The effect of corporate social responsiblity activities of sport clubs on club and brand image

Impact of corporate social responsibility activities (CSR) of the sports clubs on image of the club and brand image which bear the name of the club were delivered in this study. Moreover some suggestions were given to Turkish sports clubs for CSR. Sample of the study was consisted of the spectators who support a sports club which has the name of a company serving in food industry, situated in the Beko Basketball League and participated this team's match in April 4, 2015 (n=178). Descriptive analyses such as percentages and frequencies were used for the analysis of data which were collected by using structured survey in advance. Then, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were employed. Correlation between latent and observed variables, and hypotheses of the study were analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling which is a multivariate statistics method. Relationships between CSR and club image, CSR and brand image, club image and brand image were checked for testing hypotheses of the study first. 30 variables of the study model which were determined as statistically convenient including economical, legal, ethics, philanthropy, club image and brand image were tested in one model afterwards. Hence, cause and effect relationships, degrees of relationships between variables, and mediation effect of club image were examined. According to findings of individually tested variables, philanthropic responsibility has effects on club and brand image, and club image has an effect on brand image. Then, findings of model analysis which contains all of the study variables demonstrated that among sub-dimensions of CSR, only philanthropic responsibility has a direct effect on club image, indirect effect on brand image and club image has importance on brand image. Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility, Club Image, Brand Image, Sport Club