Search results

There has been limited research on why football clubs contribute to charity. This paper examines how football clubs and their charitable conduits report information when discussing their connectedness. In addition, it explores reasons why, and the extent to which, football clubs support altruism via such charitable vehicles.

Case studies of four major football teams (Manchester City/Manchester United in England and AC Milan/Inter Milan in Italy) are discussed, with formal reports of the clubs and their associated charitable conduits being analysed.

Boundaries between the clubs and their charitable conduits are frequently blurred. Evidence suggests that acknowledging the co-existence of different factors may help to understand what is reported by these organisations and address some of the caveats in terms of autonomy and probity of their activities and reporting practices.

The research uses case studies of four major ‘powerhouses’ of the game and their associated charitable spinoffs. While this is innovative and novel, expanding the research to investigate more clubs and their charitable endeavours would allow greater generalisations.

The study provides material that can be used to reflect on the very topical subject of ‘sportswashing’. This has the potential to input to deliberations relating to the future governance of the game.

The paper explores relationships between businesses and charities/nonprofits in a sector so far little investigated from a charitable accountability perspective. It suggests that motives for engaging in charitable activity and highlighting such engagement may extend beyond normal altruism or warm-glow emotions.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the efficacy of using a multi-paradigm perspective to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and strategic decision-making processes in the context of charitable foundations.

This paper integrates and synthesizes the micro-social processes of “assessable transcendence” (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2014) with Whittington’s (2001) perspectives on strategy. “Assessable transcendence” was achieved from the constant comparison of categories developed through an early iterative process in which data collection and analysis occurred during the same period. In all, 32 interviews were conducted among a sample of key managers in the charitable foundations for the first two divisions of English football.

The present study illustrates empirically that strategic decision making in charitable foundations does not “seat” neatly in any one of Whittington’s perspectives. On the contrary, this study indicates a great deal of overlap within these perspectives, and suggests that conflicting paradigms should be celebrated rather than viewed as signs of theoretical immaturity. Multi-paradigm approaches can potentially reveal insights into the “mechanics” of managerial decision making that are not easily discernible from a mono-paradigmatic perspective.

This is the first empirical work that examines CSR in relation to strategy within the context of the English football clubs’ charitable foundations, and does so by employing a multi-paradigm perspective on strategy formulation and implementation.

Corporate foundations – entities established to regularize corporate giving at an arm’s length removed from the firm – command substantial resources, root companies in the nonprofit sectors of their host communities, indirectly augment perceptions of corporate responsibility, and help firms to deflect controversies in an attentive global media environment. Despite these important roles, relatively little research has examined the institutional and strategic factors that influence such proximate charitable giving by firms. Using systematic data on foundations linked to S&P 3000 firms in the health sector – a growing domain in which public trust in high-stakes products and services is critical – fixed-effects models illustrate the primary role of network influences on giving: corporate foundations give substantially more in years following higher contributions by other (noncorporate) foundations in the health sector in a firm’s headquarters locality and also following increased contributions by industry peers through their corporate foundations. Giving also appears to reflect strategic reputational concerns, in that foundation contributions increase significantly following controversies associated with the corporate parent’s products and/or services. By contrast, giving tends to decline as the presence of outside directors on a firm’s board increases, as well as when firms carry heavier debt loads. Combined, these findings suggest that corporate foundations serve as a strategic proxy for the firm, reflecting both a company's position in community and interfirm networks while also mitigating the threat of reputational challenges.

This paper provides broad guidelines to start a non‐profit organization. Once the non‐profit organization has been legally incorporated, it is crucial that it applies for a tax exemption status. The application is time consuming but worth the effort. Obtaining the status of tax exemption places the organization in an advantageous position and increases its capacity to raise funds for its operations and charitable activities, since the contributions become tax deductible for the donors. A case study is presented in the second segment of this paper. In September 1997, businessman and philanthropist Ted Turner donated 1 billion dollars to the United Nations. The creation and operations of the UN Foundation, (501) (c)(3) established to disburse Turner's funds to the United Nations, are also covered in this research.

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the micro-macro divide by trying to integrate the micro-domain's focus on individuals (i.e. managers) with the meso-domain's and macro-domain's focus (i.e. leagues/football clubs and the socio-political environment, respectively). The examination takes place within the context of English football and in relation to the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The paper draws on data collected by 21 charitable foundation managers of the top two divisions of English football. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim from digital voice recorders and were analysed using grounded theory coding techniques.

