Author(s) :

Jungwoo Hwang.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

The current study explores an important but underexplored topic in the era of corporate responsibility: the role of moral framing and inclusivity in shaping audiences’ willingness to support. Building on the literature of social entrepreneurship, social identity, and organizational communication, this study suggests a positive impact of secular moral framing, compared to a religious one, and inclusivity cues in mission statements on audiences’ willingness to support. Contrary to theoretical expectations, an online experiment conducted on the survey platform Testable, which yielded a final sample of 159, reveals that the type of moral framing and the presence of inclusive language in mission statements did not significantly influence audiences’ willingness to support. However, audience characteristics, including religiosity and alignment with religious identity, emerged as strong predictors of willingness to support. To help understand hidden mechanisms, 12 interviewees participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on their subjective interpretations of religious moral framing and inclusive language. A qualitative thematic analysis points to the role of religious moral framing as boundary awareness and inclusive language as mere minimum expectations. The implications of the results from this mixedmethods study are further discussed in relation to communication strategies for social enterprises.