Investigating the effect of social responsibility on Customer`s loyalty of fitness clubs with role moderating of image and reputation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of social responsibility (based on new and special dimensions of sports) on customer`s loyalty with role moderating of image and reputation in fitness clubs in Rasht city. In fact, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as a set of positive and active management actions that the company takes to identify and satisfy consumer needs that It does in relation to the goals of company. In today's, we can expect from all businesses in the field of sports that their organizational behaviors are in line with social responsibility. Accordingly, professional sports clubs in Europe have adopted social responsibility programs as a means to achieve organizational strategic goals. Walker (2009) states that sport industry organizations face increasing pressure and stress to maintain profitability and engage in socially acceptable behaviors, yet researchers have provided little information on how consumers perceive and respond to corporate social responsibility. One of the most well-known models in defining social responsibility is Carroll's four-factor model (1979). Carroll assigned four categories of social responsibility to every organization: a) economic responsibility b) legal responsibility c) moral responsibility or compliance with business ethics d) Philanthropy responsibilities. It should be stated that in this research, the new model of social responsibility is used, i.e. replacing the dimension of health and education in the old model of Carroll's social responsibility; Because based on the new model of Walker (2009), it seems that this new model has a better application in sports clubs; On the other hand, it can be said that the philanthropic dimension is more useful for measuring social responsibility in industries, companies, and as a result, in the field of sports industries due to the wide features of the management scope and human resources, and it cannot be effective for use in physical fitness clubs; Based on the research of Jung (2012) & Walker (2009), this new model of social responsibility (using the health and education dimension instead of the philanthropic dimension in the industry) can have a much better application in order to measure the social responsibility of physical fitness clubs. Therefore, since in many internal researches of our country, the same old corporate social responsibility model of Carroll was used, but the current research measures the relationships between variables with a new approach and the use of a special social responsibility model for physical fitness clubs. Also, since the city of Rasht, due to its proximity to the center of the country, has been greatly influenced by the prevailing culture in the field of expanding and promoting sports, especially in the field of bodybuilding; Therefore, the examination of the above components in the developing industry of bodybuilding in this city should be considered. The method of the current research was descriptive-correlation and survey type, which was conducted in the field. The statistical population of the research included all male and female clients of physical fitness clubs. The research sample was 409 customers who were selected by random sampling method. The predictor variable was social responsibility and the criterion variable of customers' attitude included image, reputation and loyalty. Data analysis of the collected questionnaires was done by structural equation modeling with SPSS 24 and AMOS 24 software. The results of the analysis show that there is a positive relationship between the research variables and this influence is also evident in the final model. On the other hand, the social responsibility variable of the club has an effect on the loyalty variable through the mediating variable of image and also, through the mediating variable of reputation, on the loyalty variable. The measurement model of the results of the factor analysis shows that all items related to social responsibility, reputation, image and loyalty were significant at the factor analysis (sig≤0.001). The results of the structural equation model of the research examined the effects between the research variables simultaneously in the model. After implementing the conceptual model of the research in 32 & AMOS software, according to the results of the structural model of the research, it shows that all the items related to the research variables were significant. The findings showed that the club's social responsibility with new components in the field of sports, while having the greatest impact on the image, also has an impact on reputation and loyalty. Also, image as an independent variable has an effect on reputation and loyalty. However, in the final model, reputation does not have a significant effect on loyalty; But the significant positive relationship and influence between the research variables in the final model is very evident. In general, club managers can attract potential customers and retain loyal customers by considering the dimensions of social responsibility towards needs of customers as an effective strategy and as a result of gaining a good image and reputation, which is a requirement for the survival and competitive advantage of these clubs. Organizations with customer-oriented corporate social responsibility activities can improve the trust of a part of the consumer, thus influencing his commitment. Given the impact of the financial crisis on the current economic situation, which may cause consumer distrust and commitment to the organization, it is a special time for businesses to strengthen their corporate social responsibility policies and practices. Therefore, the results of these measures increase the consumer's perception of value and the company receives a satisfied and brand-loyal consumer. In fact, clubs can gain a good attitude and image towards the club by investing and paying more attention to the economic, moral, health and education dimensions, and especially the legal dimension. This issue is a significant result of corporate social responsibility, which is suggested to club managers to increase performance and gain a competitive edge. Generally, the aforementioned research stated that one of the dimensions of service quality includes the organization's sense of responsibility for providing services. Therefore, due to the constant changes in the market and the addition of new competitors, fitness centers should try to satisfy them by improving the quality of services in different sectors.