government relations and corporation relations are separately evaluated. Future prospects, expectations and projects are included in the last headline. Government and corporations are the main supporters for art and art organizations but there is a very serious risk for art organizations to lose their corporate funds to environmental and educational CSR projects and sport sponsorships.
Originality/value
– This study shows the gap of needed and existing funding and support in culture and art field in Turkey. There is a great potential in upcoming period for cultural investment in Turkey, which may produce both social welfare and corporate image increase. Turkish culture and art environment should be monitored for European Capital of Culture in 2010 organization.
A firm's reputation is an intangible asset (Dowling, 1993). The nature of such a reputation depends upon everything the firm does as an entity, (Weigelt and Camerer, 1988) and particularly the signals and communications it chooses to give to the marketplace (Fombrun and Shanley, 1990). The symbol of that reputation, the corporate name, when well managed, represents the organization favorably to its publics and can be particularly valuable in doing so to its customers (Margulies, 1977; Berry et al, 1988; Balmer, 1995; Brown and Dacin, 1997). Reputation is then a complex phenomenon but one which is worth managing well. What differentiates between the good and the not-so-good management of reputation has been the subject of many practitioner texts (see for example Bernstein, 1984; Smythe et al, 1992; Sauerhaft and Atkins, 1989), but far less material has emerged from academic research outside of the possible links between an organization's culture and its image, either to the market (Hatch and Schultz, 1997) or with its employees (Dutton et al, 1994). While something is known about the activities organizations undertake in their management of reputation (Post and Griffin, 1997) less is known about the issues which are addressed by reputation managers, or even their views on those issues that appear, from the available literature, to be important in their role.Corporate Reputation Review (1998) 2, 16-27; doi:10.1057/palgrave.crr.1540064
Corporate reputations are of growing interest as intangible assets that provide firms with a competitive advantage in the marketplace. This article describes the development and validation of the RepTrak™ Pulse, an emotion-based measure of the corporate reputation construct that untangles the drivers of corporate reputation from measurement of the construct itself. The authors draw on signaling theory to conceptualize corporate reputation as a set of beliefs about companies. Qualitative research conducted in the US demonstrated the content validity of this measure of reputation. Quantitative studies with multiple samples of participants validated the simplified measure in different geographical locations and confirmed the measure's ability to assess perceptions across stakeholder groups. Specifically, the authors examined how the US general public thinks about companies, how Canadian doctors assess pharmaceutical companies, how US consumers rate energy companies, and how Danish transportation employees evaluate their own firm. To confirm its cross-cultural validity the authors collected and analyzed data from 17 countries from six continents. This article reports the results of these analyses, and demonstrates the reliability, internal validity, nomological validity and cross-cultural validity of the RepTrak™ Pulse scale as a short-form, etic measure of corporate reputation that can be used to facilitate cross-cultural research as well as online interviewing and survey-based data collection.
This article investigates consumers’ perceptions of three types of sponsors that play a role in backing financially Canadian artistic and cultural organisations: government ministries (or departments), Crown corporations and private companies. In addition to the type of sponsor and the nature of the sponsorship (philanthropic or commercial), the perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored event (strong as opposed to weak), and the form of arts and cultural events (high art versus popular art and performing arts versus heritage arts) are explored in an experimental setting combining within‐subjects and between‐subjects factors. The main hypothesis of this research was that consumers’ perceptions are not the same when it comes to the different kinds of sponsors that evolve in the cultural and art fields. As the researchers explored this issue, they observed that significant differences do exist. It is believed that the rich findings of this study will be useful to civil servants.
