Importance of Charity and Charitable Behavior in China

Introduction

As the development of society and the growth of the economy, China has experienced a sharp increase in charitable donations. According to Xinhua (2018), in 2017, charities on Chinese mainland received a record total of nearly 150 billion yuan (around $22 billion) in donations which represents a 7.68 percent increase over last year and a 385 percent surge compared to money donated a decade ago. Recognizing the importance of charity, it is meaningful to study the charity market in China. This study analyses the charitable behaviour in the Chinese market from three aspects: the motivation of consumers, reference group influence, and cultural influence.

Motivation for Charity

Motivation refers to the processes by which people act in accordance with their own behaviour. It occurs when the needs that consumers want to meet are stimulated and a force will drive people to eliminate the needs. Finally, a goal exists to achieve the desire (Solomon et al., 2008). Charitable behaviour as a kind of prosocial behaviour, often represents volunteering to help people in need directly or through some philanthropic organizations (Jiang et al., 2018). To some extent, charitable behaviour is different from other forms of consumer behaviour like purchasing. It mainly benefits the public and society. However, charitable behaviour is commonly motivated by internal and external factors. The philanthropic literature shows that people who are willing to participate in fundraising activities are mainly driven by intrinsic, extrinsic and image enhancement motivations (Ariely et al., 2009).

Intrinsic motivations reflect the internal satisfaction that comes purely from giving behaviour (Andreoni, 1989). Some can be recognized as being inspired by altruism. Altruism is divided into pure altruism and impure altruism. Pure altruism usually manifests a person's preference for other people's material or spiritual interests and has no expectation to any direct or indirect compensation or benefits while impure altruism which includes warm-glow (Andreoni, 1989) indicates a donor’s preference for giving itself produces a pleasurable sensation. The intrinsic motivation of charitable behaviour is a combination of pure and impure altruism. Some donors who don’t want any rewards get a feeling of happiness and satisfaction from donating money or time to people in need. Self-sacrificing and self-serving motivation for charitable behaviour express the values of altruism and humanitarian care for others (Clary et al. 1998). According to Cang (2018), a 42-year-old taxi driver in Nanjing who has donated more than 4,000 milliliters of blood and hematopoietic stem cells over the past decade was rewarded an 'integrity card'. The card offers discounts on public transport and medical bills. However, the driver said “I didn't expect any reward, but the card makes me feel warm. It gives me the feeling that other people care about you if you care about them.” Apart from altruism, gratitude has a positive association with helping others and returning favours (Emmons and McCullough 2003). Hui et al. (2015) mentioned that gratitude plays a more important role in helping others voluntarily compared with happiness. According to Xinhua (2018), Zheng Haiyang, a survivor who lost his leg in the 8.0-magnitude 2008 Wenchuan earthquake has become the CEO of an online medical service platform for the disabled in Chengdu. He devoted himself to helping disabled people by providing information about rehabilitation hospitals and equipment. People who survive from similar incidents are more easily to create empathy and gratefulness. These grateful people are concerned about vulnerable groups and are willing to engage in charitable activities to help people in need.

The extrinsic motivation for charitable behaviour refers to the desire for material rewards or other benefits after taking part in charitable activities. Mathur (1996) suggested that donors may seek some reward or benefit in return for their donations. According to Xinhua (2018), figures from the NHC showed that the number of voluntary blood donations in China experienced continuous growth for 20 years since the promulgation of Blood Donation Law of the People’s Republic of China, from 328,000 in 1998 to 14.59 million in 2017. One of the laws illustrates that when the spouse and immediate family members of an unpaid blood donor require blood in clinical use, the expenses will be exempted or reduced according to government’s provision. Many Chinese people donate blood for themselves or their family members’ potential future use.

