Pro Sports Applying New Strategies to Enhance Image
Contact: John Mahon, (207) 581-1968
ORONO — Professional sports franchises and teams are increasingly taking a page from the business community’s playbook and winning in the image game, according to two business management researchers at Boston College and the University of Maine.
In the last decade, corporations worldwide have used Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity as a business strategy, shifting from a shareholder to stakeholder mindset, embracing social responsibility and volunteerism, and establishing codes of ethics and “do-good” norms.
So too have professional sports franchises, all in an effort to improve their image in light of public relations issues — from steroid use to player misconduct off the field and court.
However, the position of athletics in today’s culture provides sports organizations with unique features — from youth appeal and mass media attention to positive health benefits — that enable them to employ CSR more effectively than traditional corporations, according to Richard McGowan of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and John Mahon of the Maine Business School.
“Fans often view professional athletes and owners as being extremely wealthy and are disconnected from them on many levels. Using CSR can help bridge the widening gap between players and fans,” according to McGowan and Mahon in a research paper cited last fall for outstanding achievement by the Academy of Business Disciplines.
The researchers studied 92 teams in the National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball from 2005-07 to identify the primary factors that influence a sports franchise’s CSR involvement. Their analysis looked at individual teams’ charitable foundations, as well as league-wide initiatives, to quantitatively measure revenues, grants distributed and net assets.
“The better the NBA can influence the way fans view their players, the more successful the league will be,” according to McGowan and Mahon.
Additional details from the research are included in a Spring 2010UMaine Today magazine article.