How Community Awareness Impacts Purchase Intentions

Running head: COMMUNITY AWARENESS IMPACT ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS 1
UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO
SPORT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
DOES AWARENESS OF COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON
PURCHASE INTENTIONS
Running head: COMMUNITY AWARENESS IMPACT ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS
BY
JUSTINE M DUTTON
TRAVIS D GORSCH
COLIN A GRAHAM
GREGOR A LUMSDEN
SM 605
Summer 2015

COMMUNITY AWARENESS IMPACT ON PURCHASE INTENTIONS 2
Abstract
This paper aimed to understand fans’ knowledge, through surveys, of their team's
community involvement and whether increased awareness could lead to increased purchase
intentions. Of the 191 fans surveyed 151 stated they would be willing to spend more money on
licensed merchandise if that money was to be invested into their community. This is important
because professional organizations can effectively increase their support and involvement for
local community programs, through targeted marketing campaigns to fans.
Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, Cause related marketing, Gender, Awareness,
Purchase intentions, Fan behavior.

Introduction
There have been several studies that have identified the importance of corporate social
responsibility (Godfrey, 2009; Sheth & Babiak, 2010; Ullmann, 1985) for any business. This is
not an exception for sport; sport possesses the power to enact social change. For this reason it is
important to understand a fan's knowledge of their team's community involvement. Walker &
Kent (2009) found that greater involvement produces positive effects; but what happens if these
efforts go unnoticed? Would greater awareness lead fans to want to do more to help create a
difference within their community, through a team they really care about? Of the preexisting
literature on corporate social responsibility and cause related marketing, no previous studies had
found answers to these questions.
Previous research in this area has also failed to identify the most effective method of
communicating with fans about a team or organization's involvement within the community.
There are many different options available and it was hoped to identify the most effective
method to increase awareness of the good work being conducted locally. An organization could
capitalize on increased awareness to further enhance their community. This research represents
an individual, major professional sports team, and an investigation of fans’ awareness of their
team’s community involvement. This study will hopefully allow other professional sports teams
to maximize the awareness of their involvement within their community.

Literature Review
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been defined by Ullmann (1985) as “the extent
to which an organization meets the needs, expectations, and demands of certain external
constituencies beyond those directly linked to the company’s products/markets” (p. 543). This
definition identifies that CSR goes beyond the scope of the organization and helps to improve the
appeal and recognition within their local market. CSR was originally grounded in good business
practice and has since been applied to sport to help increase the popularity of sports
organizations and franchises, promoting their appeal not just for their sporting performances but
for their work within their local community (Godfrey, 2009). The basis for doing good to create
a positive impact is the philanthropic basis of CSR identified by Sheth & Babiak (2010).
However, it is possible for an organization to tarnish the work of its CSR programs through over-
advertising and over-promoting their philanthropic work; this may cause negative implications
about how the organization's CSR is viewed within society.
The practice of being heavily involved in CSR has been found to impact fans’ perception
in a positive manner (Walker & Kent, 2009). This may prove to be an important consideration
for most sports teams and organizations when deciding the amount of time, effort and resources
to allocate for their CSR programs. Through this research we hope to find that this positive
perception fans hold will lead them to increasing their purchase intentions. It was found by Sheth
& Babiak (2010) that winning teams did not need to invest as heavily into their CSR programs.
This may be the result of increased positivity towards an organization or due to increased media
coverage surrounding the organization. This finding also suggests that it may be more beneficial
for losing teams or teams with a losing record the previous year to allocate more resources to