Image enhancement motivation for charitable behaviour refers to paying attention to the feelings and evaluation of others and the desire to be respected and rise social status. In a reward-based crowdfunding environment, donating money to an event without asking for usable returns can be explained as a generous or altruistic way that improves the social image of the donors (Bénabou and Tirole, 2006). People who donate blood for free will be rewarded of a certificate according to the Blood Donation Law of the People’s Republic of China. Those blood donors will have a feeling of glory and respect with the acquisition of a certificate. Except ordinary people want to be considered as generous and helpful through charitable behaviour, for wealthy people, they are motivated by the opportunity to raise public awareness and public trust as well as demonstrate social impact. Harbaugh (1998) identifies ‘‘prestige benefits’’ as a possible motive for charitable giving. Bazilian (2012) argues that giving is the latest status symbol in wealthy individuals and companies. These years more and more Chinese celebrities begin to devote to philanthropy. BAZAAR Stars’ Charity Night was founded in 2003 for Chinese celebrities who support charities. The event is concerned by major media, business and investment. Many famous stars including actors and singers join in the auction and donation segment which increases their exposure to the public and help them gain public admiration.

Reference Group Influence on Charity

Reference groups refer to a real or imaginary individual or group that is considered to be significantly related to the formation of an individual’s values, attitudes and behaviour (Bearden and Etzel, 1982). Reference groups influence consumers in three ways, informational, value-expressive and utilitarian (Solomon et al., 2008). Charitable behaviour in China mainly influenced by reference groups including friends and peers, celebrities and organizations. This part will analyse how these reference groups influence Chinese people’s charitable behaviour.

People’s desire to fit in or to identify with individuals or other social groups is one of the important motivations for many consumption behaviours. For charitable behaviour, people are also easily influenced by their friends and peers to show that they are gregarious. Charitable behaviour is thought to be generous and helpful. When most of their social group members conduct charitable behaviour, they are more likely to take part in it to show they are generous and helpful as well, a kind of value-expressive influence. French and Raven (1959) argued that humans naturally prefer to compare their behaviour or performance with others who are similar to themselves. For example, a charitable art sale project led to a heated discussion on 22 August in 2017 on WeChat, a major social media platform in China. The works are drawn by autistic people and sold through Tencent's charitable platform. Money collected will be donated to help people with disabilities. Many people forward the activity link to their friends and on WeChat friend cycle to expose the information to their friends and peers which helps contribute to the charity event. According to Luo (2017), a 30-year-old said she saw her friends shared on WeChat and she bought the digital picture to support this charity. Donations reached to total more than 15 million yuan until the end and about 5.8 million people participated in this online charitable activity. Meer (2011) concluded from the findings that when people are requested by someone who has a social relationship with them, they are more likely to give, even quite large amounts.

Importance of Celebrities in Charity

Charitable behaviour can be influenced by celebrities. Today, the mass media is flooded with descriptions and information about celebrities and as a consequence, celebrities have high prestige, unique qualities and charming descriptions according to public opinions (Giles, 2000). As celebrities generally have a large part of the public's identification with them, people tend to believe the information spread by celebrities are authentic and they are willing to accept the opinions of celebrities. Nowadays, many celebrities have founded their own charitable foundations and publish charitable appeals on their social media to call on the public to contribute to charity. For example, Jet Li, the famous film star in China who is also the Chinese Red Cross charity ambassador launched the “jet li one foundation project” in 2007, the foundation is dedicated to spreading universal charitable culture and establishing a charitable platform to promote the development of public welfare and provide humanitarian assistance for natural disasters as far as possible. He spread the idea of charity and called on everyone to join the charity and help others in his film release conference and the activities he participated in. Fraser and Brown (2002) indicate that people's degree of worship of celebrities influences their degree of identification with celebrities, determining the degree of social influence of celebrities. As Li is a celebrity with high visibility and social recognition, his influence is enormous. Most of the public in China knew his charitable foundation and his appeal attracted many people to donate money to One Foundation. From 2007 to 2010, the money donated was allocated to relief disasters like earthquake and flood and focus on children's psychology.

