Are firms like fair-weathered fans? Examining decision-making in B2B relationships

Abstract

PurposeWhile numerous studies have investigated the returns firms receive for their investments in sponsorship, no study to date has examined the potential for organizational performance to contribute to the continuance of business to business (B2B) relationships. Thus, this study aims to illuminate B2B sponsorship relationships in isolating whether firm decision-makers are like fair-weathered fans, in that they are more likely to stick with successful organizations.Design/methodology/approachAn advanced quantitative modeling approach, survival analysis, is applied to a data set of more than 350 sponsorships to isolate the impact of performance on B2B decision-making.FindingsEven after controlling for several potentially confounding variables, results indicate that every point per game earned by English football clubs decreases the probability of the sponsoring firm exiting the agreement by 54.4%.Originality/valueThese findings provide empirical evidence of the impact of the sponsored organization’s performance to influence B2B firm decision-making, a novel finding yet to be confirmed in the sponsorship-linked marketing literature.