their CSR programs to help improve the organization's perception, especially within their local
market.
In addition, sports teams have the ability to access parts of any community that may not
be met by other CSR programs (Levermore, 2010), for this reason it is vital that sports teams
continue to expand and develop their programs. The continued growth of sport CSR programs
through sport ensures that sport can continue to break down barriers within society. Educational
programs, environmental protection, drug prevention, disaster relief, and domestic violence are
just a few of many areas CSR programs can focus on.
Cause related marketing (CRM) is heavily tied to the notion of CSR. These are linked
through their ability to enact social change. However, where CSR has its philanthropic ties,
CRM is about business promotion as well as being seen to be doing good (Varadarajan &
Menon, 1988). If companies are going to devote resources that could be used in the production of
revenue, they would most like to see some reward from their investment. CRM allows for an
organization, sports team or individual to publicize the good work that they are involved in
within local, national or international communities.
It can be advantageous to use CRM as a “strategic objective” because it can help change
or enhance public opinion of a given entity (Roy & Graeff, 2003, p. 163). Through utilizing
CRM a company procures a competitive advantage by offering to donate a given amount of
money to a non-profit organization for every unit sold. A good example is Yoplait, which offered
a “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign (Roy & Graeff, 2003; Nan & Heo, 2007) where the
company donates 10 cents for every saved lid. Campaigns such as this can be very effective at
drawing public attention to a social issue that requires intervention while at the same time helps
to increase corporate revenue.

Research conducted by Roy & Graeff (2003) found that 59% of their sample was more
likely to invest in a team and purchase a ticket or merchandise, if the proceeds were going to a
charitable cause. This research highlights that there could be major benefits for sport
organizations to maximize revenue if they are able to effectively utilize CRM to benefit their
prosocial causes as well as improving their fan support.
Gender has been found to impact purchase intentions (Chiu, Lin, & Tang, 2005; Van der
Heijden, Verhagen, & Creemers, 2003) and attitude towards CSR (Brammer, Millington, &
Rayton, 2007; Grosser & Moon, 2005). Males and females have been found to have differing
opinions regarding corporate citizenship, “men place more emphasis on economic issues, while
women place more emphasis on an organization’s discretionary behavior” (Peterson, 2004,
p.304). These differing viewpoints can have implications on their CSR activities and
involvement, within their own company. This may lead to differing views with regards to their
personal support of CSR activities within their local community. With the females holding
discretionary view, they are more likely to invest in causes or programs which they feel more
invested in. In contrast with males holding an economic standpoint they are less likely to support
causes they see as having lots of pre-existing support.
Low-fit and profit-motivated initiatives have been found to reflect negatively on
consumer’s beliefs, attitudes, and intentions (Becker-Olsen, Cudmore, & Hill, 2006). This
research shows that it is critical to understand how to deliver the message in order to shape
consumers’ perceptions. To be able to achieve this objective an organization must find what is
important to their constituents to align themselves with those particular causes. This is reaffirmed
by the resource dependence theory, which states a firm’s responsiveness is dependent on the

demands of their constituents (Babiak & Wolfe, 2009). This will lead constituents to form beliefs
that the organization is not profit-motivated but rather philanthropically motivated.
There are several ways in which research has assessed consumer attitude, using methods
including evaluating loyalty (Biscaia, Correia, Rosado, Ross, & Maroco, 2013: Maxham, 2001),
awareness (Biscaia et al., 2013) or purchase intentions (Nassis, Theodorakis, Afthinos, &
Kolybalis, 2014; Smith, Graetz, & Westerbeek, 2008). An attitude is formed based on personal
opinions, these opinions can be fact or fiction and will influence behavior (Ahn, Suh, Lee, &
Pedersen, 2013). Having a positive or negative attitude towards any given product can affect the
way consumers perceive products as well as the organizations that produce them.
A fan is considered to be loyal to a team or organization if they display the two key
components, which are attitudinal and behavioral intentions (Biscaia et al., 2013). A fan’s
attitude suggests that they possess a strong positive opinion of their chosen organization. In
addition to their attitude, behavioral intentions aim to support the organization, through
purchasing merchandise, tickets or concessions, which in the opinion of the fan helps their team.
The level of awareness that an individual has of a sponsor's involvement with a team or
organization can be measured to test sponsorship effectiveness (Biscaia et al., 2013), the more
aware an individual is of a sponsor the more effective the sponsorship has been. This can be
adapted to CSR, in that the level of awareness of a team or organization's CSR involvement
determines the effectiveness of the programs. If individuals are unaware of the activities going
on they may miss out on opportunities to support their team and a cause they feel strongly about.
Purchase intentions have been conceptually identified by Spears & Singh (2004) as a
“personal action tendencies relating to [investing in] the brand” (p. 57). This definition highlights
the importance of making a personal investment when deciding to purchase a brand. The

