Instagram has become an increasingly popular tool for sport organisations to share visual content. This study aims to examine how professional team sport organisations use Instagram for branding pu...

Professional team sports organizations (PTSOs) are highly influential in our society. They can both positively and negatively shape the public discourse around responsible norms of behavior. The purpose of this article is to describe and critically review the literature on PTSOs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) to develop a comprehensive understanding of current and future research directions in the field. Our analysis reviewed articles on CSR within PTSOs and identified publication year; geographical dispersion; journal type; sports contexts; social issues investigated; research approaches and methods; and how CSR was conceptualized, defined, and theoretically supported. The findings indicate that CSR within PTSOs has primarily been investigated in community programs, using qualitative research methods and pragmatically conceptualizing CSR on the basis of return on investments to the organization in European and North American contexts. Our discussion provides a critical review of the literature before outlining avenues for future research and practice.

Research question: Although the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) may require changes at the strategic, organisational, and operational levels, studies fall short of investigating the role of organisational learning (OL), which is key to grasp how CSR occurs in organisations. This study fills this gap by exploring the dynamic interaction between different levels of the learning process through which sport organisations implement CSR. Research methods: Drawing on Crossan et al.’s 4I Framework, we examine the learning sub-processes characterising CSR implementation in a sport federation. This study uses a single-case-study research design and analyses interviews (n = 18) and organisational documents (n = 20). Results and Findings: This study reveals that OL for CSR is a critical multilevel and dynamic process that consists of learning subprocesses at the intra-organisational and inter-organisational levels. CSR requires both learning new ways of incorporating CSR practices, as well as embedding into the organisation what has already been learnt. Informal and formal groups were identified as strong repositories of learning, while external stakeholders are essential sources of learning intertwined within the organisation alongside the work of inter-organisational boundary spanners. Implications: Theoretically, this paper extends the discussion of CSR implementation by highlighting the critical role of. It does so by revealing patterns of learning institutionalisation for CSR in a particular European sport federated setting. These findings highlight that the level of institutionalisation of learning influences the integration and sustainability of the CSR strategy. Practically, managers should consider these learning subprocesses as appropriate platforms on which to instil the CSR construct within their organisation.

Research question: Understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation requires identifying factors that contribute to the ability of a sport organisation to develop CSR. This paper examines the complex combination of organisational factors associated with CSR implementation in a sport federation (SF) setting. Thus, this study identifies organisational factors of professionalisation for CSR implementation and different configurations associated with CSR implementation. Research methods: The study adopted a comparative approach combining a survey, interviews, and organisational documents in a sample of 19 Belgian SFs. A crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) was carried out to identify the combination of organisational factors associated with CSR implementation. Results and Findings: This study identifies four configurations associated with high CSR implementation and three configurations with low CSR implementation. Innovation capacity is a necessary organisational factor for CSR implementation that should be combined with financial autonomy, knowledge and human resources. The study reveals that organisational size is not a key condition associated with CSR implementation. The latter does not necessarily require a significant number of professional staff as long as the organisation is innovative and financially autonomous. Implications: This study contributes to the emergent research in the sport management literature and CSR literature on factors shaping CSR implementation by highlighting that it requires a combination of key organisational factors. The multiple configurations that emerged reveal the complex nature of CSR implementation, and reinforce the view that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to implement CSR.

While sport entrepreneurs are known for being risk-takers and for being proactive when implementing new ideas, little is known about individuals’ attitudes within non-profit sport organisations. The present study draws on policy implementation and innovation theories to address this gap by investigating staff attitudes toward newness and its impact on innovativeness and change. An online survey was administered to representatives of regional sport federations in Belgium (n=101; 70 per cent response rate) in order to measure their attitude toward newness, the number of service innovation successfully implemented, and the levels of innovativeness and organisational change perceived. On average, sport federation staff show a positive attitude toward newness, which supports the implementation of service innovation. The number of service innovations and perceptions of innovativeness both have significant indirect effects on organisational change as perceived by individuals within sport federations. Managerial and policy implications are provided with regard to the need to develop positive attitude toward newness within non-profit sport organisations in order to foster innovation

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of social media in brand associations, particularly in regard to soccer fan clubs. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a professional English Premier League soccer team to investigate the effects that social media interaction had on brand associations of the team’s fan clubs in two national contexts – England and Greece. Findings: In total, 207 online questionnaires from six fan clubs were collected and analyzed using descriptive and inferential (t-tests and χ² tests) statistics. Originality/value: The results revealed similarities on Facebook in terms of positive receptions of brand attributes and resonance of perceived brand benefits, while significant differences were observed on Twitter, particularly in terms of brand benefits.