Despite ample research over the past two decades on the perceived social impact of sport events and event-related activities for residents, participants, program recipients, and fans, there is a dearth of research on sport organization efforts on digital media, particularly social media. One pivotal avenue for inducing social impact is through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Drawing from stakeholder, use, and gratification theories, we address this gap by examining public emotional and psychological benefits of CSR initiatives on social media. We analyzed 35,931 tweets directed at the @nbacares handle from 2010 to 2022 (n=32,383 unique contributors) using a multi-method approach that combined machine learning, negative binomial regression, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Findings suggest that the public expresses positive emotions—trust, joy, and anticipation—towards sport organization CSR initiatives. Specifically, joy fuels retweets, while trust drives likes. These positive emotional responses result in psychological benefits, with community attachment being the most prevalent outcome, followed by community excitement and pride.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.32731/SMQ.342.062025.05