Toward an integrated framework of corporate social responsibility, responsiveness, and citizenship in sport

Abstract

This article examined the concepts of corporate social responsibility, corporate social responsiveness, and corporate citizenship (CSR₁, CSR₂, and CC, respectively) in relation to the activities reported by organizations in the sport industry. We expand on the idea that social involvement differs amongst sport organizations based on type, scope, direction, and target audiences. Therefore, in contrast to the majority of positivist models of social responsibility, we propose an integrated model of social involvement which notably includes the spatial (i.e., geographical) orientation of social involvement in sport. To begin distinguishing between the various forms of social involvement, we content analyzed the websites of nearly 100 sport entities to provide both typicality and a systematic variety of teams, leagues, and organizations to reveal general social involvement practices in the industry. We conclude that social involvement varies considerably in the sport industry and this variation can be partially explained by geographical reach, stakeholder influences, and business operations of the organizations. For example, multinational organizations are more likely to adopt CC activities than those operating in more localized context and the magnitude and scope of the social involvement tends to reflect the profile and size of the organization.

Keywords:

• Social reporting
• Social involvement
• Corporate citizenship
• Corporate responsiveness
• Corporate social responsibility
• Sport industry

Notes

2 CSR₁, CSR₂, and CC refer to interactions of the sport firms with society, and the phrase “social initiatives” is used as a collective representation of the business–society relationship. In subsequent sections of the article, we conceptually and operationally distinguish between CSR₁, CSR₂ and CC.

3 The data were collected prior to the financial crisis witnessed in the US in 2009. Thus, some of the charities, social initiatives/programs, etc., may or may not exist anymore or be as active as they were during the time data collection.