Infaq during movement lockdown: the perspective from social responsibility theory

Abstract

Purpose Within a few days, the National Disaster Management Agency’s COVID-19 Fund (NADMA) has collected RM 5.5 m in donations from individuals and companies. These data shows that voluminous Malaysians are willing to help although they are in a difficult situation. Grounded in the Social Responsibility theory, this paper aims to examine the factors that motivate infaq (donation) behaviour in Malaysia during Movement Control Order (MCO). Design/methodology/approach The quantitative questionnaire survey method was used to obtain the data. This research’s unit analysis was of individuals who had done any help during COVID-19 MCO in Malaysia. The respondents were from all states in Malaysia, 20 years old and above and constituted of all races. Findings Although the religiosity factor did not play a significant role as a moderator, the results of the study found that all factors from the social responsibility theory had a significant positive relationship to Infaq behaviour during an emergency. Practical implications Identifying the vital driving factors that determine the infaq offer makes it possible for fundraisers to entirely focus on developing better approaches that can increase the role that these driving factors can play and possibly improve the impact on those previously unaffected factors. Originality/value From the authors’ knowledge, the research paper on helping effort during an emergency is minimal, let alone the research on infaq behaviour. This paper’s originality lies in the relationship between infaq behaviour, emergency and social responsibility theory which has never been explored before by other researchers.