The interactive effects of religiosity and recognition in increasing donation Felix Septianto UQ Business School, Brisbane, Australia and University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand Fandy Tjiptono Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand Widya Paramita Faculty of Economics and Business, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Tung Moi Chiew Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah, Malaysia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a three-way interaction between the two motivational orientations of religiosity (i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic) and recognition (in this study, an explicit expectation that behavior is recognized) on charitable behavior. Further, drawing upon the evolutionary psychology perspective, the status motive is predicted to mediate the predicted effects. Design/methodology/approach – Three experimental studies were conducted using a 2 (intrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured)  2 (extrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured)  2 (recognition: yes/no; manipulated) between-subjects design to examine the predicted effects on likelihood to donate and donation allocations in two Asian countries, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia. Findings – The results show that recognition increases charitable behavior among consumers with a high level of extrinsic religiosity but low level of intrinsic religiosity (Studies 1a, 1b and 2). Further, a status motive mediates the predicted effects (Study 2). Research limitations/implications – The present research provides a novel perspective on how marketers can purposively use recognition in charitable advertising to encourage charitable behavior among religious consumers – but only in Asia. Practical implications – This paper presents the case for how a non-profit organization can develop charitable advertising for disaster relief in Indonesia (Studies 1a and 1b) and Malaysia (Study 2). The findings of this research could potentially be extended to other organizations in Asia or other countries where religiosity places an important role in consumer behavior. Originality/value – This research shows the interactive effect between extrinsic religiosity, intrinsic religiosity and recognition can increase charitable behavior in Asia. Keywords Recognition, Religiosity, Donation, Charitable advertising, Status motive Paper type Research paper Introduction Religion is a significant part of life for many individuals, with about 80% of people worldwide indicating a religious affiliation according to a recent report (Pew Research, 2017). Many companies and brands also incorporate religious concepts into their marketing Effects of religiosity and recognition Received 8 April 2019 Revised 2 November 2019 19 March 2020 6 June 2020 Accepted 21 June 2020 European Journal of Marketing © Emerald Publishing Limited 0309-0566 DOI 10.1108/EJM-04-2019-0326 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0309-0566.htm