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Corporate
Giving Not Always
Good Public Relations
By Christa Koskosky
Most grew up with the familiar saying, “It
is better to give than to receive,” and many corporations
live by this adage when they donate money to charitable causes.
University of Missouri-Columbia researchers, however, have found
that corporate giving may not be the cure-all that some companies
would expect.
In a study published in the journal Public
Relations Review, two researchers — Glen Cameron, professor
of strategic communication and Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair in
Journalism Research at the Missouri
School of Journalism, and Jiyang Bae, who was then an MU doctoral
student — found that participants in their study demonstrated
negative attitudes toward companies that appeared to give out
of self-interest. When companies with good reputations gave money
to charitable causes, attitudes toward those companies were positive.
However, when companies with bad reputations gave to charitable
causes, negative attitudes toward the companies were heightened.
“People trigger a sophisticated and active
attribution process when they become suspicious of something,
causing them to judge the corporation's real motivation,” Cameron said. “Public suspicion cued by prior corporate reputation
influences people's attitudes toward corporate giving and makes
them suspicious of the reason for corporate giving.”
In the study, 72 participants were given one
of two fictitious news articles to read. One described a company
with a good reputation and another with a bad reputation. After
rating one of the companies' reputations, participants were given
another article describing that company's charitable contributions.
The study concluded that charitable giving was seen as self-interested
when the companies had bad reputations.
“Corporate giving does not produce unconditional
positive impacts on the corporate side. Corporate public relations
managers who plan to give money to 'save face' after severe reputation
damage should reconsider their giving because the public is diligent
about interpreting the real motivation for why a company gives
money to social causes,” said Bae, who has now completed
her doctorate.
According to Cameron and Bae, corporate giving
can be positive for companies with good reputations, but it may
be better for companies with questionable reputations to work
on enhancing public perception of their trustworthiness before
giving to charitable causes. The researchers said most companies
cannot rely solely on corporate giving as a tool to improve reputation.
Bae is now working on research that suggests
corporate giving by companies with bad reputations may not only
impact public perception of those companies but also may taint
public perception of the recipients of those gifts.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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