CHINA'S SOCIAL CREDIT SYSTEM AS A STIMULANT OF DONATION BEHAVIOR: ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS' OPINIONS

China, the world's largest populated country, second largest economy of the world, and home to 318 billionaires, has been ranked 134/149 with regard to charity donation. The shortage of motivation for charitable giving by individuals in China can be attributed to several reasons. In order to solve this issue, which is just one facet of China's multiple issues, the government has decided to enlarge the social credit system (SCS), initially bound to the financial sector, to individuals and organizations as well. Since then, the SCS has received a certain amount of attention from different actors including academics. Several studies relating to the SCS have also been conducted with positive results. However, there is little focus on how the SCS can influence the citizens' donation behavior. This paper aimed to fill the gap by providing meaningful and useful insights of Chinese citizens' opinions about the SCS and their donation behavior. Using a semi-structured interview with 30 Chinese students from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the findings revealed that the participants were aware of the SCS, as well as its importance and benefits to the entire society. They trusted the system and believe that it was fair and mostly showed a favorable intention to donate to charity for increasing their social credit. The implications and limitations of the study are also provided.