Professional Team Sports Organizations’ Corporate Social Responsibility Activities: Corporate Image and Chosen Communication Outlets’ Influence on Consumers’ Reactions

Abstract

As professional sport teams’ involvement with corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are prevalent and expected by the public, there has been more attention on the factors that can influence consumers’ reactions to CSR activities. This study investigated the influence of two factors—corporate image and organization choice of communication vehicle—on individuals’ responses, perceived motive, and change of attitude to a professional team sports organization’s CSR activities. A total of 225 usable surveys were collected from a university located in the southern region of the United States for data analyses. The study showed that corporate image had a main effect on perceived motives, Munfavorable = 5.07, Mfavorable = 5.60, F(1, 216) = 6.38, p < .05, , and attitudes, Munfavorable = 4.64, Mfavorable = 5.49; F(1, 216) = 18.34, p < .05, , toward the team due to CSR activities, while there was no main effect for the professional team sports organization’s chosen communication vehicle, F(2, 217) = 1.09, p > .05, for their CSR activities. The importance of building good corporate image and communicating CSR activities to the fan base are also discussed.