IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v148y2022icp216-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mind the gap: Understanding the gap between intentions and behaviour in the charity context

Author

Listed:
  • Nguyen, Cathy
  • Faulkner, Margaret
  • Yang, Song
  • Williams, John
  • Tong, Luqiong

Abstract

Intention measures are used as a proxy for future behaviour. Although there is often a gap between intentions and subsequent behaviour, little is known about why the intention-behaviour gap (IB-gap) occurs. This longitudinal study across Australia, New Zealand and China quantifies the IB-gap in the context of donating money, goods, and time to charities. The factors underpinning the IB-gap are documented (i.e., why intenders don’t act and non-intenders do), resulting in the development of a framework summarising 12 key reasons. Findings show that intenders don’t follow through due to perceived time/effort constraints or lack of resources. Non-intenders subsequently give due to heightened awareness and attitudes about a charity/cause, or an intrinsic motivation such as empathy. Our findings allow researchers and marketers to better understand and interpret intention metrics, with guidance on how to minimise barriers to action across three types of support behaviours.

Suggested Citation

  • Nguyen, Cathy & Faulkner, Margaret & Yang, Song & Williams, John & Tong, Luqiong, 2022. "Mind the gap: Understanding the gap between intentions and behaviour in the charity context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 216-224.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:148:y:2022:i:c:p:216-224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003848
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.044?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Andreoni & Eleanor Brown & Isaac Rischall, 2003. "Charitable Giving by Married Couples Who Decides and Why Does it Matter?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(1).
    2. Philip H. Brown & Jessica H. Minty, 2008. "Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 9-25, July.
    3. Armstrong, J. Scott & Morwitz, Vicki G. & Kumar, V., 2000. "Sales forecasts for existing consumer products and services: Do purchase intentions contribute to accuracy?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 383-397.
    4. Marc Vanhuele & Malcolm Wright & Robert East, 2008. "Consumer Behaviour: Applications in Marketing," Post-Print hal-02454375, HAL.
    5. van Dijk, Mathilde & Van Herk, Hester & Prins, Remco, 2019. "Choosing your charity: The importance of value congruence in two-stage donation choices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 283-292.
    6. Obeng, Efua & Nakhata, Chinintorn & Kuo, Hsiao-Ching, 2019. "“Paying it forward: The reciprocal effect of superior service on charity at checkout”," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 250-260.
    7. Shugan, Steven M, 1980. "The Cost of Thinking," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 7(2), pages 99-111, Se.
    8. F. Thomas Juster, 1966. "Consumer Buying Intentions and Purchase Probability: An Experiment in Survey Design," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number just66-2, March.
    9. Gerald E. Auten & Holger Sieg & Charles T. Clotfelter, 2002. "Charitable Giving, Income, and Taxes: An Analysis of Panel Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 371-382, March.
    10. Jayesh D. Patel & Dharmesh D. Gadhavi & Yupal S. Shukla, 2017. "Consumers’ responses to cause related marketing: moderating influence of cause involvement and skepticism on attitude and purchase intention," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Hibbert, Sally A. & Horne, Suzanne & Tagg, Stephen, 2005. "Charity retailers in competition for merchandise: examining how consumers dispose of used goods," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 819-828, June.
    12. Deborah A. Small & Uri Simonsohn, 2008. "Friends of Victims: Personal Experience and Prosocial Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 532-542, December.
    13. Martin R. Young & Wayne S. DeSarbo & Vicki G. Morwitz, 1998. "The Stochastic Modeling of Purchase Intentions and Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 188-202, February.
    14. Nguyen, Cathy & Romaniuk, Jenni, 2014. "Pass it on: A framework for classifying the content of word of mouth," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 117-124.
    15. Philip H. Brown & Jessica H. Minty, 2008. "Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(1), pages 9-25, July.
    16. Merchant, Altaf & Ford, John B. & Rose, Gregory, 2011. "How personal nostalgia influences giving to charity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 610-616, June.
    17. Karen Page Winterich & Vikas Mittal & William T. Ross Jr., 2009. "Donation Behavior toward In-Groups and Out-Groups: The Role of Gender and Moral Identity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 199-214.
    18. East, Robert, 1993. "Investment decisions and the theory of planned behaviour," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 337-375, June.
