CSR in Swedish football A multiple case study of four clubs in Allsvenskan By: Lina Nilsson 2018-10-09 Supervisors: Marcus Box, Lars Vigerland and Erik Borg Södertörn University | School of Social Sciences Master Thesis 30 Credits Business Administration | Spring term 2018 ABSTRACT The question of companies’ social responsibility taking, called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), has been widely debated in research since the 1900s. However, the research connecting CSR to sport was not started until the beginning of the 2000s, meaning that there are still many gaps in sport research that has to be filled. One such gap is research on CSR in a Swedish football context. Accordingly, the purpose of the study was firstly to examine how and why Swedish football clubs – organised as non-profit associations or sports corporations – work with CSR, and secondly whether or not there was a difference in the CSR work of the two organisational forms. A multiple case study of four clubs in Allsvenskan was carried out, examining the CSR work – meaning the CSR concept and activities, the motives for engaging in CSR and the role of the stakeholders – in detail. In addition, the CSR actions of all clubs of Allsvenskan were briefly investigated. The findings of the study showed that the four clubs of the multiple case study had focused their CSR concepts in different directions and performed different activities. As a consequence, they had developed different competences and competitive advantages. Furthermore, the findings suggested that the motives for engaging in CSR were a social agenda, pressure from stakeholders and financial motives. For the two clubs organised as sports corporations, the financial motives were of greater importance than for the non-profit associations, who instead highlighted the social motives. Accordingly, the study has helped filling the gaps in the research field, by expanding the knowledge about CSR in a Swedish football context. Sport managers might use this study for gaining more knowledge about football related CSR and also for receiving inspiration for future CSR actions. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSR in sport, Allsvenskan, organisational form I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First, I wish to thank for all the support that I have received throughout this process – especially to my opponents for invaluable feedback and Christian Widholm for advice and guidance. My dearest thank you to AIK, DIF, IFK Göteborg and Malmö FF for letting me see new beautiful sides of your clubs. Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends for unconditional love and support, it would not have been possible without you. Lina Nilsson Stockholm, October 2018 II Table of contents 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 PROBLEM BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................ 3 1.1.1 CSR in a Swedish context .................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1.2 The Swedish sports movement ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................................. 6 1.3 PURPOSE ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................................................ 9 1.5 DELIMITATIONS ......................................................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 DISPOSITION ................................................................................................................................................................ 9 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................ 10 2.1 DEFINITION OF CSR .............................................................................................................................................. 10 2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................................ 11 2.2.1 CSR in a historical perspective .................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2 CSR in a sports context ................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3 THEORY ..................................................................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Triple Bottom Line ........................................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.2 Stakeholder theory ........................................................................................................................................... 20 2.4 THEORETICAL SYNTHESIS ................................................................................................................................... 23 3. METHOD ................................................................................................................................................... 25 3.1 RESEARCH METHOD .............................................................................................................................................. 25 3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH .......................................................................................................................................... 26 3.3 RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................................................................. 26 3.4 SAMPLE SELECTION PROCESS ............................................................................................................................. 27 3.4.1 Selection of clubs ............................................................................................................................................... 29 3.5 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................................ 31 3.5.1 Interview guideline .......................................................................................................................................... 31 3.5.2 Interviews ............................................................................................................................................................ 32 3.5.3 Study of documents .......................................................................................................................................... 34 3.6 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................................... 35 3.7 TRUSTWORTHINESS ............................................................................................................................................... 36 3.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................................................................. 37 3.9 LIMITATIONS ........................................................................................................................................................... 38 4. DATA ........................................................................................................................................................... 39 4.1 ALLSVENSKAN 2018 ............................................................................................................................................. 39 4.2 AIK ............................................................................................................................................................................. 44 4.2.1 Club description ................................................................................................................................................ 44 4.2.2 CSR concept and activities ............................................................................................................................ 44 4.2.3 Motives .................................................................................................................................................................. 48 4.2.4 Stakeholders ....................................................................................................................................................... 49 4.2.5 CSR development .............................................................................................................................................. 52 4.3 DJURGÅRDENS IF .................................................................................................................................................. 54 4.3.1 Club description