Since CITI Bank sponsored New York Philharmonic Orchestra to perform in Taiwan in 1984, it began the interactions between enterprises and concerts. Comparing with other performing arts, people are more willing to pay for music performances. Benefit concert also has a better fundraising record than other art activities. The purposes of this research are: 1) to find the motivations, internal and external influence factors, execution modes, scales, and input routes of enterprises holding benefit concerts; 2) to understand the collaborative models among enterprises, sponsored non-profit organizations, and performing arts promoters; 3) to compare the different behavior modes among four cases and to provide some suggestions for enterprises, non-profit organizations and performing arts promoters. This research uses case study methodology. After the literature review, the researcher chose four domestic enterprises who have splendid records for holding benefit concerts and did a semi-structural interview with each of them. The study came up six findings: 1) These enterprises¡¦ motivations of supporting benefit concerts was to raise up media exposure, to increase a impression on their customers, and to play role models as corporate citizens in the society. 2) The corporate philanthropy and enterprises¡¦ cultures integrated to create their strategies. The major internal influence factor was the companies images. The external influence factors included: the type of the non-profit organizations and its future, the attraction of the proposals, and the relations in the past. 3) The budget of benefit concerts was arranged with a special percentage of the enterprises¡¦ total income or a fix amount. 4) The enterprises mainly sponsored the fund for the activities through their subsidiary foundations or the company themselves. 5) The enterprises¡¦ relationships to the not-profit organizations were different, but they valued the proposals raised by performing arts promoters. 6) The activities were judged by their ticket revenue, the number of audience, the amount of media exposure and the budget. The benefit concerts not only increased the coherence of the employees, but also improved the corporate images.

The aim of this study is to extend knowledge about corporate philanthropy in Australia, including the conduct of fundraising and funds management, looking especially at motivations for giving and techniques employed. It follows and builds on the researcher's MA work on Corporate Philanthropy in Australia: Principles and Practice (see Appendix I) and has generated new theories that may be tested in the marketplace by both individuals and groups involved in fundraising and fund management throughout Australia, and perhaps beyond. The study is based on a method melded together by the researcher from variations on participatory action research, action inquiry and cooperative inquiry. An extensive literature review explored material provided by participants along with material already in the public domain. The data set obtained from this exercise enabled the development of the range of questionnaires put before the participants. Personal interviews were conducted with individuals, representatives of companies, trusts and foundations, and recipient organisations, along with professionals from Philanthropy Australia. The aim was to hold a discussion with the most senior person possible in every case and that aim was achieved with willingness to participate a strong factor throughout. A focus group conducted with professional fundraisers provided a point of view from 'the other side'. The rigour of the work stems from the representative involvement of all interested parties. The researcher's long involvement in the fundraising industry was a strong enabling factor with iteration of all interviews confirming the findings and mitigating against undue influence from that background. It was clear early in the study that there was difficulty in separating individual motivations from corporate motivations, as the individual beliefs and experiences spilled over into corporate involvements. For some the motivation was that philanthropy was the price of doing business, although the gifts might be directed to projects of lifetime interest to the participants. Some companies were clear about the direction of their corporate philanthropy into the communities in the areas where they operate, while others were still developing policy. Some representatives preferred to name their giving as 'social activism' rather than 'philanthropy'. A template has been developed to assist informed decision making about gifts. Participants spoke of a variety of techniques of giving employed under the umbrellas of the Triple Bottom Line, the Third Way, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and corporate sustainability. Those techniques include direct gifts or grants, sponsorships, strategic or venture philanthropy, Cause-Related Marketing (CRM), workplace giving or payroll deduction, bequests, and fundraising events. It was noted that workplace giving is growing. Changes to Australian tax laws have made it sensible for individuals and some companies to develop Prescribed Private Funds, while others have opted for corporate trusts or foundations, or board committees. CEOs seem not to be as powerful in gift decision making as was found in the earlier MA study. Several clear trends were identified, one related to companies making fewer larger grants, rather than many small ones. A further trend is for companies, trusts and foundations, and individuals to seek out recipient organisations for themselves, in accordance with their areas of interest and grants priorities. This changes the scenario for fundraisers who must find new ways of gaining the attention of grant and gift makers. A third trend is to require outside evaluation of projects and assessment of project progress. None of the participants in the study indicated that they carry out policy research before making gifts. Likewise not all givers indicated regular reporting requirements. Community foundations are growing with new ones being developed during the course of the study. At the same time some organisations are allowing voting rights to donors, and shareholders are becoming more vocal about corporate giving. Gaps in welfare funding vary considerably with many charities relying on companies, trusts and foundations and individuals to 'plug the gaps'. The concept of 'social capital' is explored and a new definition put forward. It is revealed that the term is capable of holding many different meanings. It was clear that durable networks are almost vital to the development of social capital. The gap in their understanding of corporate philanthropy between givers and receivers revealed by the MA study was found still to exist, although the whole process was found to be more open with the commercial confidentiality cited in the earlier study not appearing as a strong factor in this study, particularly as much material was available from the World Wide Web. In the end, the area of corporate philanthropy may still be considered to be almost 'virgin territory' thus providing a fertile field for aspiring researchers. Suggestions are provided for a number of areas of future research.

