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Social marketing, volunteering, and the theory of planned behaviour : what is behind volunteering behaviour?

This thesis has explored a behavioural perspective on social marketing involving volunteering. Research on volunteering is important because it addresses people from whom charitable organisations obtain help (the time donors). The focus of this study was to investigate the extent to which young volunteers perform voluntary service in the project to which they have committed themselves and for the full project period of the activities. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used as the core theoretical framework of this study. Four additional variables which have been used in TPB-based investigations (and which are related to behaviours relevant to social marketing) were brought to the conceptual framework, they are: personal norm, ascription of responsibility, affect, and self-identity. The constructs 'empathy' and 'altruism' were used to compare groups of volunteers. The 'Interpersonal Reactivity Index' was employed to assess empathic concern and perspective taking, whereas the 'Prosocial Tendencies Measure' was employed to assess the altruistic prosocial behaviour. An on-line questionnaire was sent to the volunteers of a charitable organisation which organises projects to young people and 237 usable replies were obtained (time 1). Information on the behaviour of 161 survey participants was provided by the coordinators of the projects after their conclusion (time 2). Follow-up interviews helped to unearth the main reasons for drop-outs and lack of volunteering commitment. Results indicate that subjective norm predicts volunteering behaviour for the full project period over and above the contributions from behavioural intention. An integrated model is proposed to explain the relationships amongst volunteering behaviour and the other variables. Levels of empathy and altruism have not significantly distinguished between high and low committed volunteers. The study concludes that the continued volunteering of young donors is mainly driven by the social group and that they perform voluntary service for both egoistic and altruistic motives.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:584710
Date January 2009
CreatorsVeludo-de-Oliveira, Tânia Modesto
PublisherCardiff University
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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