Responses to Scandals in Nonprofit Organizations: A Moral Reasoning Model of Volunteer Support

Abstract

While research on donor reactions to nonprofit scandals has increased recently, the reaction of volunteers remains understudied. Therefore, this study addresses the impact of nonprofit scandals on volunteer behavior. Drawing on the moral reasoning framework, this research examines how the moral reasoning strategies of moral rationalization, moral decoupling, and moral coupling affect volunteers' responses to nonprofit scandals. This study considers volunteers' time and cash donation behavior as response variables. Furthermore, our model integrates moral intensity and cognitive dissonance as drivers of volunteers' support behavior. The empirical study is based on cross-sectional data and uses a structural equation approach for data analysis. This study provides insights into the dynamics of volunteer behavior in situations where the behavior of nonprofit organizations can be classified as unethical.