Charitable organizations have a significant influence on people’s charitable behaviour as well. According to Wang (2016), charitable organizations including foundations and specialized public service agencies are developing quickly in China. China's non-public funds began to register for development since 2005, and the number soared to 2,610 in less than 10 years. Charity in China is mainly social activities carried out by various non-profit organizations dedicated to charity activities. Charitable behaviour in China mainly embraces donating money or other products like clothes and books to people in need through charitable organizations or becoming a member of philanthropic organizations and take part in volunteer works. Charity organizations constantly publicize charity culture to the public and organise charitable activities and public welfare programmes to inform people of the importance of charity and encourage them to participate in charity. McAlexander et al. (2002) found that people who participate in community events will have a positive feeling to the product and thus improve brand loyalty. Therefore, the community members are emotionally involved in the brand activities and they often act as brand evangelists, carrying related messages to others. When the group has a strong philanthropic atmosphere and often organizes social charitable activities, donors belonging to the charitable organization donate more than individuals (Jiang, 2011). For example, One Foundation’s 2017 report shows that the public health hiking activities since its inception in 2013 have raised 48 million yuan, more than 180000 people donated money and about 40000 members participated in the hiking activity. People in China are inspired by charitable organizations to make efforts to philanthropy, actively taking part in charitable activities and spontaneously generate charitable behaviour.

Culture of Charity

“Culture is the accumulation of shared meanings, rituals, norms and traditions among the members of an organization or society. It is what defines a human community, its individuals, its social organizations, as well as its economic and political systems” (Solomon et al., 2003, pp.529-530). It has been found from various studies that culture can influence individuals’ personal attitudes and behaviours because an individual’s emotions, perceptions and behaviours are formed by the local culture (Chan and Lau, 2001). As a result, culture is a crucial concept to explain consumer behaviour in a specific market which means culture have an impact on people’s charitable behaviour in the Chinese market. Culture is divided into the non-material culture and material culture. Non-material culture includes values, norms, rituals, laws and some other intangible factors and material culture relates to manmade physical things. This part explains how material culture and non-material culture affect people’s charitable behaviour.

The material culture of charity mainly refers to the tangible objects like charitable agencies, charitable platforms, volunteer organizations, as well as constructions of charity like charity schools and post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction. The increase in philanthropic foundations and organizations in China gives people more opportunity to join in charity. What’s more, the emergence of online fundraising platforms in recent years greatly encourages people to donate money. 2017 China Internet Public Welfare Development Report shows that the number of internet users who have participated in charity through online platform reached 251 million in 2017 and the donations raised by 12 online fundraising platforms totalled about 2.59 billion yuan. With the continuous improvement of donation and feedback mechanism on 12 charitable platforms, the public can keep abreast of and monitor the progress of charity projects and the use of charitable funds at any time, breaking the barrier of trust among enterprises, users and public welfare organizations. The development of material culture informs people of the real information on charitable projects and allows them to clear about how their donations help others. When people believe their donations are effective in helping others, they are more willing to join in charity.

With regard to non-material culture, China is considered with collectivism cultures from many research findings, having the characteristics of “group orientation” (Wong, 2001). In a collectivist culture, a person's identity is inseparable from their group. People in such a culture have a strong sense of participation in each other's lives, as well as a strong sense of loyalty and responsibility. It means that people in China are affected by members in their close groups, such as peers and family members. Markus and Kitayama (1991) found that people in collectivist cultures are strongly influenced by members of a reference group. For example, a person’s view and attitude on charity are formed by their parents’ or teachers’ education from an early age and influenced by their friends and peers when they enter society. At the same time, their charitable behaviour is influenced by their reference group’s charitable behaviour.

It is obvious that cultural values still have an impact on individuals’ behaviours in modern society. The values related to charity mainly includes leniency, philanthropic minded, obliging and almsgiving for the needy (Jiang, 2011). Most of these cultural values are derived from the Confucian and Buddhist concept of benevolence. The charity theory contained in traditional ancient China thought is promoted as a noble virtue which promotes the formation of the Chinese nation's value of willingness to help others. The value of philanthropy has been rooted in Chinese culture for thousands of years. The concept of “helping and caring for others” is highly respected by Chinese people until now (Lu, 2017). Nevertheless, the traditional culture emphasis too much on government philanthropy, people regard public welfare as the responsibility of the state or the government thus they have a strong sense of dependence on the government which results in a lack of cultural atmosphere of nationwide participation in charitable donation. As the development of modern charity culture and the emergence of many non-governmental charity organizations and platforms have increased personal involvement in charity.

