The CSR of football teams and its impact on the intention to purchase sponsors' products: a cross-cultural study

Purpose This investigation aims to determine how football teams' corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities influence fan connection, including self-expression, identification, reputation and affective image, and how these factors affect fans' intentions to purchase sponsors' products. Additionally, this study explores the potential moderating effects of country, age, gender and team loyalty. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was administered to 220 Colombian and 200 Spanish football fans. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling with the AMOS software. Findings The direct effect of team CSR on sponsor purchase intention was not significant, whereas the indirect effect through self-expression, team identification, team reputation and affective image was positive and significant. Country (Colombia vs Spain), age and gender did not moderate these relationships. Team loyalty did, but not by increasing the size of the effect: among highly loyal fans CSR reached sponsor patronage through the fan–team connection mediators, whereas among less loyal fans it operated directly. Loyalty therefore changes the route through which CSR reaches sponsor patronage rather than the total magnitude of its effect. Originality/value This study contributes to the sports marketing and CSR literature by testing a four-mediator model in a cross-cultural context and by identifying loyalty as a switch between relational and transactional processing of CSR signals. Because the two markets compared are culturally proximate, the observed stability should be understood as robustness within the Hispanic cultural sphere rather than as cultural universality. The study offers implications for teams and sponsors seeking to design communication strategies that optimise the return on CSR investment.