Cause-related marketing and employee engagement: The roles of admiration, implicit morality beliefs, and moral identity

Cause-related marketing refers to supporting a charitable cause or a non-profit organization to promote sales. Little is known about how cause-related marketing influences a firm's own employees. Two field studies were conducted which confirmed that cause-related marketing enhances employees' admiration for their company, which in turn promotes engagement. Importantly, each employee's implicit morality beliefs and moral identity centrality jointly moderate these relationships. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.