Corporate Social Responsibility in Digitally Transformed Sports Ecosystems: How Empathy and Attitude Shape Sports Content Platform Usage

As sports content platforms increasingly occupy a central role in consumers’ media consumption and fitness-related activities, understanding the factors that encourage sustained user engagement has become an important research concern. Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been widely recognized as a strategic tool for enhancing consumer perceptions and organizational reputation, prior research has focused primarily on traditional sports organizations and general commercial settings, with limited attention given to its influence within digitally mediated sports content platform environments. Therefore, this study investigates the relationships among CSR, empathy, attitude, and usage intention in the context of sports content platforms. Data were collected in Republic of Korea from 225 university students who regularly use sports content platforms. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed conceptual framework. The findings reveal that CSR positively influences empathy and attitude, while empathy positively influences attitude. In addition, attitude is positively associated with usage intention. However, CSR does not directly influence usage intention, and empathy does not exhibit a direct relationship with usage intention. These results suggest that users’ continued engagement with sports content platforms is shaped more by evaluative attitudes than by direct emotional responses or perceptions of social responsibility alone. The study contributes to the literature by extending CSR research beyond traditional sports organizations into digitally transformed sports content platform environments and by identifying the psychological mechanisms through which CSR shapes user behavior in digital sports media environments. It also offers practical guidance for platform operators seeking to strengthen long-term user relationships through socially responsible initiatives.