College of Business, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, PR China.
College of Economics and Management, Huainan Normal University, Huainan, P. R. China.
PLoS One. 2022 Aug 11;17(8):e0272724. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272724. eCollection 2022.
Cause marketing (CM) is an important way of implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies. While most related studies explore firms' implementation of CM campaigns, which involve donation of part of their sales revenue to charity for a social cause, we focus on the case of a firm contributing a specific ratio of its sales quantity to implement the CM campaign and divide the CM campaign mix into four modes according to different CM implementation subjects and the wholesale price (exogenous or endogenous). Unlike firms in the supply chain that use donation amounts to implement CM, the implementation of CM by donation ratio will be influenced by the donation cost, which can further affect their pricing strategies. Therefore, this study takes a two-level supply chain as the research object and builds Stackelberg game models to explore the optimization problem of donation and pricing decisions for different CM modes and choices from CM modes. This study presents three main conclusions. First, when the degree of preference for CM is sufficiently large, the supplier or retailer can implement CM only when the income generated by the increase in sales and retail price can compensate for the donation cost. Owing to the differing donation costs, it is easier for suppliers to implement CM than retailers. Second, in the case of the exogenous wholesale price, when the degree of preference for CM is relatively low, the supplier should implement the CM. However, when the degree of preference for CM is relatively high, the retailer should implement the CM. When the degree of preference for CM is moderate, the supplier can suppress the free-rider behavior of the retailer in implementing CM by sharing donation costs with the retailer, thereby achieving a win-win situation. Third, in the case of endogenous wholesale prices, the supplier should take the initiative to implement CM. Compared with other CM modes, the donation ratio is the largest in this mode.
译文：
市场营销（CM）是实施企业社会责任（CSR）战略的重要途径。虽然大多数相关研究都探讨了企业实施 CM 活动的情况，其中涉及将部分销售收入捐赠给慈善机构以支持社会事业，但我们关注的是企业通过捐赠其销售量的特定比例来实施 CM 活动的情况，并根据不同的 CM 实施主体和批发价（外生或内生）将 CM 活动组合分为四种模式。与供应链中的企业使用捐赠金额来实施 CM 不同，通过捐赠比例实施 CM 会受到捐赠成本的影响，这会进一步影响他们的定价策略。因此，本研究以两级供应链为研究对象，构建了 Stackelberg 博弈模型，以探讨不同 CM 模式和 CM 模式选择的捐赠和定价决策优化问题。本研究提出了三个主要结论。首先，当 CM 的偏好程度足够大时，供应商或零售商只有在销售和零售价格增加所带来的收入足以弥补捐赠成本时，才能实施 CM。由于捐赠成本的不同，供应商比零售商更容易实施 CM。其次，在外生批发价的情况下，当 CM 的偏好程度较低时，供应商应实施 CM。然而，当 CM 的偏好程度较高时，零售商应实施 CM。当 CM 的偏好程度适中时，供应商可以通过与零售商分担捐赠成本来抑制零售商实施 CM 的搭便车行为，从而实现双赢。第三，在内生批发价的情况下，供应商应主动实施 CM。与其他 CM 模式相比，这种模式下的捐赠比例最大。
