The sport entertainment industry and corporate social responsibility
Jens Blumrodt
ESC Rennes School of Business, Université Rennes 2
Michel Desbordes
ISC School of management
Dominique Bodin
Université Rennes
PP: 514 - 529
Abstract
Research that has evaluated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in relation to brand perceptions within the sport entertainment industry is rare. The overall objective of this research was to investigate CSR actions in the professional European football league and its impact on clubs' brand image. This paper provides a definition of the meaning of CSR for this particular sector. This conceptualization of CSR has then been applied to League 1 football in France, the highest level of professional soccer. This original approach has been combined with sport spectators brand perception theories. This allowed us to evaluate the consumers' perceptions of the clubs' brand. With this double approach, we conducted our study and made evident why the professional sport entertainment industry requires a specific CSR management strategy which goes beyond the local level or the operational level of one unique club.
Keywords
Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, strategy, brand image, sport entertainment, soccer, sport industry
Article Text
The sport entertainment industry has, as its highly renowned flagship, football, also known as soccer. The world's richest and most famous football clubs are found in Europe. Despite international level sport being recognized as a powerful symbolic ambassador of humanitarian values, this industry is also synonymous with big business. The clubs play with mercenaries who are valued in the millions. According to the Deloitte report, a club like Chelsea spends 168 million Euros on salaries for its personnel - yet this corporation, in terms of its number of employees (160), is considered to be a 'small' business (Deloitte 2008). Chelsea has posted a negative financial result, and its accounts, combined with those of Manchester United, show debts of more than 1.9 billion Euros.
No traditional business could survive this kind of management. The present financial and economic crisis can only exacerbate the negative effects on stock exchange listed clubs (Roger & Gerard 2008). Millionaires such as Roman Abramovitch are responsible for paying the remaining debt. Michel Platini, President of the UEFA, sounded the alarm when faced with these facts and stated: "The goal is no longer to win titles, but to gain money back to reimburse the debts." Concerning the Champions League, it is even starker: "Today it's those who cheat who win" (L'Equipe 2008).
In most industrial sectors, the influences of consumers' perceptions of corporate social responsibility have seen a considerable impact on corporate image. Media exposure has given a high degree of notoriety to football clubs and a good reputation and a positive perceived brand image have increasingly become key issues for these businesses. The critics of the sport industry aim at the certain actors as well as at the various and multiple sponsors. Their primary concern is the marketing strategies employed, but they are equally concerned with the objectives of the business of sport entertainment (cf. Katz-Bénichou, 2004, Tribou & Augé 2006). Sport, in particular football, has not been spared from scandals such as fraud (Jessel & Mendelewitsch 2007). It is perceived that judicial punishment remains lenient and spectators seem to forgive the sport entertainment industry for its unscrupulous behaviour. Fans seem to differentiate between the intrinsic values of sport and those which have been practiced by the industry itself (Bourg & Gouguet 2007).
However, recent studies have demonstrated that values linked to sport in general and to professional sport in particular have become more and more synonymous with cheating, and professional sport has become enmeshed in a perceived overall negative image (CSA 2002). These findings make evident that the management of professional clubs does not actually practice the basic principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (cf. Carroll 1979). Yet, football remains the most popular sport entertainment activity in Europe, with a high potential for future development (Sport+Markt 2007; Sportfive 2007). Paradoxically, management within the industry seemingly continues to largely ignore CSR issues.
The potential for engagement of sport clubs into CSR areas might be observed on various levels, including environmental issues, legal aspects, social engagement and other business relevant concerns. From this broad framework, we formulated the objectives of our research: to investigate the degree to which CSR issues have entered into clubs' strategies and if CSR activities are perceived by the public. These objectives consist of understanding CSR from an overall viewpoint in this specific industry. Our research question was: Do specific factors exist in the spectators' collective consciousnesses that are related to CSR?
In order to elucidate the answers to these research questions, we will first take a brief look at the brand image and CSR theories (section 2). The methodology section of this study exposes how the perceptions of the public were measured based in the context of two case studies in the French context (section 3). The results obtained (sections 4) are discussed (section 5); this allows us to sketch an outline of our findings and provide recommendations in terms of CSR strategy in the sport entertainment industry (section 6).
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