Date of Award
8-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
Committee Chair/Advisor
Skye G. Arthur-Banning
Committee Member
William Norman
Committee Member
Ryan J. Gagnon
Committee Member
Michael Giebelhausen
Abstract
Within corporate social responsibility (CSR) research, there has been significant evidence of the positive impacts that CSR could bring to businesses. However, few studies, especially in the context of sport, have focused on how CSR benefits an actual social cause. Therefore, through a three-article format, the overall purpose of the dissertation is to examine how a professional sport team could use its CSR as a social marketing strategy to increase its fans’ willingness to participate in the team’s CSR program in contributing to a specific social cause. Specifically, Article 1 assesses whether CSR participation intention significantly differs among fans with varying psychological connection levels to a sport team. Article 2 examines how fans’ trust in a sport team increases their CSR participation intention, especially among fans with a low psychological connection to a sport team. Lastly, Article 3 investigates how fans’ perceived CSR authenticity plays a significant role in the overall study findings. The study findings: (a) demonstrate that fans are more likely to participate in a sport team’s CSR program when they are aware of the philanthropic activity engaged by the team and that CSR participation intention was higher for fans more loyal to the team, (b) provide evidence that enhancing fans’ trust in the team helps increase CSR participation intention, especially among those having a lower psychological connection to the sport team, and (c) emphasize the importance of authenticity within a sport team’s CSR initiative, where fans develop trust in the team to a similar extent for all fan groups, thus, increasing the likelihood for fans to participate in the team’s CSR program.
Recommended Citation
Oh, Young Suk, "The Influence of a Professional Sport Team’s Philanthropic Initiative on Fans’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Participation Intention" (2022). All Dissertations. 3150.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3150