purchase intentions of consumers have been utilized to evaluate consumer opinions regarding a
brand (Nassis et al., 2014; Walker & Kent, 2009). Having a positive opinion of a brand has been
effective in increasing consumer purchase intentions. The level of identification an individual
possesses has also been found to be a predictor of purchase intentions (Smith et al., 2008). Fans
that highly identify with a team are seen as being more likely to purchase merchandise.
A method for evaluating the effectiveness of a marketing campaign can be to assess
purchase intentions following a proposed campaign. Although purchase intentions are not the
same as consumers investing money in the organization, they have been found to be an effective
measurement for predicting behavior, as such purchase intentions are able to evaluate a
prospective advertising investment (Biscaia et al., 2013). If fans suggest they have positive
purchase intentions this suggests a higher return on investment (ROI) for the given organization.
Another effective method of evaluating the success of a marketing campaign would be to
assess the (ROI). However, this has yet to become a metric that top managers utilize to make
informed marketing decisions (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). ROI can be used to predict the
impact that a CSR campaign would have on the purchase intentions of fans. It is important to
continuously evaluate the ROI of a campaign (Copeland, Frisby, & McCarville, 1996), if their
desired results are not occurring then the campaign should be terminated. The more impactful
and emotive the campaign, the higher the ROI should be for the organization.
To understand the implications of a more impactful and visible understanding of the
community work conducted, this study will evaluate purchase intentions as: investments in
merchandise, future plans to invest in merchandise as well as awareness of community benefit
games. This research hopes to identify whether an increase in CSR advertising through spending

money to publicize the positive work being conducted with the local community would have a
positive impact on whether fans within the local market would increase their purchase intentions.
H1: Attending more games will increase the number of community benefit games fans are
aware of.
H0: There will be no difference between the number of games attended and awareness of
community benefit games.
H2: Females are more likely to be aware of community benefit games than males.
H0: There will be no difference between females and males awareness of community
benefit games.
H3: Fans that are willing to spend more money on merchandise where proceeds are
invested in the community are the same fans that have spent more on merchandise during
the 2015 season.
H0: Fans not willing to spend more on merchandise where proceeds are invested in the
community are not the same fans that have spent more on merchandise during the 2015
season.
H4: Fans that have attended a San Francisco Giants charity/community event will be
more willing to pay a higher price for the same item than fans that have not attended a
charity/community event.
H0: There will be no difference between attending a San Francisco Giants
charity/community event and being willing to pay a higher price for the same item than
fans that have not attended a charity/community event.

Methods
Participants/Procedure
After drafting the research proposal and contacting local MLB franchises, the San
Francisco Giants granted access to their fans. Data were collected from sample n = 191 of San
Francisco Giants fans who were attending a game at AT&T park. The data was collected during
four regular home season games. Fans were randomly approached and asked if they would
complete a short three minute survey with 10 to 15 questions about the San Francisco Giants.
Fans completed a Qualtrics online survey using iPads. It was hoped that through adopting a
stratified random sampling technique of fans who were attending a San Francisco Giants game,
our population would have a degree of knowledge about the Giants CSR involvement. Our
population included 30 respondents between ages 18 and 24, as well as 32 fans between ages 25
and 34. In addition there were 24 fans between ages 35 and 44. With 34 respondents between
ages 45 and 54, with the remainder of our sample (n = 68) aged over 55. All participants
provided informed consent and were not obligated to complete the survey if they started it. Every
participant that took a survey was thanked for his or her time.
Instrumentation
The survey that was used to collect information regarding purchase intentions, awareness
and attendance (Appendix A) included questions adapted from pre-existing research into similar
topics (Biscaia et al., 2013; Smith et al., 2008). The survey was created specifically to examine
the knowledge of San Francisco Giants fans about their teams’ CSR programs, purchase
intentions of Giants merchandise and tickets for the 2015 season as well as how they would view
increases in prices in relation to increased CSR programming.

