Corporate citizenship in football: delivering strategic benefits through stakeholder engagement

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explain that corporate citizenship refers to the specific activities that an organisation engages in to meet social obligations, and which has become an issue of growing importance within the business community. A key area in academic literature concentrates on justifying corporate citizenship initiatives to the corporate sector by illustrating a range of strategic benefits that a firm can achieve. This study is located within this body of work and aims to illustrate the strategic benefits that a football club can gain from the implementation of corporate citizenship activities through the community trust model of governance.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws from qualitative primary and secondary data gathered from Charlton Athletic and Brentford football clubs.FindingsAnalysis of the data resulted in the identification of six strategic benefits that a football club can realise through the creation of a community trust model of governance. These are the removal of commercial and community tensions; reputation management; brand building; local authority partnerships; commercial partnerships; and player identification.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper considers the importance of these findings for a generic business audience, discussing how organisations can also benefit from the creation of partnerships with football clubs focused on the delivery of corporate citizenship initiatives.Practical implicationsThe paper provides information regarding the application of management practice evident in football to other forms of business organisation.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to consider how corporate citizenship initiatives in football can assist firms in other sectors to achieve a range of strategic benefits.

Identification, Priorization and Management of Professional Football Clubs’ Stakeholders

“…The authors present a conceptual model that describes the creation of value for external stakeholders: financial value (e.g., for television channels, sponsors and sporting goods manufacturers), cultural value (e.g., for local communities), human value (e.g., for non-governmental organizations) and reassurance value (e.g., for economic and political actors and the population). From the study of Charlton Athletic and Brentford football clubs which have established a charitable structure involved in socially responsible activities in the areas of health, education, social inclusion and community integration, Walters and Chadwick (2009) emphasize the strategic advantages (the removal of commercial and community tensions, reputation management, brand building, local authority partnerships, commercial partnerships, and player identification) that a football club can draw from the implementation of citizenship-orientated activities through a stakeholder engagement model based on the creation of a community trust model of governance. Walters and Tacon (2010) also focus their attention on how the concept of social responsibility can be implemented by sports organizations through stakeholder management strategies in the UK football industry.…”

“…Most of these studi es were focused on British clubs (Michie and Oughton, 2005;Walters and Chadwick, 2009;Walters and Tacon, 2010;Walters, 2011;Healy and McDonagh, 2013;Morrow, 2013). The other ones were based on French (Senaux, 2004(Senaux, , 2008 and Turkish (Sarikaya et al, 2012) clubs or on a broader sample of European (Paché and N'Goala, 2011) or World (Breitbarth and Harris, 2008) clubs.…”

“…The literature is interested in identifying the football clubs stakeholders (Boon, 2000;Meyssonnier and Mincheneau, 2013), in prioritizing them in order to highlight those who « count » the most and to which managers have to give their utmost attention (Senaux, 2004(Senaux, , 2008 and in studying their management either in a general perspective of governance (Michie and Oughton, 2005), or more specifically with the study of a distinct stakeholder (Healy and McDonagh, 2013) or the treatment of a precise question related to social responsibility (Breitbarth and Harris, 2008;Walters and Chadwick, 2009;Walters and Tacon, 2010), to the construction of a stadium (Walters, 2011), to the creation of value (Paché and N'Goala, 2011), to the control of the clubs market value volatility (Sarikaya et al, 2012) or to information (Morrow, 2013). Most of these studi es were focused on British clubs (Michie and Oughton, 2005;Walters and Chadwick, 2009;Walters and Tacon, 2010;Walters, 2011;Healy and McDonagh, 2013;Morrow, 2013).…”

‘Motivate’: the effect of a Football in the Community delivered weight loss programme on over 35-year old men and women’s cardiovascular risk factors

“…13 By the mid-1990s, football's potential had been elevated to be a position as a 'key' deliverer of policy objective for a range of social welfare issues, notable health.…”

Understanding Football as a Vehicle for Enhancing Social Inclusion: Using an Intervention Mapping Framework

“…Owing to this apparent mass media youth appeal (Smith & Westerbeek, 2007), it has received support as a vehicle to deliver on the social inclusion agenda. Within England, Football in the Community (FitC) programmes, which are often organised as independent registered charities attached to professional football clubs, lead the social welfare and corporate social responsibility agenda for football (Anagnostopoulos & Shilbury, 2013;Parnell et al, 2013;Walters, 2009;Walters & Chadwick, 2009). Watson (2000) originally suggested that FitC schemes are identified as organisations that can aid the development of a range of social outcomes including sport participation rates, drug and alcohol abuse, social exclusion and health (which has been echoed more recently by Parnell and Richardson, 2014).…”