EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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2774. Understanding donation patterns in the immediate aftermath of sudden onset disasters

Invited abstract in session WD-18: Developing Countries and Sustainable Humanitarianism , stream OR for Development and Developing Countries.

Wednesday, 14:30-16:00
Room: 42 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Can Erzi
Business School, Sabanci University
2. Raha Akhavan-Tabatabaei
Sabanci School of Management
3. Nezih Altay
Management, DePaul University

Abstract

The question of why and how humans choose to help others without expecting anything in return has puzzled philosophers, psychologists, and economists for centuries. This becomes even more important during Sudden Onset Disasters (SOD), where understanding donor behavior plays a critical role in efficient management of Humanitarian Supply Chains.
Demographics, trust, and personal history all have an impact on the individual’s donation decisions. Another factor is the perceived closeness to the victims. “Psychic Distance“ (PD), a concept borrowed from international business literature, is adapted to describe donor-victim relationship in terms of shared personal history and cultural closeness.
We propose another dimension to the PD under SOD conditions: donors’ temporary mental, physiological and financial states. Since decisions during SODs are taken within a short time frame, we expect these contextual factors to play a significant role in the donation decisions as well.
Through conducting an experimental design, we study donation decisions of the subjects while their psychology and physiology are manipulated via different priming methods. The objective is to observe changes in intention to donate, and donation preferences, while the perceived contextual PD is modified.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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