Requesting customers to “round up” the total for their purchases to the next whole dollar and donating the difference has been a recent trend among some companies. A recent study argues that a roundup donation request reduces the perceived pain of donating, thus making it more effective as compared with a flat donation request; however, the present research argues that a roundup donation request can also have potential negative returns. This article demonstrates across two experimental studies, that consumers report lower repurchase intentions when approached with a roundup (vs. flat) donation request, due to an increased anticipated negative affect associated with refusing such a request. Moreover, such effects only occur among consumers with utilitarian (but not hedonic) purchase motives. The findings of this research extend prior research in this area by highlighting the potential negative consequences of roundup donation requests.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.