CSR-Score Card

Based on Jean-Michel Aulas, the last president of the G-14, call for a “need to improve our measurement and evaluation of our social and community investments” (G-14, 2008, p. 5) this research project aims to identify football club’s benefits of CSR activities and how they can be measured. In a second step, the CSR activities are intended to be implemented in the existing controlling software of the football club SV Werder Bremen.

Semi structured interviews with the football club’s management board were conducted and evaluated. Further, key issues identified by Hovemann et al. (2009) were tested in an online survey by the CSR managers of the Bundesliga clubs (n=17). Besides gathering secondary data from the football club SV Werder Bremen, the researchers conducted an anonymous, standardized online survey among fans (n=1,625), club members (n=760), participants in the club’s social projects (n=315), partners (n=163), and employees (n=57).

The research results show that regarding strategic CSR measurement, the CSR Performance Scorecard reveals both slight effects, as well as clear potentials for improving the social involvement of a professional sports club. It provides evidence that the football club benefits from increased membership, increased brand loyalty and greater volunteer commitment from club members and supporters. Introducing the CSRPS into the CSR management of the German Bundesliga club SV Werder Bremen resulted in a more strategic approach to CSR.