We experimentally investigate whether donation motive attribution influences individual investors' judgments of the donating firm's future earnings prospects and whether individual moral orientation, that is, perceived importance of social goodwill (PISG), moderates this effect. We find that investors forecast higher future earnings per share (EPS) when the donation motive is believed to be altruistic or win–win rather than egoistic; the EPS forecasts for altruistic and win–win motives are not different. However, this motive attribution effect holds only for higher-PISG investors. A further examination finds that when the donation motive is believed to be egoistic and/or when investors have lower PISG, doing good is no better than doing nothing, but no backfire effect occurs. Our findings indicate that the positive effect of corporate donation on investors' judgments is generated only when higher-PISG investors believe that the donation motive is not purely egoistic; corporate donation will not generate negative effects on investors' judgments even under less favorable conditions.

中文翻译：

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企业捐赠动机归因对投资者未来盈利前景判断的影响：个体道德取向的调节作用

我们通过实验调查捐赠动机归因是否影响个人投资者对捐赠公司未来盈利前景的判断，以及个人道德取向，即社会善意 (PISG) 的感知重要性，是否缓和这种影响。我们发现，当捐赠动机被认为是无私或双赢而非利己主义时，投资者会预测更高的未来每股收益 (EPS)；利他和双赢动机的 EPS 预测没有什么不同。然而，这种动机归因效应只适用于较高的 PISG 投资者。进一步检查发现，当捐赠动机被认为是利己主义和/或当投资者的 PISG 较低时，做好事并不比什么都不做好，但不会发生适得其反的效果。我们的研究结果表明，只有当较高的 PISG 投资者认为捐赠动机不是纯粹的利己主义时，企业捐赠对投资者判断的正向影响才会产生；即使在不利条件下，企业捐赠也不会对投资者的判断产生负面影响。