First, the current study aims to provide companies with a comprehensive understanding on how consumers' ethical associations emerge, so that they will be better positioned to design social strategies aligned with consumers' expectations, and communicate their contribution to several social needs in an effective way. In this context, the objective is to empirically investigate the effect of varying geographic scope of companies' donations on consumers' perceptions of brand morality. The second objective is to examine the impact that a company's donation size has, on consumers' perceptions of brand morality, their willingness to pay a price premium, and their intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth. The third objective of this study is to complement extant research on the role that various individual differences paly on whether or how strongly consumers react to a company's philanthropic activity. Specifically, this research intends to investigate how people's ethnocentric tendency, perceived social control, attributions about company motives, and cause involvement, are likely to exert influence on their perceptions of brand morality, positive word-of-mouth intentions, and willingness to pay more. The final objective of this research is to add knowledge to the literature on potential outcomes of perceived brand morality, which has currently received little attention. More specifically, the question that will be addressed in this study is whether, and to what extent, consumers' positive word-of-mouth communication intentions, and willingness to pay more are affected by their perceptions of the brand's morality.

In this study, I employ a combination of social semiotics and critical discourse analysis to examine the marketing media from corporate social responsibility campaigns focused on food bank philanthropy and awareness-raising for the issue of hunger. I use media from a sample of six of the largest and most visible corporate food bank philanthropy campaigns to represent a broad range of their differences. Each campaign is analyzed for how the problem of hunger and the solution as food banks are represented. Hunger is represented by these corporations as a problem of a lack of food that can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, for which families and/or local communities bear responsibility. This typification of the problem of hunger comes packaged conceptually with a characterization of the solution to that problem in food banks represented as a food-focused, charity-based, volunteer-run response that relies on corporate sponsorships and corporate social responsibility programs to harnesses the marketability of hunger to increase donations. These representations are evidence form the basis on an analysis of how the problem of hunger is currently thought about and acted upon in Canada. Claims about hunger exist at a juncture between the resources available and the kinds of responses to hunger that are likely to arise. This study demonstrates what corporate claims about hunger mean in relation to the ongoing development of food banking. This study is also an analysis of a particular case of corporate food bank philanthropy as an example campaign to highlight how the corporate construction of hunger is deployed to obscure, marginalize, and foreclose on the possibility of the emergence of alternative understandings of hunger and approaches beyond food banking based on a charity model. The dominant typification of the problem of hunger by corporations further institutionalizes an inadequate food banking paradigm that cannot address the social underpinnings that lead to the expression of hunger. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-01 00:17:52.246

This study analyzes the link between cause assessment, corporate philanthropy, and dimensions of corporate reputation from different stakeholders' perspectives, using balance theory as a conceptual framework and the telecommunications industry in Austria and Egypt as the empirical setting. Findings show that corporate philanthropy can improve perceptions of the corporate reputation dimensions, but the results vary between customers and non-customers and depend on the country setting. (authors' abstract)

More and more consumers have become socially conscious when choosing which retailer to buy from; thus many retailers have increased their engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. One common form of CSR activity within companies is philanthropy, or corporate philanthropy, where companies aim to donate to charity or to take environmental and social issues into consideration. Conscious customers and ethical consumerism have led to a particular retail trend, known as the Buy- One-Give-One (BOGO) business model has grown in popularity among today’s retail industry brands. Since it is of importance to understand the motivations of consumers’ purchase decisions, the purpose of this study is to explore consumers’ choices to purchase BOGO-products, and how these BOGO- products