Partnerships between local governments, health districts and non-governmental and community-based organiza-tions are an increasingly important part of health promotion practice, as well as other policy and programme areas. Two inherent tensions in partnership working have been widely described. First, partnerships are generally set up as 'top down' initiatives, which advocate a 'bottom up' approach, with the inevitable power imbalances that this implies. Secondly, the gains made by partnerships tend to be limited compared with the claims made for them. Despite these tensions, individuals and organizations continue to devote considerable effort to making partnerships 'work'. This paper describes a study, which explored the implications of these apparent contradictions of power imbalance and potential disillusionment within partnerships. The study explored partnership working between community and statutory organizations within two very different Healthy Cities initiatives, one in the UK and the other in South Africa. This paper focuses on why the partners contributed continued effort and energy into maintaining the partnerships, despite their awareness of the constraints. Findings suggest that partners dealt with the tensions first by assuming a discrete identity as an 'entity of boundary people' that operates at the interface between the statutory sector authorities and the communities in question; and secondly, by reducing their activities to specific 'boundary' issues that do not threaten the main agenda of the authorities.
Collaboration between nonprofits and businesses is increasing and becoming more strategically important. Based on 15 case studies, this article presents a cross-sector collaboration framework consisting of four components. First, the collaboration continuum provides a conceptual framework for categorizing different types of partnerships and studying their possible evolution through three principal stages: philanthropic, transactional, and integrative. Second, the collaboration value construct facilitates the analysis of the definition, creation, balance, and renewal of the value generated in different types of alliances. Third, a set of alliance drivers is identified that determines the nature and functioning of the partnerships. Fourth, alliance enablers that contribute to the effective management of the relationship are set forth. The article discusses the dynamics of the alliance marketplace. The research builds on and extends existing interorganizational research theories by providing a distinctive conceptual framework and new empirical understanding of cross-sector alliances. Future research needs are identified.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been the subject of much discussion in recent years, and it is hard to find any sizeable company that does not try to present its employment practices, environmental behavior, and involvement with the communities in which it operates in a favorable light. Yet the concept of CSR remains problematic for economic theory.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate brand credibility, corporate brand equity, and corporate reputation. Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses from a sample of 867 consumers in South Korea. The results showed that CSR has a direct positive effect on corporate brand credibility and corporate reputation. In addition, the results indicate that corporate brand credibility mediates the relationship between CSR and corporate reputation. Moreover, corporate brand credibility mediates the relationship between CSR and corporate reputation. Finally, the relationship between CSR and corporate brand equity is sequentially and fully mediated by corporate brand credibility and corporate reputation. The theoretical and managerial implications of the results and limitations are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.
In the last three decades, an influential research stream has emerged which highlights the dynamics of focal consumer/brand relationships. Specifically, more recently the ‘consumer brand engagement’ (CBE) concept has been postulated to more comprehensively reflect the nature of consumers' particular interactive brand relationships, relative to traditional concepts, including ‘involvement.’ However, despite the growing scholarly interest regarding the undertaking of marketing research addressing ‘engagement,’ studies have been predominantly exploratory in nature, thus generating a lack of empirical research in this area to date. By developing and validating a CBE scale in specific social media settings, we address this identified literature gap. Specifically, we conceptualize CBE as a consumer's positively valenced brand-related cognitive, emotional and behavioral activity during or related to focal consumer/brand interactions. We derive three CBE dimensions, including cognitive processing, affection, and activation. Within three different social media contexts, we employ exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to develop a reliable, 10-item CBE scale, which we proceed to validate within a nomological net of conceptual relationships and a rival model. The findings suggest that while consumer brand ‘involvement’ acts as a CBE antecedent, consumer ‘self-brand connection’ and ‘brand usage intent’ represent key CBE consequences, thus providing a platform for further research in this emerging area. We conclude with an overview of key managerial and scholarly implications arising from this research.
Based on theories of attribution and suspicion, three experiments highlight the mediating role of perceived sincerity of motives in determining the effectiveness of CSR activities. CSR activities improve a company's image when consumers attribute sincere motives, are ineffective when sincerity of motives is ambiguous, and hurt the company's image when motives are perceived as insincere. Variables affecting perceived sincerity include the benefit salience of the cause, the source through which consumers learn about CSR, and the ratio of CSR contributions and CSR-related advertising. High benefit salience of the cause hurts the company, in particular when consumers learn about it from a company source. This backfire effect can be overcome by spending more on CSR activities than on advertising that features CSR.
