Exploring the effect of community institutional forces on corporate philanthropy in professional sport

ABSTRACT

Research question

Although a growing body of literature has explored the strategic value and organizational drivers of corporate philanthropy (CP) by professional sport teams, we know less about the influence of geographic community which may constrain or enable the philanthropic behavior of teams. The purpose of this study is to explore how community institutional forces affect the level of philanthropic giving by professional sport teams in the U.S. across four major leagues.

Research methods

We hypothesized that team philanthropic giving will be greater when teams are in communities which value or promote philanthropic behaviors. To test this idea, we used longitudinal data of philanthropic giving of professional sport team foundations and factors in teams’ community institutional environments between 2005 and 2015 (n = 921).

Results and Findings

The results revealed that higher state income tax rates and a greater presence of nonprofit organizations in the community increased the level of team philanthropic giving, whereas the effect of community volunteer rates on team philanthropic giving was not found to be significant.

Implications

Our study advances sport management research by adding knowledge of how professional sport teams are anchored in the institutional and social structures of community. The findings provide practical implications to inform sport teams to be attuned to signals from the community to make the most significant social impact. Furthermore, policymakers might leverage different community institutional forces to exert pressure on teams to engage in appropriate levels of CP to achieve desired collaborative social objectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Philanthropic giving
• communities
• sport teams
• institutional theory
• corporate social responsibility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).