    19. Park, Jungkun & Hyun, Hyowon & Thavisay, Toulany, 2021. "A study of antecedents and outcomes of social media WOM towards luxury brand purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    20. McCreanor, Tim & Barnes, Helen Moewaka & Kaiwai, Hector & Borell, Suaree & Gregory, Amanda, 2008. "Creating intoxigenic environments: Marketing alcohol to young people in Aotearoa New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(6), pages 938-946, September.
    21. Jen Shang & Rachel Croson, 2009. "A Field Experiment in Charitable Contribution: The Impact of Social Information on the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1422-1439, October.
    22. Morwitz, Vicki G. & Steckel, Joel H. & Gupta, Alok, 2007. "When do purchase intentions predict sales?," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 347-364.
    23. Sun, Baohong & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2010. "Stated intentions and purchase behavior: A unified model," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 356-366.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bataoui, Soffien & Boch, Emmanuelle, 2023. "The role of socially rich photos in generating favorable donation behavior on charity websites," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Koert Van Ittersum, 2012. "The effect of decision makers’ time perspective on intention–behavior consistency," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 263-277, March.
    2. Cecere, Grazia & Corrocher, Nicoletta & Guerzoni, Marco, 2018. "Price or performance? A probabilistic choice analysis of the intention to buy electric vehicles in European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 19-32.
    3. Horstmann, Felix, 2017. "Measuring the shopper's attitude toward the point of sale display: Scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 112-123.
    4. Bullard, Olya & Penner, Sara, 2017. "A regulatory-focused perspective on philanthropy: Promotion focus motivates giving to prevention-framed causes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 173-180.
    5. Tigran Melkonyan & Zvi Safra & Sinong Ma, 2021. "Justice in an uncertain world: Evidence on donations to cancer research," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 281-311, June.
    6. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Verwimp, Philip, 2022. "Pro-social behavior after a disaster: Evidence from a storm hitting an open-air festival," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 493-510.
    7. Baris Yoruk, 2013. "Are Generous People More Likely to Vote?," Discussion Papers 13-10, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    8. Bataoui, Soffien & Boch, Emmanuelle, 2023. "The role of socially rich photos in generating favorable donation behavior on charity websites," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Barış K. Yörük, 2012. "The Effect of Media on Charitable Giving and Volunteering: Evidence from the “Give Five” Campaign," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 813-836, September.
    10. Baghestani, Hamid, 2021. "Predicting growth in US durables spending using consumer durables-buying attitudes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 327-336.
    11. Yörük Bariş K., 2015. "Do Charitable Subsidies Crowd Out Political Giving? The Missing Link between Charitable and Political Contributions," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(1), pages 1-29, January.
    12. Arts, Joep W.C. & Frambach, Ruud T. & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A., 2011. "Generalizations on consumer innovation adoption: A meta-analysis on drivers of intention and behavior," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 134-144.
    13. Lee, Choong-Ki & Mjelde, James W. & Kim, Tae-Kyun & Lee, Hye-Mi, 2014. "Estimating the intention–behavior gap associated with a mega event: The case of the Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 168-177.
    14. Tatyana Deryugina & Benjamin M. Marx, 2021. "Is the Supply of Charitable Donations Fixed? Evidence from Deadly Tornadoes," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 383-398, September.
    15. Sun, Baohong & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2010. "Stated intentions and purchase behavior: A unified model," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 356-366.
    16. Reinstein, David, 2006. "Does One Contribution Come at the Expense of Another? Empirical Evidence on Substitution Between Charitable Donations," Economics Discussion Papers 2938, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    17. Roper, Stuart & Parker, Cathy, 2013. "Doing well by doing good: A quantitative investigation of the litter effect," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2262-2268.
    18. Lenka Fiala & Charles N. Noussair, 2017. "Charitable Giving, Emotions, And The Default Effect," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1792-1812, October.
    19. Ross Hickey & Bradley Minaker & A. Abigail Payne, 2019. "The Sensitivity of Charitable Giving to the Timing and Salience of Tax Credits," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 72(1), pages 79-110, March.
    20. Hauser, John R. & Urban, Glen L. & Weinberg, Bruce D., 1992. "Time flies when you're having fun : how consumers allocate their time when evaluating products," Working papers 3439-92., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:148:y:2022:i:c:p:216-224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.