Types of CSR Initiatives and Fans’ Social Outcomes: The Case of Professional Sport Organizations

Abstract

While the burgeoning research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) indicates the importance of tracking the interest of external stakeholders to obtain societal goals, insight into what types of CSR activities contribute to social outcomes remain scarce. As such, the purpose of this study was to identify the relevant dimensions of CSR that can enhance the social outcomes of one specific group of external stakeholders (i.e., sport fans). Data were collected from US sports fans (n = 312) over the course of two weeks. The present research indicates that fans gain more excitement and happiness as well as increased their social cohesion if sport organization CSR initiatives are concentrating on sport governance, environmental management and sustain-ability, and philanthropy issues. Assessing the impact of CSR from micro-level approach would be one way to strengthen the relationship between existing fans and sport organizations to make positive social impact