ENHANCING HELPING-BEHAVIOR - AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR PROMOTION PLANNING

Charitable organizations play a vital role in our society, as is evide nced by their enormous economic and social impact. Yet, for many of th em, soliciting adequate resources to carry out their mandates is a con tinuing struggle. Confronted with a growing need for their services, f ierce competition from other charities, and shrinking support from gov ernment agencies, charities may turn to marketers for help in developi ng effective promotional strategies. Unfortunately, marketing literatu re is unable to provide meaningful guidance because scant research att ention has hampered a fuller understanding of why people help. The aut hors integrate relevant research in marketing, economics, sociology, a nd social psychology to advance theoretical understanding of helping b ehavior. They develop research propositions regarding specific promoti onal strategies that charitable organizations can employ to elicit hel p.