Can a brand's reputation be transferred successfully to other products?
What is the importance of a firm's reputation to the success or failure
of its brands? What is the effect on the firm's brands when a firm's
reputation, through either acquisition or restructuring, decays. How
important is it for a firm to maintain or enhance its reputation?
Describe a model of reputation creation and destruction and shows how
the brand extension decision can be addressed using the model.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine a comprehensive model of millennial usage of interactive technologies in the current marketing environment based upon actual behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A data mining approach using decision tree analysis (DTA ) generates two comparative models (i.e. millennial versus generation X and millennial versus baby boomers) of interactive media usage across 21 technology applications. A large national sample ( n =3,289) sourced from the Kantar Retail IQ constitutes the data for the models.
Findings
Millennial respondents indicate significantly higher usage of interactive media compared to both generation X and boomers across 14 applications. Models indicate that millennials use interactive technologies for utilitarian/information gathering purposes as well as for entertainment. However, they are less likely to purchase online compared to their older counterparts.
Research limitations/implications
Models provide evidence that both supports and extends previous research into interactive media from a uses and gratifications perspective. Findings suggest theoretical directions for research for economic versus emotional uses of interactive media.
Practical implications
Findings suggest that while millennials are adept at using technology for research and interactive purposes they tend to buy in stores, presenting opportunities for multiple channel marketers and challenges for those who market online exclusively.
Originality/value
The paper provides a realistic, comprehensive empirical model of interactive consumer behaviors across three prominent US cohorts within the current generational cycle.
The corporate social responsibility literature has focused on creating broad associations, such as simply being "socially responsible," and on the simple transfer of positive affect from sponsored causes to sponsoring firms. Both views fail to recognize the power of social initiatives as a means for differentiating among socially responsible firms and, in particular, for reinforcing the brand's positioning. The authors adopt a more traditional branding perspective and show that the fit between a firm's specific associations and a sponsored cause can reinforce or blur the firm's positioning, influence liking for the sponsorship, and bolster or undermine the firm's equity. They also show that communications decisions can mitigate the negative effects of low fit. Finally, they show that sponsorship effects can persist for as long as a year despite day-to-day exposure to other brand communications.
In 1984, R. Edward Freeman published his landmark book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, a work that set the agenda for what we now call stakeholder theory. In the intervening years, the literature on stakeholder theory has become vast and diverse. This book examines this body of research and assesses its relevance for our understanding of modern business. Beginning with a discussion of the origins and development of stakeholder theory, it shows how this corpus of theory has influenced a variety of different fields, including strategic management, finance, accounting, management, marketing, law, health care, public policy, and environment. It also features in-depth discussions of two important areas that stakeholder theory has helped to shape and define: business ethics and corporate social responsibility. The book concludes by arguing that we should re-frame capitalism in the terms of stakeholder theory so that we come to see business as creating value for stakeholders. © R. Edward Freeman, Jeffrey S. Harrison, Andrew C. Wicks, Bidhan Parmar and Simone de Colle 2010.
The manner in which sponsorship affects image is unique, and likely
to be missed by conventional measurements of corporate and brand values.
The “goodwill” effects engendered by sponsorship are subtle
and difficult for consumers to articulate. It is argued that current
methods of sponsorship evaluation really measure the publicity
surrounding the sponsorship and not the sponsorship as such.
In this paper the author tracks the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a concern and an ever-growing factor in stakeholder expectations. Using MORI data from a range of stakeholder audiences, the author argues that CSR is now established as a fundamental addition to stakeholders’ criteria for judging companies, and calls for a reappraisal of companies’ brand and reputation management. As well as being a threat to companies’ reputation and prosperity, CSR also represents an opportunity, as a potential basis for renewed trust between business and its stakeholders.