influence consumer perception of retail store assortment. This thesis is based on an abductive research, where the empirical data was collected based on focus groups. Based on the eight ethical factors (ethical consumption) and five values (theory of consumption value) found in previous studies, we have concluded that eight of the ethical factors and values correspond with the findings of our research. Within these corresponding factors and values, we found that there are seven sub-themes that can determine how consumers are motivated to purchase BOGO- products; dependency, connection (relate factor), marketing, alternative donation, appearance (taste), and trend. The findings of our study both contributed to an in depth understanding of previous research, whilst developing new and relevant insights of how consumers are motivated to purchase BOGO-products. Since no previous research, to the best of our knowledge, has studied BOGO-products in combination with ethical consumption and the theory of consumption value (TCV), this study brings originality to the study field. Lastly, the originality of this study also lies in the importance, convenience and up-to- date nature of this topic. Nonetheless, further research is encouraged since our study is limited in three ways. Few of the participants in the focus groups had prior knowledge about BOGO; time and money restriction; and the participants were students (Millennials), which led to a frequent answer of budget restrictions.

Thesis advisor: Andy Hargreaves / This dissertation examines the nature of the longstanding cross-sector relationship between an urban public school district and a corporate-owned team franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The study found that while this collaboration is often talked about as a partnership, in practice, it advances a corporate philanthropic and promotional relationship that is characterized by mutual affinities but not mutually agreed upon goals. This philanthropic connection to a powerful national sporting institution provides benefits to local public schools through incentives for perfect student attendance, motivational assemblies with professional athletes, and periodic, one-time donations in much needed technology. However, this relationship also raises key questions related to the mechanisms for social accountability in leadership decision-making, the effective and equitable use of school and corporate resources, and the indirect and inadvertent consequences when schools rely on commercialism and sports stardom to sell the meritocratic value of getting an education to a generation of students. The dissertation addresses the implications of the rise of corporate philanthropy within the context of economic austerity in public education. A multi-disciplinary review of research, drawing on four bodies of literature, considers the assumptions underlying counter-related discourses about corporate involvement in the public sector: 1) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), 2) CSR as Greenwashing (i.e. disinformation disseminated by a firm to present misleading public images of corporate responsibility), 3) Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in education, and 4) PPPs as privatizations in education. The constant comparative method was used throughout to analyze multi-modal data from an ethnographic case study of one city's cross-sector collaboration with the NBA, including participant observations, review of news and media, and extended field interviews with thirty district leaders, school administrators, teachers, counselors, and coaches in three K-8 schools. The result is a critical examination of the confluence of altruism, elite professional sports, and the marketplace in urban public education. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Cette thèse est composée de trois chapitres qui analysent trois effets de la philanthropie d'entreprise: (1) les stratégies fiscales des entreprises, (2) la divulgation des entreprises en matière de philanthropie d'entreprise et (3) la perception des auditeurs de l’information financière des entreprises. Le premier chapitre examine la cohérence des décisions des entreprises en ce qui concerne deux activités: la philanthropie d’entreprise et les stratégies d’évitement fiscal. Cette première étude examine ainsi la cohérence des entreprises en ce qui concerne leurs décisions philanthropiques et leurs différentes stratégies fiscales. J’étudie en particulier deux formes de stratégie d’évitement fiscal qui diffèrent dans leur degré de visibilité: une stratégie non conforme dite « agressive » et une stratégie conforme. Mes résultats démontrent que les entreprises qui s'engagent dans la philanthropie se comportent de manière cohérente dans leurs stratégies fiscales. De plus, je mets en relief le fait que les entreprises qui s’engagent dans la philanthropie sont susceptibles d'utiliser une politique d'évitement fiscal « conforme » plutôt qu’une politique « agressive » qui est plus visible. Ce résultat suggère