Community benefit game. A community benefit game was the title that was used to
operationalize CSR involvement on game days. These games are where proceeds of ticket
revenue go to help the given cause being represented, an example of this would be Breast Cancer
Awareness Night where the proceeds of sales assist the One Flap Down Foundation (Special
events calendar, n.d.). These questions were utilized to better understand if the fan attending the
game, attended with the community benefit being the primary factor.
As data were collected in the middle of the 2015 baseball season, the survey inquired
about purchase behavior for the 2015 season, to the date the survey was taken. This enabled the
research to gain a clear understanding of all purchase intentions, independent of when the survey
was administered to fans.
Statistical Analysis
The data gathered from participants were analyzed using a combination of Pearson's
correlation and Spearman’s correlation to test the research hypotheses aiming to evaluate
whether there is a link between awareness of CSR involvement and future purchase intentions.

Results
The survey received 191 responses from San Francisco Giants fans who were willing to
provide responses. Of the 191 fans, 114 were males and 73 were female, the remained chose not
to answer, Table 1 shows the percentage breakdown. The largest age group sampled was those
aged over 55, with the smallest age group being those aged 35 to 44. With more than 50% of the
sample stating they had attended less than three games during the 2015 season.

Table 1. Summary of all fans and fans who would be willing to spend more on Giants licensed
merchandise if they knew the money was being invested into the community
Willing Fans All Fans
Question
Gender
Male 60% 61%
Female 40% 39%
Age
18-24 18% 16%
25-34 17% 17%
35-44 11% 13%
45-54 20% 18%
55+ 34% 36%
Number of
games
attended
0 27% 30%
1-3 39% 38%
4-6 21% 20%
7-9 3% 4%
10+ 9% 9%
Awareness
of
community
benefit
games
0 43% 42%
1-5 44% 45%
6-10 8% 7%
11-15 2% 2%
16-20 1% 2%
20+ 1% 2%
Amount
spent on
licensed
merchandise
during 2015
season
$0 30% 35%
$1-$49 13% 13%
$50-$99 21% 19%
$100-$149 16% 14%
$150-$199 4% 4%
$200+ 16% 15%
Note: Percentages for willing fans are based on the number of fans that stated they were willing
to spend more on merchandise, Question 8 (Appendix A)
As a measure to ensure the reliability of the results from questions assessing similar
issues of fan behavior, a Pearson’s correlation was used to assess the consistency of the results

from the following questions. “Would you be willing to spend more money on Giants
merchandise if you knew that the money was being invested into the community?” as well as, “If
you knew that more money from the Giants merchandise sales was being invested into the
community, would you be willing to pay a higher price for the same item?”. A significant
correlation (r = -.357 p < .01) between the responses was found which provides support for the
reliability of the answers to both questions.
This research hypothesized that the greater the number of games attended by fans the
more aware of community benefit games they would be. A Spearman’s correlation revealed there
to be a significant positive correlation (r = .314, p < .01) between attending games and awareness
of community benefit games. However, the fans that were most aware were those who have
attended 7-9 games this season. Fans that had attended more than 10 games were less aware than
those who had attended 4-6 games. The thought was that female fans would have a better
awareness of community benefit games than male fans however a Spearman’s correlation found
no significant difference (r = .111 p = .875) between females and males.
Using a Spearman's correlation identified that fans that spent more money on Giants 2015
licensed merchandise are the fans that would be significantly more willing to spend more on the
same item if they knew that the money was to be reinvested in the community (r = -.164, p <
.05). This result means that those fans who have spent larger amounts on 2015 licensed
merchandise would be willing to pay a higher price for the same item, if the additional proceeds
are going to the community.
There was found to be no significant correlation (r = -.069, p = .363) between having
attended a San Francisco Giants community event and willingness to pay a higher price for the
same item. It was hypothesized that fans that had attended a community event would be more

willing to pay a higher price. However, due to the lack of a significant correlation we fail to
reject the null hypothesis.
Figure 1 shows that the preferred method of communication about CSR activities would
be through TV commercials, the second most prevalent response being social media, closely
followed by emails.
Figure 1. Preferred methods in which fans would like to be contacted regarding learning about
what the Giants do in the community
The survey asked respondents the number of community benefit games they were aware
of during the 2015 season. The average response from fans that had attended 0, 4-6 and 10+
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Commercials Social media Emails In-stadium
adverts
Video board Programs Other
Frequency
Preferred method ofcommunication

