Study
Nowadays purchase decisions of consumers not only base upon factors like the price or product quality, customers rather consider the ethical or unethical behavior of the company. Thus, companies are encouraged to behave responsible and create positive effects for the society and the environment, what is called in the literature corporate social responsibility (CSR). The recently published study by Dr. Wojtek Kulczycki and Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer in the European Sport Management Quarterly investigates the impact of CSR activities of small-sized and large-sized football clubs on their perception in public.
Results and implications
Based on a survey with 444 inhabitants of Munich, the study shows that the positive effects of CSR on the perception of a football club vary as regard the geographical focus of the CSR activity and the perceived motive attributions for CSR. The positive effect of CSR is identical for small- and large-sized football clubs, if the social activity takes place in the local area – football clubs benefit from CSR with an increasing perception of altruistic motives for CSR. However, if CSR activities are carried out on a global level, the perceived motivation for CSR is relevant for large-sized organizations but becomes irrelevant for small-sized organizations. The results provide implications for professional football clubs to optimize their societal engagement. Both, small- and large-sized football clubs should engage in social activities in their local area in order to show their regional embeddedness and create positive effects for the organization. However, when engaging in global CSR the effects are different: large-sized organizations strongly benefit from global CSR activities, if consumers perceive them to be motivated by philanthropic reasons, whereas profit-motivated CSR can even negatively affect the organizations’ perception. For small-sized football clubs the perceived motive attributions for local CSR play a minor role, as small-sized clubs by nature are perceived as more socially responsible and due to the limited financial and human resources the expectations of consumers towards the clubs are lower.
Contact
Chair of Sport and Health Management
Prof. Dr. Jörg Königstorfer
Secretary: Mirjam Eggers
Uptown München Campus D
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 Munich
Phone: +49.89.289.24559
Fax +49.89.289.24642