Increasing Short- and Long-Term Blood Donations: A Longitudinal Field Comparison of Public and Private Events: An Abstract

Abstract

Blood donations are integral to global healthcare service industries, which suffer from insufficient short-term supply to meet long-term patient demands as companies struggle to convert short-term donors into long-term donors. In response, companies seek to encourage long-term blood donations by altering the public nature of events, a practice with questionable efficacy. Across three field studies, including a longitudinal secondary data analysis of 15,059 blood drives across two years, a secondary data analysis of 101,462 individuals across two years, and a field study matched with five years of archival (and five months of longitudinal) data, the authors establish longitudinal differences between public and private donation events. Specifically, a two-level hierarchical liner model shows that whereas private events are more effective in the short-term, public events are more effective in the long-term. Attribution theory provides an explanation: Private donation events increase short-term donations through an external attribution of community, whereas effects are reversed for long-term donations. Age emerges as a boundary condition, such that the positive effects of public events are stronger among younger individuals. For theory. We build upon attribution theory by extending it to healthcare service environments struggling to convert short-term donors to long-term donors. Specifically, concerning prosocial blood donation behaviors, we demonstrate that private events are more effective at capturing short-term donors. However, we demonstrate that the mechanism through which public (versus private) events convert short-term donors into long-term blood donors is through a sense of community. Additionally, we explore the role of age on this relationship, and we demonstrate that the positive effects of public events on blood donations are stronger among younger individuals. For Practice. From a managerial perspective, healthcare is a key service industry, and healthcare organizations rely on blood donations to provide life-saving patient services including managing illnesses, and treating deadly injuries. Although blood products are a fundamental component of providing healthcare services across the globe, there is a longstanding shortage of blood donations. Our research provides evidence revealing when public versus private events are more effective at increasing donations both in the short-term and in the long-term. Because marketers are struggling to convert short-term donors to long-term donors (Evans, 2018), we provide actionable evidence when healthcare service organizations should use public (versus private) donation events. Specifically, organizations should use private donation events to increase short-term blood donations, whereas they should use public donation events to increase long-term blood donations. In addition, service marketers and healthcare organizations should target younger individuals with public events, as the positive effects of public events on blood donations are stronger among younger individuals.