Public
Relations
Review
38 (2012) 498–
500
Contents
lists
available
at
SciVerse
ScienceDirect
Public
Relations
Review
Research
in
brief
Positive
influence
of
organizational
charitable
involvement
on
perceptions
of
credibility
and
purchase
intention
Sufyan
Baksh-Mohammed
a,1
,
Coy
Callison
b,∗
,
Min-Hwan
Choi
b,2
a
University
of
Scranton,
4126
Saint
Thomas
Hall,
800
Linden
Street,
Scranton,
PA
18510,
United
States
b
Texas
Tech
University
Box
43082,
Lubbock,
TX
79409-3082,
United
States
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
Article
history:
Received
16
September
2011
Received
in
revised
form
6
February
2012
Accepted
10
February
2012
Keywords:
Charity
Credibility
Corporate
social
responsibility
Experiment
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
The
influence
of
charity
involvement
on
perceptions
of
the
organization’s
communica-
tion
of
charitable
activity
was
examined
experimentally.
Results
suggest
that
the
inclusion
of
charity
statements
on
an
organization’s
homepage
leads
to
more
positive
evaluations
of
organizational
credibility
and
higher
purchase
intention.
In
crisis
scenarios,
charitable
involvement
neither
negatively
nor
positively
influences
perceptions
of
credibility.
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1.
Introduction
Creating
and
maintaining
favorable
relationships
with
customers
has
long
been
a
critical
organizational
issue.
One
means
of
maintaining
positive
relations
is
to
provide
greater
benefits
beyond
salable
goods
and
services
to
consumers
(L’Etang,
1994).
As
such,
a
customer
may
gain
satisfaction
from
associating
with
an
organization
that
actively
pursues
charity
work
and
charitable
giving
(Endacott,
2004).
However,
the
effect
of
charitable
involvement
on
perception
of
organizational
credibility
and
various
types
of
news
messages
delivered
through
online
communication
channels
such
as
the
organization’s
Internet
homepage
has
not
been
fully
evaluated.
Corporate
public
relations
and
general
communications
research
suggests
that
organizations
face
a
difficult
task
in
com-
municating
with
constituent
audiences.
Findings
have
been
consistent
in
indicating
that
the
public
questions
the
motives
behind
corporate
communication
efforts
and
public
relations
endeavors.
The
possibility
that
espousing
company-positive
news
may
lead
to
audiences
becoming
skeptical
and
questioning
motives
as
well
as
intention
and
credibility
is
especially
troublesome
when
considering
the
rise
of
cause-related
marketing
(see
Bae
&
Cameron,
2006).
As
cause-related
marketing
and
the
charitable
involvement
that
often
accompanies
it
come
to
be
more
prevalent,
the
logical
next
step
seemingly
would
be
to
tie
together
the
past
research
in
corporate
public
relations
to
corporate
communication
of
charitable
involvement.
The
goal
of
this
study
is
to
determine
how
corporations
can
leverage
their
involvement
with
charities
and
how
that
involvement
influences
perception
of
corporations
and
their
communicative
efforts
as
well
as
their
products.
∗
Corresponding
author.
Tel.:
+1
806
743
3385.
E-mail
addresses:
mohammeds2@scranton.edu
(S.
Baksh-Mohammed),
coy.callison@ttu.edu
(C.
Callison),
min.choi@me.com
(M.-H.
Choi).
1
Tel.:
+1
570
941
6332;
fax:
+1
570
941
7873.
2
Tel.:
+1
806
743
3385.
0363-8111/$
–
see
front
matter ©
2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.02.004