The influence of brands’ internationalization degree on consumers’ attitudes toward cross-border philanthropy: based on theory of legitimacy
ISSN: 1750-614X
Article publication date: 19 July 2024
Issue publication date: 2 January 2025
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how brands’ degree of internationalization influences consumers’ attitudes toward brands’ engagement in cross-border philanthropy by taking legitimacy as a mediating mechanism. The authors further investigate the moderating role of cause acuteness in this effect to identify practical strategies for managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested via laboratory experiments. In brief, Study 1 investigates the relationship between a brand’s degree of internationalization and perceived legitimacy for corporate cross-border philanthropy and the impact of internationalization on consumers’ brand evaluations of such philanthropy. Study 2 addresses the moderating role of cause acuteness.
Findings
The authors discover that companies with a high (vs low) degree of internationalization gained more legitimacy, and thus better brand evaluations, upon engaging in corporate cross-border philanthropy. This effect reverses when the causes are related to sudden disasters rather than ongoing tragedies.
Practical implications
This study provides valuable guidance for marketers seeking to leverage cross-border philanthropy to enhance consumers’ brand attitudes. Specifically, brands’ degree of internationalization should be consistent when performing cross-border philanthropy. Otherwise, brands will struggle to gain legitimacy and will earn less favorable consumer evaluations.
Originality/value
This work enriches the literature on corporate social responsibility in the domain of cross-border philanthropy and elucidates consumers’ attitudes toward this type of philanthropy in a corporate context. This study also meaningfully contributes to research on brands’ internationalization and legitimacy.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71962007; 71772003) and Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (Grant No. 2022JJ30179).
Data availability statements: The data sets generated from this project are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Ethical statement: Ethical review and approval were not required for the study of human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. All participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this research.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Citation
Tong, Z., Liu, H., Liu, D. and Zhou, L. (2025), "The influence of brands’ internationalization degree on consumers’ attitudes toward cross-border philanthropy: based on theory of legitimacy", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 253-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-05-2023-0204
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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