Corporate Social Responsibility and Football Clubs: The Value of Environmental Sustainability as a Basis for the Rebranding of Real Betis Balompié in Spain

Abstract

On October 2020, Real Betis Balompié, a football club located in Seville (Andalucia), presented the Forever Green programme, a global programme of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that, through the club’s foundation, enables the entity to position itself in areas of sustainable development and environment at a global level. This project was preceded by a sponsorship initiative with the Green Earth project, as well as having been the first football club to sign the United Nations’ Climate Change Now initiative. This article aims to explain the rebranding process of a sports brand based on values linked to sustainability and to assess the impact this rebranding process has had on the fans’ perception of the brand. The methodology used was a combination of in-depth interviews with the executives charged with leading the rebranding process and a convenience survey given to 100 fans to assess the impact of the initiative. The results show that both the entity and the fans agree on a holistic vision of what the CSR is, altruistic in nature, and that its initiatives should be applicable across the entire organisation. However, although the club’s link with values of the environment and sustainability is highly valued by the fans, they still do not feel directly called upon to take part in actions that the club organises.

Soccer’s AI transformation: deep learning’s analysis of soccer’s pandemic research evolution

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, fan-focused sociological research topics expanded compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. Indeed, the establishment of club-fan relationships and identities conveyed to fans through social activities and promotions, online interactions, community club activities, etc., can be studied, and such studies can be characterized as sociological research toward the ultimate goal of a viable and successful business approach that includes the branding of football clubs (Calabuig et al, 2021;Mora et al, 2021;Weber et al, 2022;Brand et al, 2023;Fenton et al, 2023). In fact, Calloway et al (2019) and Radmann and Karlen (2022) reported that the most important aspect to consider in a catastrophic crisis such as lockdowns and reduced league operations due to COVID-19 is the relationship with fans.…”

Stakeholder governance and sustainability in football: A bibliometric analysis

“…CSR emerged as a concept in the late 1970s and has since gained prominence in the research agenda of football [ 35 , 36 ]. More recently, the focus has shifted towards integrating CSR with environmental and sustainable development aspects [ 16 ]. In the business field, CSR has long been closely associated with sustainability [ 37 ], and while the two concepts are interconnected, they are not necessarily interchangeable [ 38 ].…”

“…While there have been numerous research studies focusing on topics related to CSR in football [ [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] ], sustainability in sporting events [ 10 , 18 , 19 ], and environmental sustainability in football [ 16 , 20 , 21 ], it is worth noting that there is a scarcity of literature reviews and bibliometric studies that comprehensively explore the intersection of sustainability and stakeholder governance in football. Few studies specifically examine the combined aspects of sustainability and governance in relation to the key stakeholders in football.…”

Generación de Engagement en los Estudiantes a través de Elementos Estratégicos de Rebranding en el Instituto Tecnológico Universitario EuroAmericano

“…Esto implica evaluar y perfeccionar lo que hace única y atractiva a la institución para los estudiantes y otras partes interesadas. Para lograrlo, es posible redefinir los programas académicos, enfocarse en las fortalezas particulares de la institución y mejorar la experiencia estudiantil en diversos aspectos (Lobillo et al, 2021). Esta revisión exhaustiva permite destacar los atributos que marcan la diferencia y crear una propuesta de valor sólida y convincente.…”