Alliances have been referred to by many other terms such as symbiotic marketing, horizontal integration, collaboration, or strategic partnerships. There is a lot of literature on alliances, although most of that has generally focused upon the nature of alliances, e.g., formality, symmetry, and number. Much less has been written about the characteristics of the alliance partners, e.g., strategic goals, administrative structures, range of activities, etc. There are also very few empirical studies in this area. Based on the limited empirical evidence that is available, the author will integrate partnership and partner characteristics to develop a comprehensive theory of alliances. Such an integration will considerably enhance development of alliance theory as well as help potential partners better understand themselves and their partnerships.
The incorporation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into an organization's strategic plan may impact the company's ability to attract and keep members of the Millennial generation as employees. The authors examined the CSR attitudes of college students and the correlation of these attitudes with willingness to work for companies that emphasize CSR through employee volunteerism. The outcome from an event consisting of 9 high-level executives from for- and nonprofit companies explaining their CSR philosophy to these students is described. Results indicated that the event itself was responsible for changes in the students’ attitudes and were not correlated with earlier attitudes or actions.
Investigation of the structure underlying variables (or people, or time) has intrigued social scientists since the early origins of psychology. Conducting one's first factor analysis can yield a sense of awe regarding the power of these methods to inform judgment regarding the dimensions underlying constructs. This book presents the important concepts required for implementing two disciplines of factor analysis: exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The book may be unique in its effort to present both analyses within the single rubric of the general linear model. Throughout the book canons of best factor analytic practice are presented and explained. The book has been written to strike a happy medium between accuracy and completeness versus overwhelming technical complexity. An actual data set, randomly drawn from a large-scale international study involving faculty and graduate student perceptions of academic libraries, is presented in Appendix A. Throughout the book different combinations of these variables and participants are used to illustrate EFA and CFA applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Companies are facing increasing pressure to both maintain profitability and behave in socially responsible ways, yet researchers have provided little information on how corporate social responsibility impacts profitability. This paper reports the findings from in-depth interviews of consumers to determine their views concerning the social responsibilities of companies. A typology of consumers whose purchasing behavior ranges from unresponsive to highly responsive to corporate social responsibility was developed from the analysis.
Corporate reputation has attracted interest from a wide range of academic disciplines. It is also a growing focus for business and media attention. This paper examines the construct of corporate reputation, first by untangling the terminological problems that have been caused by the interdisciplinary nature of much of the earlier work in the area. The construct of reputation and the allied constructs of image and identity are each reviewed. A structure is proposed in which the three constructs can be seen as labelling different but allied concepts. I then move on to consider how reputation has been measured. The paper uncovers considerable confusion in the use of what might appear to be basic terms and links this to a subsequent lack of grounded measurement tools in the sector, until relatively recently. With a clearer understanding of the construct of corporate reputation and the allied constructs of image and identity, researchers are now well placed to test the relationships widely claimed by practitioners between corporate reputation and other variables such as commercial performance and employee and customer satisfaction. The review ends by illustrating some of the issues that can be assessed from the basis of a clearer conceptualization of reputation and its measurement.
One of the central uses of stakeholder theory, in its original form, was as a counterpoint to the idea that corporations should be managed in the interests of shareholders. As the theory developed the debate was often framed in terms of "shareholders vs. stakeholders." While developing "theories of the firm" is an interesting and useful project, focusing solely on "theory of the firm" obscures a more important contribution of stakeholder theory. The purpose of this brief essay is to set forth what I consider to be the central insight of stakeholder theory: the jointness of stakeholder interests.
