This study was to examine the relationship among cause credibility, cause-related marketing attitudes, purchase intention, and the moderating effect of self-construal. The study used the experiment design and was conducted by two stages: a pretest and a main experiment. The samples were college students. A valid sample of 30 was collected in the pretest. In the final experiment, we used a direct mail stating the fictitious situation with scanned pictures. We used 3 brands and 3 charities to form 9 (3 x 3) fictitious situations. Each situation was assigned to 50 samples. Total of 315 copies were distributed, with 270 valid samples of effective questionnaires were collected. The results show that (1) credibility positively influences cause-related marketing attitudes; (2) cause-related marketing attitudes positively influences purchase intention; (3) cause credibility positively influences purchase intention; (4) credibility positively influences purchase intention through the mediation of a cause-related marketing attitudes; and (5) self-construal did not moderate the effect of cause credibility on purchase intentions. Finally, this research discusses the implications of our findings in theory and managerial practice with suggestions for future research.
