The effect of cause-related marketing on firm value: a look at Fortune’s most admired all-stars

Parker J. Woodroof (), George D. Deitz (), Katharine M. Howie () and Robert D. Evans ()
Additional contact information
Parker J. Woodroof: University of Central Arkansas
George D. Deitz: The University of Memphis
Katharine M. Howie: University of Lethbridge
Robert D. Evans: Texas A&M International University

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2019, vol. 47, issue 5, No 7, 899-918

Abstract: Abstract Companies are increasing their use of cause-related marketing as a means of communicating their commitment to corporate social responsibility while accomplishing their strategic goals. Although prior studies suggest that consumers react positively to cause-related marketing programs, understanding of their impact on financial performance remains limited. To address this gap, the authors employ an event study to examine the effects of cause-related marketing announcements on shareholder value using a sample of firms that appeared on Fortune’s Most Admired All-Star list between 2005 and 2017. Study results show that announcement of these initiatives results in a significant loss of shareholder value. These losses are most pronounced for firms making monetary-only contributions, in comparison to those that make in-kind donations. In addition, the negative effects are mitigated for firms that have stronger reputations, have greater resource slack, and operate in more dynamic industries. Moreover, low-reputation and low-slack firms benefit most from in-kind contributions.

Keywords: Cause-related marketing; Corporate social responsibility; Shareholder value; Event-study analysis; Resource based view (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11747-019-00660-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:joamsc:v:47:y:2019:i:5:d:10.1007_s11747-019-00660-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... gement/journal/11747

DOI: 10.1007/s11747-019-00660-y

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science is currently edited by John Hulland, Anne Hoekman and Mark Houston

More articles in Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().