Yoseph Z. Mamo and Christos Anagnostopoulos
Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has mainly revolved around the “usual target” (that is, fans and consumers) that invest money, time and energy in…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) research has mainly revolved around the “usual target” (that is, fans and consumers) that invest money, time and energy in supporting their teams in isolation while largely ignoring individual members of the public. Building on social exchange theory and social media analytics, the authors examine the social outcomes of CSR aggregated from individual members of society's perceived benefits (intangible and psychological).
Design/methodology/approach
Raw data were drawn from the CSR-focused Twitter accounts of six professional leagues (i.e. @nbacares, @nflplay60, @InspireChange, @thewnbpa, @Pr_nhl, @Mlsworks and @Mlbsocial). The authors collected historical data from each CSR-focused Twitter account (N = 136,076) from March 2010 to September 2022.
Findings
After conducting sentiment analysis of public perceptions, the majority of tweets (53%) were neutral, 39% were positive and 8% were negative. All CSR-related accounts received more positive tweets about their initiatives than negative ones did. The most prevalent positive topics are supporting the community, education, youth wellness and health and inspiring the young generation. The most prevalent negative topics were related to fake, hypocrite, hate and social justice.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the CSR-sport literature by incorporating members of the general public into the stakeholder ecosystem and empirically examining their perceptions of sport organizations' CSR activities. Also, by drawing on the social exchange theory and the unique nature of social media, the authors highlight when and how the public expresses positive, neutral and negative perceptions over time. Finally, it joins a small but growing body of research that adopts the application of big data to sport management, and it measures the sentiment, frequency, distribution and topics of tweets, thereby determining positive and negative public perceptions.
Details
Keywords
Yoseph Mamo, Yiran Su and Damon P.S. Andrew
As big data (BD) has increasingly become an important tool for managers and researchers to transform sport management practices, the purpose of this research is to highlight…
Abstract
Purpose
As big data (BD) has increasingly become an important tool for managers and researchers to transform sport management practices, the purpose of this research is to highlight diverse data sources and modern analytical techniques that will leverage BD as a means to advance scholarship in sport management.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive review of existing BD literature in sport management outlines new perspectives on BD research method and the application of BD in sport management.
Findings
First, through a thorough review of the literature, a domain-specific conceptualization that incorporates the field's mission and priorities was developed. Second, potential data sources and different types of analytical opportunities was identified, highlighting strategies for developing methodological approaches that leads to novel research questions. BD analytics can allow for more flexibility in improving methodological capability to analyze data and, thus, provide more granular and predictive insights. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion of BD's impact on three domains of sport management, whereby the organizations yield data-driven decisions.
Originality/value
BD has the potential to transform the sport management operations and bridges the research-practice gap. BD research in sport management is instrumental for accumulating new knowledge and/or testing existing theories, either in a deductive fashion or by taking an inductive approach, as the field embarks to advance scholarship.