Abstract
Though religion-informed charitable behavior has gained much academic attention recently, there is an ambiguous relationship between individual donation intention and Buddhist determinants. Drawing on the theories of reasoned action and product semantics, this study tries to examine the effects of product design with Buddhist symbols on individual charitable donation behavior and the underlying mechanism. Some studies have argued for the positive effects of religious symbols on people’s behavioral reactions; however, limited prior research has addressed the impact of a touchable product, such as a donation box, on people’s charitable donation intentions from the perspective of Buddhism. The current study statistically shows that donation boxes with Buddhist symbols could significantly improve people’s charitable donation intention through two sequential mediators, namely, their perceived religiosity and product attitude. The study provides both theoretical contributions and practical implications for future research.
Highlights
Charitable donations are of importance to help the needy population and to improve well-being worldwide (Macías Ruano et al 2020; Tsai 2021)
Drawing on the theories of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen 2011) and product semantics (Krippendorff 1984), this study examines how Buddhist symbols presented on a product impact donation behavior, and suggest the causal route to positive donation intention
The results of this study provide these academic insights and have practical implications, given the evidence that Buddhist symbols play an effective role in predicting individual donation intention
Summary
Charitable donations are of importance to help the needy population and to improve well-being worldwide (Macías Ruano et al 2020; Tsai 2021). Though many governments have launched economic approaches, such as tax-exempt programs, to encourage donations to charity, the prospects for individual donation intention remain unoptimistic worldwide (Lo 2012; Sargeant 1999). In this context, understanding the individual donors and what motivates them to contribute to charities is something that has been of increasing interest to nonprofit organizations and institutions. Like Christianity and Hinduism, are characterized by teachings and doctrines that give importance to helping others (Arli and Lasmono 2015; Atkins et al 2019) For this reason, prior studies suggest that people with such religious beliefs tend to have a higher intention to help the needy population (DeAngelis et al 2016; Muralidharan et al 2018; Ranganathan and Henley 2008). The results of this study provide these academic insights and have practical implications, given the evidence that Buddhist symbols play an effective role in predicting individual donation intention
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