Volunteers represent an important resource for nonprofit organizations. The competition for volunteers is rising, increasing the pressure to optimize volunteer recruiting. One way to recruit ...volunteers is the use of volunteering appeals. To help optimize such volunteering appeals, we conducted two conjoint studies to identify the importance of design attributes of volunteering appeals as well as the utilities of the different attribute levels for potential volunteers by using choice-based conjoint analysis. The conjoint analyses are based on two student samples. We provide a segmentation of volunteers, allowing nonprofit organizations to design volunteering appeals according to specific target groups.
Abstract Research suggests that authentic branding strategies should focus on consumers' actual self rather than their ideal self; that is, brands that match consumers' ideal self are perceived as ...too psychologically distant from their present self and, thus, as inauthentic. This study challenges this prevailing notion by proposing the novel perspective that ideal self‐congruence is more influential than actual self‐congruence in driving authenticity. Contrary to the view that brands matching consumers' ideal self are deemed inauthentic due to psychological distance, our research, encompassing four empirical studies, demonstrates that ideal self‐congruence significantly enhances positive authentic pride while effectively reducing negative hubristic pride more than actual self‐congruence. Furthermore, this study not only reveals that ideal self‐congruence is more strongly associated with authentic pride than actual self‐congruence but also reshapes the theoretical understanding of the role of self‐congruence in the realm of authenticity. Our findings therefore contradict previously cited but hardly empirical arguments by demonstrating that ideally self‐congruent brands positively affect perceived brand authenticity more than actually self‐congruent brands. Thus, we recommend brands to focus authentic marketing strategies on consumers' ideal self to positively influence consumer behavior.
Purpose - This study aims to investigate how unethical corporate behavior of pharmaceutical companies affects consumer behavior of German consumers, especially boycotts of over-the-counter ...drugs.Design methodology approach - Borrowing from psychological theory as well as consumer behavior theory, the study develops a conceptual model that considers affective and cognitive determinants of boycotting behavior. Within the scope of the German pharmaceutical sector, the researchers conducted a survey to validate the research hypotheses using moderated regression analysis.Findings - Individuals' inclination to join boycotts and engage in boycott communication results from anger about animal testing, perceived immorality of pharmaceutical companies' corporate behavior and negative corporate image of pharmaceutical companies. An empirical analysis reveals significant moderation effects.Research limitations implications - This research focuses on the pharmaceutical sector and the boycott of over-the-counter drugs.Practical implications - The study results may help pharmaceutical companies develop communication responses to accusations of unethical corporate behavior.Originality value - The paper offers new insights on the effects of unethical corporate behavior on consumers, which may be useful to the crisis-prone pharmaceutical sector.
This study analyses the impact of two financially equivalent frames of a co-payment policy on the choice between a co-payment policy and one with full cost recovery. It also examines the incentive ...effect of the co-payment and the post-choice evaluation on the pay-offs in case of unexpected losses, using the example of health insurance. Two experimental studies form the context for an empirical investigation of the theoretical considerations. We examine the framing-related effects of a rebate compared to a premium reduction frame of a co-payment policy. The results confirm that a rebate frame has a positive effect on the intention to choose a co-payment policy. The intention to avoid claims in the premium reduction frame is greater than in the rebate frame. In case of unexpected losses because of high insurance claims, the rebate frame results in less dissatisfaction and causes fewer regret effects. The results support the theoretical considerations that insurance companies should account for these differences and design their co-payment policies according their priorities, either with a rebate or a premium reduction frame.
Crocodile-tear apologies are characterized as “pretend” apologies that customers perceive as insincere. We analyze the impact of crocodile-tear apologies on participants’ loyalty intentions after a ...service failure in an electronic word-of-mouth context. When there are controllable service failures our results suggest that crocodile-tear apologies weaken the detrimental efects on the loyalty intentions of customers who observe such service failures. For customers directly afected by, and for observers of, uncontrollable services failures, complete apologies are more efective. Our results imply that in the electronic word-of-mouth context, easily standardizable crocodile-tear apologies might serve as an alternative apology strategy.
