Does organizational reputation influence the willingness to donate blood?

Abstract

In Germany, blood donation organizations face a highly competitive environment when it comes to winning new donors and keeping regular donors loyal. Especially in highly competitive markets intangible assets such as organizational reputation and nonprofit brands have shown to be of great importance. This paper examines if blood donation organizations can significantly change the willingness to donate blood among potential blood donors by changing their organizational reputation. Results of an online experiment with 144 potential blood donors show that organizational reputation is easily damaged by negative news in the press and that this leads to a significantly lower willingness to donate blood for this organization among potential donors. Therefore, from a management perspective, the results show that blood donation organizations have to be extremely careful to avoid that negative news is spread and actively manage their reputation. Implications for blood donation management and suggestions for future research are made.