Predicting cause-related marketing patronage intentions, corporate social responsibility motives and moderating role of spirituality

Purpose Recent studies have observed rise in consumer’s ethical concerns about the online retailers while making a purchase decision. The impetus for businesses to use corporate social responsibility (CSR) is evident, but the effects of CSR motives on corresponding processes underlying cause-related marketing (CRM) patronage intention have not been thoroughly examined. This study, anchored on attribution theory, established a research model that better explains the influence of CSR motives on patronage intentions toward CRM-oriented online retailers. Additionally, this study aims to examine the moderating role of spirituality (SPT) on CSR motives and CRM patronage intention (CPI). Design/methodology/approach Primary data has been collected from 722 respondents and analyzed by using deep neural-network architecture by using the innovative PLS-SEM-ANN method to predict/rank the factors impacting CPI. Findings The results revealed the normalized importance of the predictors of CPI and found that value-driven motive was the strongest predictor, followed by strategic motive, SPT, age and stakeholder-driven motive. In contrast, egoistic motive, education and income were found insignificant. Originality/value The pandemic has transformed the way consumers shop and fortified the online economy, thereby resulting in a paradigm shift toward usage of e-commerce platforms. The results offer valuable insights to online retailers and practitioners for predicting patronage intentions by CSR motives and, thus, effectively engage CRM consumers by designing promotions in a way that would deeply resonate with them. This study assessed and predicted the factors influencing the CPI s, thereby guiding the online retailers to design CSR strategies and manage crucial CRM decisions.