The potential of secondary prevention measures, such as cancer screening, to produce cost savings in the healthcare sector is a controversial issue in healthcare economics. Potential savings are ...calculated by comparing treatment costs with the cost of a prevention program. When survivors’ subsequent unrelated health care costs are included in the calculation, however, the overall cost of disease prevention rises. What have not been studied to date are the secondary effects of fatal disease prevention measures on social security systems. From the perspective of a policy maker responsible for a social security system budget, it is not only future healthcare costs that are relevant for budgeting, but also changes in the contributions to, and expenditures from, statutory pension insurance and health insurance systems. An examination of the effect of longer life expectancies on these insurance systems can be justified by the fact that European social security systems are regulated by the state, and there is no clear separation between the financing of individual insurance systems due to cross-subsidisation. This paper looks at how the results of cost-comparison analyses vary depending on the inclusion or exclusion of future healthcare and non-healthcare costs, using the example of colorectal cancer screening in the German general population. In contrast to previous studies, not only are future unrelated medical costs considered, but also the effects on the social security system. If a German colorectal cancer screening program were implemented, and unrelated future medical care were excluded from the cost-benefit analysis, savings of up to €548 million per year would be expected. The screening program would, at the same time, generate costs in the healthcare sector as well as in the social security system of €2,037 million per year. Because the amount of future contributions and expenditures in the social security system depends on the age and gender of the recipients of the screening program (i.e. survivors of a typically fatal condition), the impact of age and gender on the results of a cost-comparison analysis of colorectal cancer screening are presented and discussed. Our study shows that colorectal cancer screening generates individual cost savings in the social security system up to a life expectancy of 60 years. Beyond that age, the balance between a recipient’s social security contributions and insurance system expenditure is negative. The paper clarifies the relevance of healthcare costs not related to the prevented disease to the economic evaluation of prevention programs, particularly in the case of fatal diseases such as colorectal cancer. The results of the study imply that, from an economic perspective, the participation of at-risk individuals in disease prevention programs should be promoted.
Marketing ist mehr als Menschen Dinge zu verkaufen, die sie nicht brauchen. Vielmehr verfolgt das Marketingkonzept das Ziel, die Bedürfnisse der Stakeholder durch geeignete Produkte und ...Dienstleistungen zu befriedigen. Zu diesem Zweck stellt es ein stringentes Vorgehen bereit und bringt einen großen Fundus an unterschiedlichen Techniken mit. Aus dieser Perspektive analysiert der vorliegende Artikel die Anwendbarkeit des Marketings in der Gemeinwirtschaft und im Gemeinwohl und geht dabei auf Vorteile und Herausforderungen ein. Anhand ausgewählter Beispiele für die Anwendung von Marketingtechniken wird die Ausgestaltung des Marketing-Mix für Organisationen in der Sozialwirtschaft und der Gemeinwohlökonomie dargestellt. Auch ethische Aspekte der Anwendbarkeit des Marketings werden diskutiert.
Marketing is more than selling people things they do not need; the goal of marketing is to meet stakeholders’ needs through the delivery of suitable products and services. For this purpose, marketing provides a stringent procedure and offers a large toolbox of different techniques. From this perspective, the present article analyzes the applicability of marketing for the social economy and for common welfare by addressing its advantages and challenges. By presenting selected examples of these marketing techniques, the article illustrates the design of the marketing mix for organizations of the social economy and common welfare sector. Ethical aspects of the applicability of marketing are also discussed.
This study introduces a comprehensive model to explain patients prosocial behavioral intentions to participate in clinical training. Using the helping decision model, the authors analyze the combined ...impact of factors that affect participation intentions. The model includes intrapersonal and interpersonal appraisals triggered by an awareness of the societal need for clinical training as a practical part of medical education. The results of our empirical study (N = 317) show that personal costs and anxiety as negative appraisals and a warm glow as a positive appraisal affect participation intentions and fully mediate the effect of the patient's awareness of the societal need. The study results indicate that communication strategies should address patient beliefs about negative personal consequences of participation rather than highlighting the societal need for practical medical education related to clinical training. Based on the results, medical associations could develop guidelines and provide training for physicians on how to motivate patients to participate in clinical training, resulting in more patient-centered standardized consent discussions. All rights reserved, Elsevier
Since the willingness to donate blood is not very high among large parts of the population, a better understanding of the determinants for the willingness to donate blood is of significant ...importance. This article is intended to contribute to higher uniformity of results in the context of research on blood donation behaviour. Exploratory factor analysis and non-parametric tests are used to accomplish this. Potentially important socio-demographic and motivation-related variables particularly affecting the willingness to donate blood are examined.
As an addition to the existing literature, the influence of the individual importance of structural characteristics of blood donation facilities, such as the standard of the facility's medical equipment or the training of the facility's staff, will be tested for its effects on the willingness to donate blood. The analysis will also include the influence of direct or indirect personal involvement on the part of the respondent. The results of the study indicate that typical blood donors are young women or men who are studying or possess a higher level of education. Furthermore, potential blood donors can easily be attracted by pecuniary incentives and word of mouth. Unlike non-donors, potential blood donors are not idle, have no fear of infections due to the donation and want reasonable opening hours of blood donation facilities.
