Volunteering, Charitable Donation, and Psychological Well-Being of College Students in China

Psychological well-being indicates individuals’ positive psychological functioning and well-being. A growing body of literature, largely based on adults and old people, suggests that volunteering and charitable donations are related to individuals’ psychological well-being. As emerging adulthood is a vital time for lifespan development, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of volunteering and charitable donation on individuals’ psychological well-being on college students. Relying on theories of altruism and the warm-glow theory, this study estimates the relationships among hours of volunteering, amount of charitable donations, and psychological well-being from 1,871 Chinese college students. The linear regression results indicate that students’ hours of volunteering and the amount of charitable donations in the past year were positively associated with their psychological well-being. Volunteering, compared to charitable donations, had a slightly stronger association with psychological well-being. This study provides a rationale for academic institutions to integrate social service activities into the curriculum as a potential tool to promote students’ psychological well-being.

Empathy or perceived credibility? An empirical study of Muslim donating behaviour through online charitable crowdfunding in Indonesia

Purpose This study aims to analyse the factors influencing Indonesian Muslims’ donation behaviour through online charitable donation-based crowdfunding. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the stimulus-organism-response framework, with technological characteristics, campaign characteristics and religiosity as the stimulus; empathy, perceived credibility and quality of relationship as the organism; and intention to donate as the response variables. In analysing the data, it used the structural equation modelling approach with the partial least squares method. The study involved 405 Muslim respondents who have donated through the largest online charitable crowdfunding platform in Indonesia. Findings The main findings suggest that empathy and perceived credibility are key determinants influencing the intention to donate through crowdfunding. Both factors are subsequently affected by initiator reputation, campaign popularity, content quality, transaction convenience and website quality. Such intention also goes hand in hand with the improved quality of relationships between the organisation and the donors, subsequently influenced by their religiosity. Practical implications The main findings imply that fundraising campaigns and technology’s characteristics play a significant role in the intention to donate. Such findings are expected to enhance understanding of individuals’ philanthropic behaviour in Indonesia and to suggest appropriate operational strategies to facilitate individuals’ donation behaviour in charitable crowdfunding. Originality/value Despite the high potential of charitable crowdfunding, studies regarding the factors influencing charitable donations made through such organisations remain scarce. This study contributes to the literature by taking the case of the largest online charitable crowdfunding platform in Indonesia.

EFFECT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY OF QUOTED OIL AND GAS FIRMS IN NIGERIA

This study examined effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on investment efficiency of quoted oil and gas firms in Nigeria. The study employed Ex post facto research design. The sample size of seven (7) oil and gas firms was derived from the population of the quoted twelve (12) oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Judgmental approach was employed during the sampling procedure. The study used secondary data sourced from the annual reports of the quoted oil and gas firms in Nigeria Stock Exchange fact books of official lists covering a ten-year period (2010-2019). The study employed Multiple Regression Model as the technique of data analysis with the aid of SPSS 23 statistical software. Analysis of findings showed that CSR charitable donation expenditure, CSR expenditure on education and CSR societal expenditure reveal significant relationship with investment efficiency of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. Nevertheless, CSR health expenditure and CSR environmental expenditure show insignificant effect on investment efficiency of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. The study also reveals that there is significant relationship between CSR sports expenditure and investment efficiency of oil and gas firms in Nigeria. With respect to the findings, the study recommends that the oil and gas firms should boost and monitor their CSR charitable donation expenditure, CSR on health expenditures, CSR environmental and CSR sport expenditures and observe them closely since they reveal negative effect. The study also recommends that CSR expenditure on education and CSR societal expenditure should be upheld and sustained since they reveal significant positive effect on investment efficiency of oil and gas firms in Nigeria.

A Research on the Crisis Spillover Effect of Food Safety Incidents on Competitive Firms: The Influence of Political Connections and Charitable Donations

Taking the perspective of corporate social responsibility and institutional theory, this research establishes an innovative relationship between variables such as charitable donation, political connection and crisis spillover effect of firms through quantitative analysis using the event study method, regression analysis and the Heckman two-stage model. Taking 8 food safety incidents from 2011 to 2016 as research samples, this paper studies the impact of food safety incidents on the market value of both firms under crisis and their competitive firms, as well as the influence of political connection and charitable donation. Based on the current situation that the product crisis or reputation crisis of a firm will, inevitably, affect the market performance and value of its competitive firms in the same industry, this paper attempts to answer questions such as “what kind of firms are capable of minimizing this negative influence?” “will the political connection of competitive firms exert a positive or negative impact?” and “can actions taken before the crisis, such as charitable donation of competitive firms, help these firms in reducing the harm?” The conclusions are as follows: first, the occurrence of food safety incidents not only has a negative impact on the market value of the crisis firm, but also has a negative spillover effect on the competitive firm; second, charitable donations made by the competitive firm before the crisis demonstrates a positive competitive effect on the competitive firm, and the intensity of such charitable donations is positively correlated with this positive competitive effect; third, the political connection of the competitive firm has no significant impact on the crisis spillover effect. These findings provide enlightenment for the operation and management of firms in the food industry.

An Investigation of a Frontal Negative Slow Wave in a Virtual Hedonic Purchase Task

There is a connection between the frontal negative slow wave (FNSW) and the arousal inhibition in the hedonic purchase context. To calculate the FNSW (400–800 ms), event-related potentials (ERPs) method was applied to depict the neural substrates on prudent and impulsive consumers’ behaviors within various states of promotion. Promotion types include the pure price promotion and the mixed promotion (a mixture of a charitable donation and a discount). Behaviorally, consumers response more quickly in the pure price promotion condition and they express a preference for the mixed promotion. More importantly, a larger FNSW emerged in the impulsive consumers than the prudent, suggesting that the former might tend to control their eagerness to consume hedonic items. Compared with the price promotion as the worse option, the mixed promotion as the better option caused more perceptual conflict, leading to an increase in N2 amplitude. It suggests that consumers incline to reject the worse offers. These results also reveal that people primarily have to search negative promotion information by their insight and subsequently impulsive consumers inhibit the responses to the promotion information. The method of ERPs and FNSW should be helpful for marketing researchers and professionals on hedonic consumption and sales promotion.

When it really counts: Investigating the relation between trait mindfulness and actual prosocial behavior

Meta-analytical findings suggested a positive link between trait mindfulness and prosociality. However, most correlational studies on mindfulness and prosociality have relied on self-report measures. The present work aimed to address this serious limitation by investigating actual prosocial behavior. We further focused on mindfulness as a multi-dimensional personality trait to disentangle effects of different mindfulness aspects. In addition, we tested whether the relation between trait mindfulness and prosocial behavior emerges under a theoretical meaningful experimental boundary condition (i.e., feelings of guilt). In two studies (using four different samples; N = 1240), we did not find support for a positive link between trait mindfulness and (a) charitable donation and (b) behavior in an incentivized economic game, respectively. Evidence for manipulated guilt-level as a moderator was inconclusive. Taken together, the findings point to a more complex role of trait mindfulness for prosocial behavior. Limitations and ideas for further research are discussed.