Abstract

This study investigates the values attributed to Emergency, a humanitarian organization established to provide care to civilian victims of war. To this aim, we adopted the Schwartz theory of basic personal values, a psychological model originally developed to study the values to which people attribute importance as guiding principles in their lives (Schwartz 1992). To assess the structure of the value ratings, we employed multi-dimensional scaling analysis. Furthermore, discriminant analysis and multinomial regression were used to examine the relationship between the values attributed to the brand and the intention to contribute to its activities. The study examined about 200 subjects. Results showed that the values attributed to Emergency can be partitioned into seven dimensions. Universalism, that refers to peace and solidarity values, was the most representative value of the brand. This value dimension is consistent with the mission of Emergency and showed the highest association with the intention to provide a contribution to the organization. Findings and their practical implications were discussed.