202 Int. J. Sport Management and Marketing, Vol. 7, Nos. 3/4, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Corporate support: a corporate social responsibility alternative to traditional event sponsorship Benoit Séguin* and Milena M. Parent Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, 125 University St., Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5 Canada Fax: 613.562.5497 E-mail: bseguin@uottawa.ca E-mail: milena.parent@uottawa.ca Norm O’Reilly David Falk Center for Sport Management, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA E-mail: oreilly_norm@gsb.stanford.edu Abstract: This study investigates an emerging alternative to event sponsorship based on corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate support of major sporting events. The outcome of the 2005 FINA World Aquatic Championships presented a unique case of sponsorship and the purpose of this paper is to identify the factors which led to the development of corporate support as a viable alternative to sponsorship. Factors included the organising committee’s leadership, the positioning of the event (including the event/sport as a social cause, the benefits of hosting the event, CSR, and contextual limitations), and accessing corporate presidents directly. The cost of not getting involved and corporate peer pressure were found to moderate the event president’s decision to offer corporate support to the event’s organising committee. A model showing the interrelationship between the various factors is also proposed. Keywords: sponsorship; event sponsorship; corporate social responsibility; CSR; sport sponsorship; major sporting events; sport marketing; event marketing. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Séguin, B., Parent, M.M. and O’Reilly, N. (2010) ‘Corporate support: a corporate social responsibility alternative to traditional event sponsorship’, Int. J. Sport Management and Marketing, Vol. 7, Nos. 3/4, pp.202–222. Biographical notes: Benoit Séguin is Associate Professor at the School of Human Kinetics, University of Ottawa, Canada. His area of specialisation is Sport Marketing. His work on sport sponsorship, ambush marketing and event management has been published in various journals and presented at numerous international conferences. He is actively involved in sports as a consultant and a member on numerous boards of directors for national sport organisations in Canada.