ainsi que les entreprises philanthropique sont certes intéressées par des réductions fiscales mais ne veulent pas être perçus comme tels afin d'afficher un comportement cohérent, essentiel au maintien de leur réputation. La deuxième partie de cette étude analyse la valorisation des entreprises au comportement incohérent, c'est-à-dire celles qui s'engagent à la fois dans la philanthropie d'entreprise et dans une politique d’évitement fiscal « agressive ». Je trouve que l’incohérence du comportement social des entreprises réduit la valeur de l'entreprise. Le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse examine les conséquences d'un événement réglementaire au Royaume-Uni – le Companies Act 2006 - qui représente le passage d’un régime obligatoire à un régime volontaire concernant la divulgation de la philanthropie d'entreprise (montants et objectifs des dons de bienfaisance). Ce chapitre examine l'impact du changement réglementaire sur le niveau de divulgation des sociétés et le montant de leurs dons. J'évalue la qualité de l'information sur la philanthropie d'entreprise en extrayant des notes des rapports annuels des entreprises à l’aide d’un indice de divulgation que j'ai développé dans le cadre de cette étude. Mes résultats montrent que les entreprises divulguent moins d'informations sur leurs dons et diminuent les montants de leurs dons à la suite du changement réglementaire. Ce résultat suggère que les entreprises ne s'engagent pas de façon crédible sur la communication de leur philanthropie, malgré y avoir été initiées dans le cadre du régime de divulgation obligatoire. En outre, le changement de régime de divulgation affecte le secteur sans but lucratif qui pourrait souffrir d'une réduction des dons des entreprises. Le dernier chapitre de cette thèse analyse les dons d’entreprise communs aux cabinets d’audit et à leurs clients, c’est à dire, les dons faits aux mêmes organismes de charité. Les entreprises, y compris les cabinets d'audit, versent des dons de manière significative de manière directe ou via leurs fondations d'entreprise. Cette étude part du postulat que les dons communs aux cabinets d’audit et à leurs clients permettent de saisir la notion de capital social des entreprises. Mes principales analyses indiquent que lorsque les clients et leurs cabinets d’audit font des dons aux mêmes organismes de charité, les honoraires et la qualité d’audit sont plus élevés. Les auditeurs font plus d'efforts et exercent leur professionnalisme dans l'exécution de l’audit des clients qui partagent les mêmes valeurs et soutiennent les mêmes causes afin notamment de protéger leurs réseaux. En outre, les dons communs entre cabinets d’audit et clients impliquent une communication efficace, essentielle à la qualité de l'audit. / This dissertation consists of three stand-alone papers that investigate three consequences of corporate philanthropy, namely: (1) firms’ tax strategies, (2) firms’ reporting with regard to corporate philanthropy, and (3) the perceptions of firms’ financial reporting quality by an important gatekeeper: the auditor. The first chapter examines whether firms’ choices of prosocial activities reflect apparent consistency by studying the relation between corporate philanthropy and tax avoidance, and whether investors reward this consistency. I investigate two forms of tax strategies that differ in their degree of transparency: nonconforming tax avoidance (or tax aggressiveness) and conforming tax avoidance (Badertscher, et al., 2017). I find that corporate philanthropy is negatively related to nonconforming tax avoidance and positively related to conforming tax avoidance. This evidence suggests that philanthropic firms want to avoid paying taxes but do not want to be perceived as “tax avoiders” in order to display a consistent behavior. Next, I present evidence that the market value of inconsistent firms, i.e., those engaging simultaneously in corporate philanthropy and tax avoidance, is lower. Investors view firms’ inconsistency between corporate philanthropy and tax avoidance as a costly strategy that reduces firm value. Overall, the first chapter provides evidence on the tax implications of corporate philanthropy. The second chapter examines firm specific consequences of a regulatory event - the Companies Act 2006 - which represents a regime shift from mandatory to voluntary disclosure on corporate philanthropy (i.e., amounts and purposes of charitable donations) that affected UK firms in 2013. This chapter investigates whether and how the regulatory shift had an effect on corporate disclosure level and levels of CCDs. I assess the quality of the disclosure on corporate philanthropy by extracting scores from UK firms’ annual reports using a disclosure index that I developed. I find that firms disclose less information on their 2 CCDs and decrease their levels of CCDs following the mandatory-to-voluntary disclosure shift. This result indicates that firms do not credibly commit to their CSR-related disclosure, even though they were already initiated to the