När fotboll blir business

Sammanfattning: Sweden’s civil society is changing. The democratic civil organization, a symbol of the ideologically intertwined popular movement with its historical strive toward the welfare state, is increasingly adopting the concepts, resources and organizational models of the corporation. By challenging the member-run and altruistic ideals of the civil sector the process of corporatization is perceived as a threat to the non-profit organization’s contribution to society. This thesis portrays the corporatization from an optimistic perspective. A case study of two corporatized football clubs examines the clubs’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. Based on the hypothesis that commercialization intensifies sport clubs’ priority of CSR, interviews with club representatives and influential individuals within Swedish football conclude three answers to how the CSR projects are linked to the process of corporatization. Firstly, intensified business collaboration transfers CSR-strategies to the clubs. Secondly, CSR creates financial and social capital by immunizing the clubs toward critic from its sponsors and society. As sponsors increasingly prioritize CSR the clubs’ growing dependency on profit and company support stimulate CSR activities. Finally, corporatized clubs increase their CSR-strategies to compensate for criticism of declining societal contribution. These results show how the non-profit organization’s shift toward the market can strengthen its societal contribution.