games all suggested that they were aware of between 1-5 community benefit games. Fans that
had been to between 7-9 games were on average aware of between 6-10 community benefit
games. Finally those fans that had attended less than three games were, on average, aware of no
community benefit games. Only four of the 191 responses suggested they were aware of 16-20
community benefit games.
Figure 2 illustrates the response levels for each interval of community benefit game
awareness. It highlights that most respondents were aware of between one and five games or zero
games. With the least number of fans stating an awareness of more than 21 community benefit
games.
Figure 2. The frequency of response to awareness of community benefit games
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 21+
Frequency
Awareness of Community Benefit games during the 2015 season

Figure 3 displays the 65 responses when fans were asked to name a community program
operated by the Giants, the 77% of those who responded were able to correctly identify the
Junior Giants as a community program run by the San Francisco Giants. Only one-third of those
surveyed were able to correctly identify a community program.
Figure 3. Responses when asked to name a community program
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Junior Giants Other Health Education Violence
Prevntion
Frequency
Community program

Discussion
This research sought to gain a greater understanding of fan awareness of the San
Francisco Giants CSR activities. The implications of this research are aimed to have a positive
impact, not only on the team from which data were collected from but also the greater sporting
community. The results gathered through the research did not support all hypotheses, this
however still allows several implications and recommendations for future practices from the
research findings.
The San Francisco Giants scheduled 16 regular season games (Special events calendar,
n.d.), during 2015, which are organized to help donate money to a given cause. As seen in Figure
2, the majority of fans surveyed were (85%) aware of less than five community benefit games.
However, awareness did significantly increase with the number of games attended. While, only
four people surveyed said they were aware of between 16-20 games, this represented only 2% of
our sample. If this percentage is representative of all Giants fans then the Giants organization is
failing to capitalize on the good work they are instrumenting. As Walker & Kent (2009)
identified, being heavily involved in CSR has a positive impact on fans’ perceptions. However, if
fans are primarily unaware of how involved their team is in CSR activities, which in this
example is putting on community benefit games, the organization is missing out on the increased
perception that it could be receiving. If fans are unaware of this involvement, the community is
likely to be even less aware, as a result the philanthropic work being done is overlooked.
There was also low awareness of community programs operated by the Giants
organization. With 50 of the fans surveyed, see Figure 3, having knowledge of the Junior Giants
program, this represented just over 25% of the sample. If the sample is representative of all
Giants fans then nearly 75% of fans are unaware of the main community program organized by

the Giants. The Junior Giants program is a “free, non-competitive and innovative baseball
program for boys and girls ages 5-18 years old” (Giants Community Fund, n.d.). Previous
findings suggest that winning teams did not require heavy investment in CSR strategies
imperative to improve awareness (Sheth & Babiak, 2010). The San Francisco Giants have been
a very successful team, winning three World Series since 2010, however awareness and
knowledge of community involvement by the organization is surprisingly low. It is for this
reason that the Giants organization should attempt to maximize CRM, to increase awareness
among Giants fans about the positive work they are orchestrating in the community. Through
maximizing CRM within the local community this will increase knowledge and awareness of
community involvement while at the same time promoting their business to fans and the general
population alike (Varadarajan & Menon, 1988).
Utilizing CRM strategies could include publicizing upcoming community benefit games,
with greater details about where the money raised is going, who it will impact and why fans
should support the cause. This highlights all the good work that will be done with the revenue
while overlooking that the organization will benefit from the ticket sales (Roy & Graeff, 2003).
On a given community benefit night the Giants could offer limited edition official merchandise,
such as shirts and hats. They can then donate a portion of the profits to the given cause. This
could have a similar impact as the “Save Lids to Save Lives” campaign (Roy & Graeff, 2003;
Nan & Heo, 2007) as it could help direct fans attention to the social issue, while concurrently
increasing awareness and knowledge of the cause and still producing revenue for the
organization.
Increased sales have been found to occur when the proceeds of those sales are going to a
charity, Roy & Graeff (2003) found that 59% of their sample would be willing to purchase

