Gender differences on the effect of CSR engagement on team attitude and loyalty: a case study of a professional soccer club in Korea

Abstract

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.

Delivering on social good - corporate social responsibility and professional sport: a systematic quantitative literature review

“…Given the increased calls and attention on gender equity in sport settings broadly, and the current epoch of women's professional sport around the world being heralded as historic in terms of women's entrée into professional sport (Pavlidis, 2018;Woodward, 2017), our findings show underwhelming engagement with this key sporting issue by the literature, or cases studied within the articles. Only one article included in this review examined gender (Kim et al, 2015), and in this case, it was only as a variable rather than an exploration or acknowledgement of inequality. The lack of in-depth and detailed data about the specificity of women and other minority groups in sport indicates organisational approaches to CSR, and research designs examining them fail to take into consideration the specific life experiences of approximately half our population (Perez, 2019), and half of the sporting consumer market.…”

Examining the X factor of corporate social responsibility in professional football clubs: An integrative literature review

“…Professional football clubs are the archetypal branded sport in the sport industry; the brand is their most important asset, and brand image elements attract spectators (Blumrodt, 2014). Supporters highly regard clubs' community involvement which impacts on their perceptions of trust and loyalty (Blumrodt et al, 2012; Kim et al, 2015; Moyo et al, 2015).…”

Calculating the Social Return on Investment of a Japanese Professional Soccer Team's Corporate Social Responsibility Activities

“…Specifically, measuring, managing, and communicating about corporate social and environmental activities is necessary for competitive corporate sustainability performances, and measuring the impacts is the least developed area among them (Grewal and Serafeim, 2020 ). Past studies have investigated CSR from several perspectives, such as the relationship between CSR activities and the development of fan–team relationships (e.g., Walker and Kent, 2009 ; Kim et al, 2015 ; Lacey and Kennett-Hensel, 2016 ; Liu et al, 2019 ; Chen and Lin, 2021 ), environmental sustainability development (e.g., Inoue and Kent, 2012 ; Trendafilova et al, 2013 ), program benefits or social impacts on stakeholders (e.g., Kihl et al, 2014b ; Walker et al, 2017 ; Riggin et al, 2019 ) and the determinants, pressures, or motives of CSR (e.g., Babiak and Wolfe, 2009 ; Babiak and Trendafilova, 2011 ). Regarding the benefits of CSR in professional football, the review literature has summarized the following nine outcomes of CSR: brand image, reputation, identification, new partners, new supporters, financial value, cultural value, human value, and reassurance (Fifka and Jaeger, 2020 ).…”