The Negative Effect of Team Performance on Sponsorship Brand Performance: The Mediating Role of Social Identity Threat

Abstract

Nowadays, sports sponsorship has become an important marketing method and means for enterprises to improve brand image and visibility. Previous studies focused on the positive effects of sponsorship on brand and consumer factors, but the performance of the sponsored team may also be an important factor for audiences to evaluate the sponsored brand and products. Moreover, the poor performance of a team may have potential negative effects, which is worth exploring in depth. This article explores how poor team performance affects sponsors negatively in the context of sports sponsorship. Through experiments, it was verified that compared with high win rate, poor performance of sponsored teams significantly reduces the brand performance of sponsors, and social identity threat plays a mediating role. In addition, compared with men, the negative impact of poor team performance on brand performance is more significant for women. This study reveals the potential negative effects of implementing sponsorship for enterprises and introduces social identity threat as a mediator to explain the impact mechanism of team performance on brand performance in sports sponsorship. It has certain enrichment and enlightenment effects on related research of sports sponsorship.