merchandise for a charitable cause. Of the Giants fans surveyed 81% of the sample suggested
that they would be willing to spend more on merchandise if they knew the money was going to
be reinvested into the community. This finding helps to support previous findings by Roy &
Graeff (2003) in this area of purchase intentions. Table 1 highlights that the most willing group
to spend more money was those aged over 55 years old, with the least willing being those aged
between 35-44. Fans that have already spent larger amounts of money on merchandise during
this season were also significantly more willing to spend more money on the same item,
provided the proceeds are invested in the community. Therefore the groups of fans that future
CRM campaigns should target are fans that spend larger amounts of money on official
merchandise as well as those fans that are aged over 55. Those fans that have spent more money
on a team’s merchandise are likely to be highly identified fans which was found by Smith et al.
(2008) to be a predictor of purchase intentions. Marketing to these highly identified fans will be
more successful and provid a greater ROI than marketing to fans with little or no identification
towards the organization.
Fans were asked about their preference regarding learning more about the work that the
Giants are doing in the community. Of those surveyed 59% stated they would like to know more
about the work that the Giants are doing. The top three methods of communicating with these
fans were through: TV commercials, social media, and email notifications, as identified in Figure
1. There could be future research conducted to assess if these are the most effective methods of
communicating CRM campaigns with fans.
Interestingly having attended a community event was not found to be a predictor of
willingness to spend more on merchandise. Having attended such an event was hypothesized to
have an impact on purchase intentions, through exposure to the philanthropic work conducted by

these community programs. This finding contradicts the finding by Biscaia et al. (2013) whose
results suggest there should have been a positive attitude. However, the findings may differ
because this finding relates to purchase intentions towards a team sponsor in contrast to purchase
intentions towards a team's community supported organization.
Limitations
This research was limited by several factors: firstly accessibility, secondly availability
and finally demographic of sample. With regards to accessibility, only being able to attend four
regular season games to conduct the survey proved to be a limiting factor. After the first game
was attended the researchers established that in order to maximize our data collection process we
had to ask fans prior to the start of the game as fans did not wish to take the survey once the
game had started.
The availability of fans as a result was also a limitation because the fans primarily
sampled were those arriving at the stadium well before the start of the game, which may have
been a sample bias. If this research were to be conducted again it would be interesting to see if
different results were gathered through conducting surveys with fans after the game, should the
same research design be implemented. Alternatively, issuing the survey online and not
conducting the research in person may be another method to overcome this sample bias.
This research only surveyed fans that were present at games, which may lead to sample
bias. Another limiting factor could be the number who put they hadn’t attended a game Question
3 (Appendix A) if this study were to be repeated this question should be removed if only fans at
games are to be sampled.
Our research method adopted a random sampling technique. This was conducted by
approaching fans and asking them to complete the survey, however, the majority of people that

were willing to complete the survey were seated at the field or club level. In these sections ticket
prices are generally higher than the upper tier, therefore our sample may not have been
completely random. Where fans are seated for a game could be a contributing variable and
influence their perceptions on spending more on merchandise. Therefore this should be a
variable that is considered for future research.
Practical Implications
The findings from this research suggest the Giants should do more to make fans aware of
community benefit games. The lack of awareness by the majority of the sample was very
surprising. Increasing awareness can be achieved through several mechanisms. Firstly, make use
of fan databases and send emails describing the positive impact the given organization, which
benefits, has on the local community. At the same time explaining why fans should attend the
upcoming community benefit game. Secondly, create content on all social media platforms about
community benefit games. Finally, the Giants could produce public service announcement (PSA)
videos for each community benefit game explaining where the proceeds go. This would allow
fans to directly see and appreciate the difference they are creating for their community. These
videos should be shown before and during the games in the stadium, as well as posted to social
media platforms after the games, so fans that haven’t attended can still gain an understanding of
the impact. The Giants could produce PSA videos about upcoming community benefit games,
this way they can show fans why they should attend a community benefit games. This will act as
CRM, hopefully increasing ticket sales for community benefit games therefore producing more
money for the given cause being represented.
The Giants could release limited edition licensed merchandise to support the community
benefit games, with a portion of the proceeds going to support the cause. They could also offer

