Institutional theory, culture and value co-creation: how do they stick together in donation?

Abstract

The concept of value co-creation is of paramount importance to marketing. In value co-creation, the parties close joint actions in exchange relationships enable the parties to achieve their goals. Donation, in turn, is an act of enormous repercussions for the common good, especially in less developed countries and societies, such as Brazil. However, fostering donations has been a considerable challenge where it is most pressing. To overcome this barrier, this study frames ‘giving’ as a value co-creative practice, which involves different resources (financial, labour) on the one hand, and specific skills (such as knowledge and education) to impact society and its most deprived citizens, on the other hand. This study also explores the influences of institutions and culture on value co-creation in the broad sense and on the specific type represented by giving and all the reasoning is a recall to deductive reasoning. Such efforts reveal interesting possibilities in non-profit marketing, capable of increasing the diffusion and intensity of donation in society at large. Theoretically, this study reveals the richness and complex character of the research field of applied social studies. Institutions, culture, and value co-creation play an important role in consumer behaviour. Therefore, the knowledge about how these perspectives interact is important for predicting, changing, or stimulating such behaviours.