Social sponsorships in sport: context and potential

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that social sponsorship plays in the context of the Scottish football industry with a specific focus on identifying the potential for further growth in this area. Using a qualitative approach, personal in-depth interviews were conducted with Scottish football club executives, the Scottish football governing body, existing sponsors and a sports sponsorship agency. The findings indicated that Corporate Social Responsibility in Scottish football was mostly community-based. In the context of social sponsorships the results highlighted that expansion in this specific area of sports sponsorship is possible going forward. The respondents generally were positive about the benefit associated with social sponsorships such as keeping commercial assets for monetisation, maintaining a strong presence in the community with relatively low risk. Positive perceptions within the community can help the industry to offset many of the negative views expressed by fans about the sport.