Junior Giants merchandise or Giants Community Fund merchandise for sale to fans with all
profits from the sales being invested into their respective organization. This method would not
only help to increase the financial support of these programs but could also act as free
advertising, promoting the given cause. This is one of many ways to help increase awareness and
knowledge of the social issues or program receiving support. Community benefit game
autographed shirts worn by the players, bats used during the game or other game day equipment
could be raffled or auctioned in support of the beneficiary of the community benefit game.
The use of social media platforms offers a great way for any organization to promote the
philanthropic work they are involved in. Current examples could be utilizing platforms such as
Snapchat to share a Giants Community Fund event. Alternatively, activating the Giants
Community Fund Instagram with more posts to target different audiences. The Instagram post
could then be re-posted by the Giants to help increase awareness and followers.
The above are some examples of methods that the San Francisco Giants could adopt in
order to increase the awareness of the work they are doing within the greater San Francisco
community. These methods are not exclusive to the Giants and could be adopted by any major
sports team to help to increase the awareness of their CSR as well as linking this work to CRM.

Conclusion
This research was undertaken to investigate fans awareness of a professional teams
involvement within its local community. The results from this study showed that fans would be
willing to spend a larger amount of money on the same item, if they knew that the money was
being reinvested in their community. This research has implications for the team observed in
addition to other professional sports organizations that may be seeking to maximize their CSR
through effectively utilizing CRM, increasing fans’ perceptions of their philanthropic work
whilst simultaneously benefiting the community.

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Appendices
Appendix A
This is a research project for our Sport Business Researchclass as part of the
University of San Francisco’s Sport Management Master's Program.
This survey will take approximately 3 minutes and aim to better understand your
knowledge about the San Francisco Giants' involvement within the local community.
Your responses will be kept private and confidential. You have the right to withdraw
at any time, for any reason. Should you wish to withdraw your data will be removed
and not published.
If you have any questions regarding this survey please contact Gregor Lumsden
galumsden@dons.usfca.edu
Thank you for your participation in this research.
1). What is your age?
Under 18 (Skip logic to End of Survey)
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55+
2). What is your gender?
Male
Female
3). Have you been to a San Francisco Giants game during the 2015 season?
Yes
No (Skip logic to Question 5)
4). How many San Francisco Giants games have you been to during the 2015 season?
1-3
4-6
7-9
10+
(Skip logic to Question 6)
5). Are you planning on going to a San Francisco Giants game during the 2015 season? Yes
Maybe
No
(Skip logic to Question 7)

6). Have you attended any Community Benefit games (e.g. Breast Cancer Awareness
night)?
Yes
No
Unsure
7). How many Community Benefit games (e.g. Breast Cancer Awareness night) are you
aware of during the 2015 season?
0
1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20
21+
8). Would you be willing to spend more money on Giants merchandise if you knew that the
money was being reinvested in the community?
Yes
No
9). Have you attended a San Francisco Giants charity/community event?
Yes
No
10). Have you purchased any San Francisco Giants licensed merchandise in the 2015
season? (Including t-shirts, hats, jackets, stickers, key chains, etc.)
Yes (Skip logic to Question 11)
No (Skip logic to Question 12)
11). How much money have you spent on San Francisco Giants licensed merchandise in the
2015 season? (Including t-shirts, hats, jackets, stickers, key chains, etc.)
$0
$1-$49
$50-$99
$100-$149
$150-$199
$200+
12). If you knew that more money from the Giants merchandise sales was being invested
into the community, how willing would you be to pay a higher price for the same item?
Very Unwilling – Unwilling – Neither Unwilling or Willing – Willing – Very Willing

13). Can you name a community program that is run by the San Francisco Giants?
Yes. Please write its name in the box below.
____________________
No
14). Would you like to know more about what the Giants are doing within the community?
Yes
No (Skip logic to End of Survey)
15). What is the best way to inform you of community programs organized by the San
Francisco Giants? Please select all that apply.
Video Board Advertisements
Commercials During Televised San Francisco Giants Games Email Notifications
Programs
In-Stadium Advertisements
Social Media
Other ____________________
Thank you for completing this survey, your participation in this research is greatly
appreciated.
If you have any questions regarding this survey please contact Gregor Lumsden
galumsden@dons.usfca.edu

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