Social capital and humanitarian consumption : thou shalt giveth to receiveth!

• Main Author: Nurul Fitrah Abd Rashid.
• Other Authors: Sulfikar Amir
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology; DRNTU::Business::Marketing::Consumer behavior
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48338
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The phenomena of humanitarian consumption - consuming goods and services that contribute to a humanitarian cause - has been gaining momentum with organizations and commercial businesses, leveraging on humanism to attain their desired objectives. Why then do people engage in humanitarian consumption instead of directly donating to the cause? Here, we look towards understanding the vital role social capital plays in moulding individuals’ decisions to undertake humanitarian consumption. How is humanitarian consumption influenced by the individuals and organizations endorsing it? What resources are embedded within individuals’ social networks enabling them to carry out humanitarian consumption? What returns from social capital do consumers yield through their acts of humanitarian consumption? Through this research paper, I argue that social capital building contributes to humanitarian consumption by deepening social networks through generation of trust, identification with the cause, pressure to perform a display of humanism and to yield returns for the individual leading to eventually engage in humanitarian consumption.