The purpose of this paper is show how altruism provides a basis for understanding motivations that consumers may possess, especially as it relates to their response to buy‐national marketing campaigns. The paper aims to report research that examines traditional measures of altruism to determine whether there are differing or additional dimensions of altruism.
The research is based on a survey of 212 consumers and their responses to previously validated altruism scales. These scales were factor‐analyzed to identify new dimensions of altruism.
Eight dimensions of altruism are empirically identified and are demonstrated to be different by demographic groupings and their responses to altruism‐based marketing programs.
Patterns of altruistic behavior can enable marketers to estimate the relative size and behavioral patterns of altruism‐based market segments.
