Corporate Social Responsibility through Sport: What’s the Score for Companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange?

With the Qatar National Vision 2030 aiming to transform the country, corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a significant role in assisting companies in achieving their objectives and contributing to sustainable development. Sport has distinctive characteristics which make it an appealing vehicle for CSR initiatives, yet there is a paucity of research that has examined the status quo. Currently, no data is available on the scope and nature of the Qatar’s private sector CSR programs generally, and in relation to sport in particular. This study addresses this challenge by assessing the type, beneficiaries, outcomes of CSR implementation through sport, and how it is communicated (through social media), by companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE). The study is innovative in that it uses natural language processing (NLP) techniques to detect and predict categories of CSR through sport for a diagnostic of the status quo and future directions for companies engaging in CSR. Furthermore, the use of NLP and other machine learning (ML) techniques will give direction to CSR through sport programs by QSE listed companies. It is the first time that these techniques are applied to understand social responsibility that enhances stock market companies via CSR through sport.

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)