Abstract
Businesses adopt cause-related marketing (CRM) strategies to align with societal concerns. Past literature reveals that human values are crucial in shaping consumers' responses towards companies that engage in CRM activities. This study adopts Schwartz's theory of human values to assess consumers' patronage intentions about CRM-associated fashion products. Besides, fashion leaders are instrumental in the dissemination of current fashion trends. This study focused on the intricate relationship between human values and male fashion leadership, thereby proffering valuable perspectives into predicting CRM patronage intentions (CPI). While the non-profit marketing literature is largely focused on exploring the relationship between values and CRM, empirical evidence on the prediction of CPI in the context of human values remains insufficient. This research is distinct as it provides a normalized ranking of the relevant predictors while predicting CPI. A large-scale, robust investigation was undertaken with 2,289 respondents using integrated PLS-MGA-ANN to validate a predictive model that triggers value-based profiling. The results reveal that high male fashion leaders aligning with certain value types (self-direction, universalism and benevolence) and low male fashion leaders aligning with certain value types (security, tradition, and conformity) had higher patronage towards CRM-associated fashion retailers. This study ooffers invaluable intelligence to practitioners, non-profit marketers, and fashion marketers for devising value-based profiling and managing pivotal CRM decisions.