This study investigates the efficacy of three corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives—sponsorship, cause-related
marketing (CRM), and philanthropy—on consumer–company identification (C–C identification) and brand attitude and, in turn,
consumer citizenship behaviors. CSR reputation is proposed as the moderating variable that affects the relationship between
CSR initiatives, C–C identification, and brand attitude. A conceptual model that integrates the hypothesized relationships
and the moderating effect of CSR reputation is used to frame the study. Using a between-subjects factorial designed experiment,
the results showed that all three CSR initiatives have a significant effect on C–C identification and brand attitude. The
level of that influence, however, varied according to a firm’s CSR reputation. Managerial implications of these findings are
also discussed.
In recent years, academics and practitioners have recognized that sponsorship relationships operate as strategic alliances. Additionally, they have emphasized the lack of analytical approaches which allow an understanding of the developmental process of such alliances. In an attempt to fill this gap, we examine how key sponsorship characteristics change over different stages of the life cycle (formation, operation, and outcome) to determine the success or failure of the relationship. Specifically, we propose a life cycle model that articulates general paths in sponsorship relationship developmental stages and the behavior pattern of sponsorship characteristics. Throughout this framework, we illustrate our reasoning with examples drawn from the UBS/Team Alinghi sponsorship relationship.
The use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to influence consumers and differentiate product offerings has become quite common. This research builds on the growing body of marketing literature through two investigations that manipulate consumers' perceptions of fit, motivation, and timing of corporate social initiatives embedded within promotions. We find that low-fit initiatives negatively impact consumer beliefs, attitudes, and intentions no matter what the firm's motivation, and that high-fit initiatives that are profit-motivated have the same impact. Furthermore, consumers consider the timing (proactive versus reactive) of the social initiative as an informational cue, and only the high-fit, proactive initiatives led to an improvement in consumer beliefs, attitudes, and intentions.
Participants are not always as diligent in reading and following instructions as experimenters would like them to be. When participants fail to follow instructions, this increases noise and decreases the validity of their data. This paper presents and validates a new tool for detecting participants who are not following instructions – the Instructional manipulation check (IMC). We demonstrate how the inclusion of an IMC can increase statistical power and reliability of a dataset.
Addressing the issue of effective connectivity, this study focuses on effects of indirect connections on inferring stable causal relations: partial transfer entropy. We introduce a Granger causality measure based on a multivariate version of transfer entropy. The statistic takes into account the influence of the rest of the network (environment) on observed coupling between two given nodes. This formalism allows us to quantify, for a specific pathway, the total amount of indirect coupling mediated by the environment. We show that partial transfer entropy is a more sensitive technique to identify robust causal relations than its bivariate equivalent. In addition, we demonstrate the confounding effects of the variation in indirect coupling on the detectability of robust causal links. Finally, we consider the problem of model misspecification and its effect on the robustness of the observed connectivity patterns, showing that misspecifying the model may be an issue even for model-free information-theoretic approach.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of a greater marketing orientation among arts organisations and its impact on funding through sponsorship.
Design/methodology/approach
Utilising a qualitative methodology, the study employs case studies for the purpose of formulating tentative and emergent knowledge.
Findings
The case study observations reveal the adoption of a marketing orientation across the sample and most significantly for the purposes of securing and consolidating sponsorship relationships. But contrary to popular academic theory this is managed without significant threat to artistic integrity or adaptation of theatrical productions.
Research limitations/implications
Data were derived from a purposive but limited sample. The advantages of a qualitative method in producing rich data is well established, however a longitudinal study would facilitate the understanding of the temporal shifts in arts sponsorships and counter the limits of the cross‐sectional nature of the study.
Practical implications
The study reveals a managerial capacity for arts organisations to attract sponsorship through customer orientation without the need to compromise its artistic and social goals.
Originality/value
A central concern to the increasing significance of business and private funding for the survival of arts organisations is the impact this has on the producers ability to remain faithful to the artistic integrity of their productions. This longstanding academic debate now has predominance in arts marketing management and the issues addressed in this paper serve to address this shift in emphasis.