Are charitable gifts truly appreciated by the recipients who requested them? Impact of gift type and amount on recipients’ appreciation

In-Hye Kang and Hyoseok Kim

Journal of Business Research, 2025, vol. 200, issue C

Abstract: Requests for charitable cash gifts during rite-of-passage occasions (e.g., weddings) are becoming increasingly common. This research examines whether recipients’ appreciation differs depending on whether a requested cash gift is charitable (e.g., donating to support people in need) or recipient-benefiting (e.g., renovating the recipient’s kitchen). Across five studies, we find that the effect of the gift type on appreciation is moderated by the gift amount. For low amounts, recipients appreciate charitable gifts more than recipient-benefiting gifts. However, for moderate and high amounts, appreciation is similar across gift types. This effect is mediated by the recipients’ perception of whether the gift amount meets their expectations and their subsequent perception of thoughtfulness. Consistent with our mechanism, in distant giver-recipient relationships, the effect of the gift type on appreciation for low amounts is attenuated. When gifts are not requested, recipients appreciate charitable gifts less than recipient-benefiting gifts.

Keywords: Gift-giving; Charitable giving; Charitable gifts; Gift appreciation; Gift price (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632500414X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:200:y:2025:i:c:s014829632500414x

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115591

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().