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What kind of donor are you? Uncovering complexity in donor identity
Author(s) -
Bove Liliana,
Chmielewski Danielle,
Neville Benjamin A.,
Lei Jing,
Nagpal Anish
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
psychology and marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.035
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1520-6793
pISSN - 0742-6046
DOI - 10.1002/mar.21410
Subject(s) - donation , identity (music) , context (archaeology) , psychology , social psychology , pragmatism , typology , blood donor , mechanism (biology) , action (physics) , epistemology , sociology , aesthetics , political science , medicine , paleontology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , anthropology , law , biology , immunology
Identity is a useful lens to understand donation behavior. However, studies have typically conceptualized and examined donor identity as a generic, unidimensional concept. Through in‐depth interviews with 52 blood donors, this study sets out to discover if there is more complexity to donor identity, and what implications this might have for marketing communications, in the context of donation of the self (e.g., blood, organs, time, and effort). We use sentiment polarity and amplification analysis of inductive themes to uncover distinct patterns reflective of four different donor identities. We label these the Savior, Communitarian, Pragmatist, and Elitist, which are underpinned by theories of gift‐giving, sharing, pragmatism, and signaling, respectively. The typology offers a theory‐building mechanism to anticipate the effects of marketing stimuli on donation behavior. We conclude by presenting four theoretical propositions, for which we provide preliminary empirical evidence. The survey data is suggestive of action readiness for donation behavior when a marketing communication message is aligned with its intended donor identity.