Back to the roots of cause-related marketing – A systematic literature review of cooperation motives

Based on a systematic literature review, this paper explores the motives for cooperation between nonprofit organizations (NPO) and companies as profit organizations (PO) in the context of cause-related marketing (CrM) partnerships. CrM is a marketing and fundraising tool which combines the purchase of products with a “good cause” and has already gained significant attention in theory and practice as a widespread practice of corporate social responsibility. However, research often focuses on specific aspects and primarily on the perspective of consumers (i.e., their purchase or support intentions), while only a few studies deal with the motives that NPO and PO pursue with such intersectoral collaboration. Overall, the findings indicate that research on the NPO’s view is particularly limited and that CrM is generally based on a bundle of motives or (both financial and non-financial) goals, with the self-interested perspective of PO appearing to be dominant. The paper suggests several avenues for further research and advocates a stronger focus on fundamental questions that were raised decades ago but have not been adequately answered since the origins of CrM.