Using Commitments to Drive Consistency: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Cause‐related Marketing Communications

Interdependent self-construal in collectivist cultures: Effects on compliance in a cause-related marketing context

“…Specifically, we replicate the findings of Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005) and extend these findings to a new cultural context. As defined by Berthon et al (2002), this study is a 'context-only extension' because we utilize the exact methodology used by Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005) in the US context and apply it to a different cultural context.…”

“…Specifically, we replicate the findings of Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005) and extend these findings to a new cultural context. As defined by Berthon et al (2002), this study is a 'context-only extension' because we utilize the exact methodology used by Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005) in the US context and apply it to a different cultural context. This extension is particularly relevant given the fact that the commitment -consistency principle has recently been shown to be less effective in collectivist cultures when compared with individualist cultures (Chen et al 2006;Dolinski et al 2005;Iyengar and Brockner 2001;Petrova, Cialdini, and Sills 2007).…”

“…Interdependent self-construal motivates people 'to act primarily in accordance with the anticipated expectations of others and social norms rather than with internal wishes or personal attributes' (Markus andKitayama 1991, 228, attributed to Yang 1981). Therefore, we expect to see different results if Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal's (2005) study were to be replicated in a CIS context. In the next section, we develop hypotheses for such a replication and extension.…”

“…These stark differences between independent and interdependent self-construals raise an interesting possibility that went unexplored in the study reported by Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005). Testing their hypotheses in the US context, they found that asking subjects if they supported the protection of rainforests increased their subsequent willingness to buy a product that supported the cause (protection of rainforests).…”

“…An initial answer to the first question is provided in the pages of this journal by Vaidyanathan and Aggarwal (2005). Using a US sample, they show that getting consumers to actively commit to an environmental cause positively influences their willingness to buy a product linked to that cause.…”