Conclusion

Promulgation and improvement of laws optimize the development environment of the charity industry. In 2016, China’s first charity law was passed and became effective soon afterwards. What’s more, China’s Foreign NGO Management Law was passed in 2017. Both laws point to the Chinese government’s intention to strengthen regulations of the emerging fields of philanthropy and civic engagement (Lu, 2017). Charity law of the People's Republic of China aims to develop charity undertakings, promote charity culture, regulate charity activities, as well as protect the legitimate rights and interests of charity organizations, donors, volunteers. The law guarantees the public right to perform charitable behaviour and the charitable cultural propaganda popularizes make more people realize the importance of charity. However, the law appeared relatively late, the implementation of various aspects is not perfect enough and the supervision of related departments is inadequate. In consequence, there have been some cases of fraudulent donations which has affected people’s opinion to charity, this would challenge the validity of the charity projects and the public will hesitate to donate money. 

Works Cited

1. Ariely, D., Bracha, A., & Meier, S. (2009). Doing good or doing well? Image motivation and monetary incentives in behaving prosocially. American Economic Review, 99(1), 544-555.
2. Bazilian, E. (2012). Giving Is the Latest Status Symbol. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/giving-is-the-latest-status-symbol/266633/
3. Bearden, W. O., & Etzel, M. J. (1982). Reference group influence on product and brand purchase decisions. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(2), 183-194.
4. Cang, J. (2018). People's Daily Online: Taxi Driver who Donated Blood More than 40 Times in 10 Years Received 'Integrity Card.' Retrieved from http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0727/c90000-9480581.html
5. Clary, E. G., Snyder, M., Ridge, R. D., Copeland, J., Stukas Jr, A. A., Haugen, J., & Miene, P. (1998). Understanding and assessing the motivations of volunteers: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1516-1530.
6. Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
7. Fraser, C., & Brown, M. (2002). Consumer Ethnocentrism and attitudes toward domestic and foreign products. European Journal of Marketing, 36(9/10), 1155-1166.
8. Giles, D. C. (2000). Illusions of immortality: A psychology of fame and celebrity. Macmillan International Higher Education.
9. Harbaugh, W. T. (1998). What do donations buy? A model of philanthropy based on prestige and warm glow. Journal of Public Economics, 67(2), 269-284.
10. Hui, B. P. H., Tsang, J. L. F., & Law, B. M. F. (2015). The differential effects of gratitude and sleep on psychological distress in adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 45, 7-12.
11. Jiang, H. (2011). Research on behavior and influencing factors of charity donation. Nankai Business Review, 14(1), 6-16.
12. Jiang, L., Jin, Y., & Liu, J. (2018). Exploring the Motivation for Charity in China: The Role of Cultural Factors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 971-989.
13. Luo, M. (2017). Chinese Charitable Contributions Reach 112.5 Billion Yuan in 2016. China Daily. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2017-03/23/content_28632879.htm
14. Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224-253.
15. Mathur, L. K. (1996). Charitable contributions by married couples: Who makes the decision?. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 30(1), 157-174.
16. Meer, D. (2011). Donation Matching: Impact on the Choices of Charities. Journal of Public Economics, 95(5-6), 332-341.
17. Solomon, M. R., Zaichkowsky, J. L., & Polegato, R. (2008). Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being (Canadian Ed.). Pearson Education Canada.
18. Wang, Q. (2016). Chinese Philanthropy at a Glance. Caixin. Retrieved from https://www.caixinglobal.com/2016-03-03/100914945.html
19. Xinhua (2018). China's Charity Sector Attracts More Donations. Retrieved from http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-03/20/c_137050685.htm