ABSTRACT
A recent survey published in October 2014, shows that Fortune 500 companies spent more than USD 15bn on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The research, carried out by economic consulting firm EPG, found that there is a clear difference in how US and UK companies approaches CSR, but that, on both sides of the Atlantic spending dominates by only a handful of groups. The Fortune 500 survey decides to choose a narrow definition of CSR spending, with the aim of excluding corporate activity that is not genuinely philanthropic. But some academics believe that many researchers missed the full scope of business social activity as well as accounting for CSR within the context of a sponsorship. Fundamentally, sponsorship is a commercial agreement between the rights holder and the brand owner where the sponsor is seeking a measurable return on investment for its efforts.