disclosure of their donations under the mandatory disclosure regime. Moreover, the disclosure shift has implications for the nonprofit sector that could be damaged through the reduction of firms’ donations. Overall, the second chapter provides evidence on the social reporting implications of corporate philanthropy. The third chapter of my dissertation analyzes overlaps between auditors and clients’ CCDs to the same nonprofit organizations. Firms, including the audit firms invest significantly in CCDs through direct giving or corporate foundations. This chapter examines the association between audit fees and audit quality (i.e., restatements and discretionary accruals) and overlaps in CCDs between auditors and clients. I posit that overlaps of auditors’ and clients’ donations capture social capital at the firm-level in an audit setting. In an exploratory analysis of the determinants of these overlaps, I find that firms with a corporate charitable foundation, a higher firm value or a bigger board size are more likely to overlap their CCDs. My main findings document that when clients and their audit firms make CCDs to the same nonprofits, audit fees and audit quality are higher. This suggests that (1) auditors exert more efforts and exercise their professional care in the performance of the audit with clients who share the same charitable values in order to protect their networks, and (2) charitable alignment between audit- and client-firms imply an effective communication, critical to the audit quality. Overall, the third chapter provides evidence on the financial reporting implications of corporate philanthropy.

This study investigates the relationship between profit-making corporations and the not-for-profit sector within Australia. The broad field of corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is discussed, narrowing to the activity of corporate philanthropy and corporate social investment. The latter is defined as being philanthropy with strategic intent, in order to build capacity within the recipient organisation which in most cases will produce beneficial outcomes for the donor as well (Tracey, 2003). The title of this study has used the term ‘philanthropic contract’ (Broadbent, 2001; Kouzmin, 2007) to describe the relationship between commercial organisations and charitable ones and the unwritten societal expectation, that the corporate sector will support the work of members of the not-for-profit sector. This study also uses the term ‘social capital’ (Putnam, 1995) to describe one of the principle areas of benefit for companies who participate.The aspect of the relationship between the two sectors that formed the focus of this study is defined as being the interaction between the two that involves financial contributions and those of goods and services as well as expertise, information and influence flowing from profit-making companies to not-for-profit organisations.The direction of the research is to advance toward an understanding of why corporations engage in this practice and toward a conclusion as to whether corporate social investing is a mutually beneficial exchange. Finally, the study highlights examples of engagement processes, and advice from those participating. The inclusion of these in the study is designed to provide valuable learning for other corporations, and not-for-profit organisations, contemplating entering into their own philanthropic partnerships.Through ten qualitative interviews this inquiry investigated the attitudes toward this relationship of various stakeholders including the management of not-for-profit organisations, representatives of relevant associations and social commentators. It became apparent that the previously well-publicised opposition to publicly listed companies supporting the not-for-profit sector, proffered by organisations such as the Australian Shareholders’ Association, had largely evaporated.Case studies involving five profit-making corporations, operating within Australia, were then undertaken and the views of their senior management sought as regards their motivations, aims, and outcomes. Overwhelmingly their experiences were positive for the corporation, the organisations they were funding, and the members of the community that the recipients were in turn supporting.Corporate benefits reported included increased ability to attract quality staff, enhanced ability to retain staff, significant development for staff that actively participated, improved corporate culture and the building of social capital leading to enhanced reputation which supported the corporations licence to operate, future objectives and long term sustainability.It is hoped that these insights along with the advice offered up by those individuals and organisations that participated in the study will benefit others and promote greater participation in corporate philanthropy and social investment within Australia. vii