The study found a paradoxical context in which foundation managers make strategic decisions in an endeavour to harmonise multiple environmental and institutional “recipes”. Managers are confident that they have the capability to do so, yet realise that this capability is the result of a heavy reliance on external and internal resources. These considerations come together to create the micro-context, here identified as a dysfunctional setting, in which managers are required to make the decisions that confirm their role as managers. Therefore, multiple, and often contradictory, theoretical perspectives are in play and explain the foundation managers’ role in the implementation process.

The paper moves away from mono-theoretical approaches that have been mainly used for the examination of CSR in the sporting context, and by placing its focus on the individual level of analysis illustrates the complexity of the CSR implementation process.

This paper aims to investigate the inverse U-shape relationship between DM and accessing loans from the banks and explore the moderating effect of donation mode diversity.

Based on a survey dataset of 1,036 private firms in China, we use a Heckman two-stage estimation model to test hypothesizes.

The results show an invert U-shape relationship between donation magnitude and access to bank loan. The authors also find that donation mode diversity will positively moderate donation magnitude–bank loan relationship: the positive effect of donation magnitude will be stronger for the private firms using multiple channels of philanthropic donation.

This paper extends the literatures by examining how philanthropic donation behaviors in form of donation magnitude (how much to give) and donation mode diversity (how to give) influence private firms’ loan borrowed from the bank, an important but largely ignored stakeholder. Therefore, it suggests that both the amount and the channels of philanthropic donation could have significant roles in the efficiency of achieving strategic outcomes of corporate philanthropy.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to analyse the diffusion of an innovative policy or service and the factors influencing it through an explorative study of the diffusion of the Bookstart program in Taiwan; and second, to provide an analytical framework for further study of this program.

The study is both empirical and theoretical. It uses data from existing studies and also agencies involved in Bookstart to explain the diffusion of the program. It then draws on theories of policy diffusion and the initial findings of this study to develop an analytical framework for the further study of the diffusion of the Bookstart program.

The Bookstart program, which is designed to promote reading habits for children 0 to 3 years old and to strengthen parent‐children relations, was originally initiated in the UK. It was first introduced into Taiwan in Taichung County in 2003. The paper shows how the program spread throughout Taiwan and indicates the role of the key players in the diffusion, including charitable institutions, local politicians and leaders, local authority agencies, and the Ministry of Education. The paper posits an analytical framework identifying factors which may help to promote or facilitate the diffusion. In this respect, the paper draws on the theoretical literature and also initial evidence from the research so far undertaken. This will guide the research in the next stage of the study.

This explorative study provides an example of the nature, process and direction of the diffusion of a policy or service innovation, and suggests the possible factors promoting or facilitating it, as identified in the initial findings of the research and in the relevant theoretical literature.

The purpose of this paper is to add to a better understanding of relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy. The authors argue that corporate philanthropy is exclusive to CSR because of their different characteristics.

This paper is based on a profound literature review and discusses the relationship of CSR and corporate philanthropy from a theoretical point of view. By conceptually combining the CSR pyramid and the triple bottom line approach, the authors show that corporate philanthropy has a special role outside of the classical CSR concept.

Four fundaments of corporate philanthropy – economic, motivational, creative and moral – are described that illustrate the importance and outstanding role of corporate philanthropy for today’s businesses. Based on these, the authors formulate three new forms of corporate giving, volunteering and foundations, which the authors subsume under the novel notion of “exclusive corporate philanthropy”.

The main contribution of this paper for future research is to regard corporate philanthropy as exclusive to CSR. Future studies might, therefore, consider the different characteristics of corporate philanthropy and engage in an empirical investigation of this new type.

The model of exclusive corporate philanthropy presented in this paper provides practitioners with a better understanding of how corporate philanthropy can be rolled out today.

This paper offers a new perspective on the relationship of CSR and corporate philanthropy. Based on the economic, motivational, creative and moral characteristics of corporate philanthropy, the authors establish a clear distinction between the two concepts.

Neoliberal urban regimes focus on redeveloping downtowns to compete for economic development. Chattanooga has been lauded by urban development organizations such as Brookings and the Urban Institute for its public-private partnership model dubbed the Chattanooga Way. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors use social network analysis to analyze elites highly involved in local economic development, education policy and social entrepreneurship in Chattanooga, TN.

The results suggest a strong group of nonelected local elites dominate policymaking in policy arenas traditionally reserved for elected elites. The overlap between elites who shape local policy and elites who fiscally benefit from local policies raises troubling questions for local democracy, public accountability and transparency.

This analysis is valuable to public policy scholars who are interested in analyzing neoliberal coalitions and their impact on local development initiatives.