Cause-related marketing (CRM) refers to the marketing strategy an organization uses to associate itself with a good cause. Even though CRM decisions may be partly charitable, they may also serve corporate self-interest. Although this area of inquiry is growing, CRM's strategic potential as an effective management tool for connecting sport organizations (i.e., teams) with consumers has not been thoroughly examined in a sport management context. In order to provide an improved picture of spectator sport consumers' perceptions toward a sport team's CRM initiatives, we developed a structural model that incorporates perceived CRM, attitudes toward the team, and re-attendance intention. Using LISREL analysis, the findings showed that CRM's effect on re-attendance intention was completely mediated through the attitude toward the team. In addition, perceptions toward the team's motive for CRM did not vary CRM's effect on attitude and behavioral intention. The lack of interaction effect might provide evidence that there may be universal appeal and effectiveness of CRM in a spectator sport context. Consequently, the findings provide a useful rationale for making managerial decisions about implementing and maintaining CRM efforts in sport organization.

The current case study examines the gender differences on the effect of perceived CSR engagement on attitude and re-attendance intention toward a professional sport team. Spectators at a professional soccer game (N = 380) in Korea participated in the study and a multiple group analysis was conducted between male and female participants. Findings show that perceived CSR engagement had a significant effect on re-attendance intention mediated by team attitudes. Interestingly, gender moderated the effect of perceived CSR engagement on team attitude, in the opposite direction from existing literature. For instance, CSR effects on attitude was greater for males than females, indicating that the link between a sport team's socially responsible initiatives and team attitude would be stronger for male spectators than female counterparts. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.