The journal "Marketing ZFP - Journal of Research in Management" has honored an essay from Sabrina Lucke and Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer with the Best Paper Award 2018. The article entitled "Construal-Level Perspective on Consumers' Donation Preferences in Relation to the Environment and Health" was published in issue 1/2018 by this reviewed technical periodical.
"The journal is the leading marketing journal in Germany. I am very happy that we could successfully contribute an article here involving this interface discipline. This clarifies the relevance of health and environmental topics in marketing and management," says Prof. Königstorfer, full professor for Sport and Health Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Study on reciprocal effects between the theory of psychological distance, and environmental and/or health-related concepts
In the article, Lucke and Königstorfer examine the interactions between the theory of the psychological distance, and environmental and/or health-related concepts, as well as the influence of the psychological distance on the intentions of making donations to welfare organizations. "Psychological distance is a frequently examined theory, although it has not been applied in combination with the fields of 'health' and the 'environment' to date," explains Prof. Königstorfer, who is also Dean of Studies at the Department of Sport and Health Sciences. The theory postulates a psychological proximity or distance, which develops from the four dimensions of 'time', 'place', 'probability' as well as 'social dimension'. The intensity of this proximity or distance affects the readiness for humans to react.
In two studies with 291 and 314 participants, it was examined how psychological dimensions can be paired with the "environment" and "health". For this purpose, among other things, terms had to be ordered on a computer, while the response time of the test subjects was measured. "The decisions must be made so quickly that they take place without any cognitive control. The extent of the proximity or distance influences the willingness of a person to react," explains Lucke.
Concrete recommendations for health and environment-related welfare organizations
The result: Health-related welfare organizations are more strongly supported if these are brought to the consumers in relationship to the distance. "With a view on health, this means, for example, that the communication of changes, which are already to take place tomorrow, is particularly effective if humans think of their own social surrounding field. Here, the effects must be focused on the closely surrounding social field," explains the professor for sport and health management.
For environment-related welfare organizations, on the other hand, a contrasting relationship applies: Support is more probable, if the psychological distance is prominent. "Unfortunately, humans do not associate topics of the environment with proximity. Therefore, it is more likely that environment-related topics are supported if individuals think of such more distant topics like individuals in their further surrounding social fields or in the generations of their children. To change this way of thinking in the future and to also associate environmental topics with the near environment, is one of the major tasks of environmental policy," says Königstorfer.
The results help in the development of marketing and medium concepts for the health and environmental organizations, which, for example, must generate donations.
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Information on the technical periodical Marketing ZFP - Journal of Research in Management
Contact
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Tel.: 089 289 24559
E-Mail: info.mgt(at)sg.tum.de
Text: Dr. Fabian Kautz
Photo: Chair of Sport and Health Management