The idea for this e-book largely emerged during the 2013 and 2014 EASM conference workshops held in Istanbul (Turkey) and Coventry (UK), respectively. These two scholarly gatherings, which attracted more than 25 research-based presentations, coupled with panel discussions with senior CSR executives from various types of sport organisations to foster theory-practice interaction, signalled the need for a well-rounded understanding of the management and governance of CSR in sport. During these workshops, the idiosyncratic nature of the sport sector was evident. For example, topics included: cultural differences among European, American, and Australasian sport organisations; and the different structural and governance models and processes in relation to CSR implementation that the academic sport management community had failed to empirically address through theory-driven studies and rigorous methodological designs.

At the 2014 EASM conference Slack stated that 'more work needs to be done [...] by the people who study the management of sport' (p. 461). This e-book responds to his call by attempting to offer some critical accounts on the management and governance of CSR in the wider context of sport. In other words, our intent with this e-book is to move away from pure descriptive accounts, which are largely associated with the content of CSR in sport, and shift the discussion toward understanding the contextual and processual dimensions of this important topic. Another intention of this e-book is to open up to and reach out to a readership that may not be familiar with the particular characteristics of the sport industry and the management and governance of CSR, and invite those readers to contribute to this interesting field of research.