Although studies in scholarly journals suggest that corporate philanthropic activities may enhance corporate reputation, little systematic research on this effect exists. In fact, our knowledge of consumer responses to corporate philanthropic initiatives is limited. While corporate success relies on the support of customers, business benefits from corporate generosity - such as improved corporate reputation - are lacking. This dissertation investigates consumer perceptions of corporate philanthropy. Specifically, it explores the congruence among consumer perceptions of different philanthropic cause types, their geographical deployment, and the company-cause fit. Moreover, it aims to provide an understanding of the link between corporate philanthropy and corporate reputation by highlighting the role of ethnocentrism in shaping this relationship. The empirical research draws on balance theory, the sociological concept of ethnocentrism, and cultural dimensions to provide a framework and model for the relationship between consumer Attitudes toward Corporate Philanthropy and Customer-based Corporate Reputation. I employ three methodological approaches (interpretive, experimental, and survey-based) to investigate three sets of research questions. Firstly, an exploratory design is employed to uncover consumer and corporate perceptions of corporate philanthropy. Secondly, an experimental design is used to shed light on consumer evaluations of different corporate philanthropic causes and their dimensions by testing three propositions. Finally, a survey design is applied to test six hypotheses, and consequently to provide an understanding of the link between corporate philanthropy and corporate reputation in two distinct cultural contexts. The latter consists of two large-scale surveys in which two leading telecommunication companies, one in Austria and one in Egypt, are examined. Data is analyzed by applying qualitative computing, nonparametric tests, regression analyses, and structural equation modeling. Three consumer views emerge from the interviews: egoistic, altruistic, and pragmatic. The corporate view, in contrast, is largely of strategic nature (i.e. gaining sustainable competitive advantage by means of responsible management). Some weak ethnocentric tendencies appear in terms of consumer preferences for domestic philanthropic support as opposed to distant support. Furthermore, findings point toward congruence in the perceived importance of social causes by consumers, with health-related causes favored most and art-related causes least. The geographical focus of corporate philanthropy (i.e. domestic versus distant) is perceived differently for the education-related cause across all seven industries examined in the experiment. For other causes, however, such as health- or environment-related causes, a significant difference is found in the oil and consulting industries, respectively. This indicates that consumers' evaluation of corporate philanthropic activities is partially dependent on the geographical focus. Additionally, results confirm the existence of weak industry-specific preferences. The support of causes with a close fit to the core business is favored by consumers unless another cause type (less industry-related) is perceived as more worthy of support. In terms of corporate reputation, corporate philanthropy has a small to medium impact on perceptions of the corporation in Egypt and Austria, respectively, varying by respondent subgroup. Consumer Ethnocentrism impacts upon Attitude toward Corporate Philanthropy negatively in Egypt, while in Austria, the absence of Consumer Ethnocentrism moderates the relationship between Attitude toward Corporate Philanthropy and Customer-based Corporate Reputation positively and more strongly than moderate Consumer Ethnocentrism. The research presented in this dissertation advances the extant literature in three important ways. First, it focuses on a relatively neglected area of corporate social responsibility, namely corporate philanthropy - an unconditional contribution by a corporation to a social cause. Second, it embraces corporate reputation as a multidimensional construct (as opposed to a unidimensional construct) and thus contributes to the relatively few studies within reputation measurement that exclusively address the consumer stakeholder group (e.g. Walsh et al. 2009). Furthermore, to best of my knowledge, no scholarly research has examined the relationship between corporate philanthropy and Customer-based Corporate Reputation to date. Third, by examining real customers and real-life companies, this work aims to overcome the limitations of the laboratory settings that have traditionally been preferred in this area of research. For managers, the findings offer valuable consumer insights into corporate philanthropy and indicate strategies to improve business outcomes from philanthropic activities. Suggestions for how corporate philanthropic activities should best be communicated through various channels are provided. In this context, the role of word-of-mouth and social media in disseminating philanthropic information is discussed. (author's abstract)