Team Sponsors Research Articles

The Tour de France: corporate sponsorships and doping accusations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is show how sponsors in a major sponsored event may react when facing a potential doping affair. The Tour de France cycling competition is a premier global sporting event – broadcast worldwide – and thus attracts very significant sponsorship. Cycling teams are named after their team sponsors. Recent global news has, however, shown that there are doping scandals involved in this event which impact both teams and team sponsors. When a doping scandal occurs in a team, the sponsors have to react rapidly and expeditiously to protect their brand reputation. Design/methodology/approach – To ascertain potential reactions, team sponsors are interviewed in depth and their reactions to a doping affair assessed. The sponsors represent different brands and their commitment as team sponsors also varies. Findings – Research shows that sponsors react similarly when a doping scandal occurs in their team and adopt similar communication strategies in that situation. While best practice is apparent, doping policies put into place by sponsors nevertheless differ. These practices are more than just preventative in nature, i.e. they anticipate and try to prevent doping affairs. Practical implications – The teams and sponsors are engaged in a long-term relationship to build brand heritage. Undoubtedly, doping is taken very seriously, as consequences can be severe. In this sense, the sport, the teams and the sponsors share the same vision and objectives. Originality/value – Team sponsors reactions while facing a potential doping affair have not yet been assessed. Best practices become visible which might serve as guidelines in other global sporting events, also generating significant sponsorships.

Sponsorship effectiveness in professional sport: an examination of recall and recognition among football fans

This research aims to examine football fans' awareness of their team sponsors and to compare sponsorship awareness between season ticket holders and casual spectators. Data was collected from among fans of a professional football team and results revealed that spectators recall 'top of mind' those sponsors with their logo displayed on the team shirts. Thus, being visible from the stadium stands is important to ensure recall rates. Fans are typically able to properly recognise sponsors and non-sponsors of their team. However, some competitor brands engaged in football sponsorship are incorrectly recognised as sponsors of a team. Finally, the number of brands recalled and recognised correctly by season ticket holders is significantly higher than for casual spectators. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

A Theory on Site Engagement

Study site staff want unencumbered access to the sponsor team, and talented trial leaders are naturally inclined to connect with the people involved in their studies, establishing relationships quickly within and across the entire community, no matter how large it may be. These leaders do more than

Early Identification of Talent in Cyclo-Cross by Estimating Age-Independent Ability via Probit Regression

Early identification of talented athletes is a goal of team managers, sponsors, and other stakeholders so that the benefits of resources devoted to sponsorship and salary can be maximized. A maximum likelihood method is presented that assigns athletes in a chosen set of races an overall ability rating based on their results. Overall ability is expressed as a quadratic function of age so that the relationship between ability and age is estimated simultaneously. This enables relative current ability and age-independent ability to be estimated. After excluding athletes near or beyond the peak age of performance, the most talented young athletes can be identified by a ranking based on the estimates of age-independent ability. The method is demonstrated by analyzing performances in the 2012/2013 cyclo-cross World Cup.

Determinants of purchase intention toward sponsoring product: mediating role of sponsor identification in Korean professional baseball games

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of sponsor identification in the relationship between team identification and purchase intention of a title sponsor's product in the Korea Baseball Organization League (KBO League). Fans of seven teams (N = 691) in the KBO League participated in the study. Results showed that multi-dimensional team attributes such as team attractiveness, team similarity and team awareness, positively affected team identification, and that sponsor identification fully mediated the relationship between team identification and purchase intention. These findings extend previous studies on sponsorship effectiveness and provide empirical support for the relationships between team identification, sponsor identification, and purchase intention.

Uji Efektivitas Sponsorship Produk Bearing Racing pada PT. SKF Indonesia Periode 2008 - 2012

The highest achievement of marketing is sales transaction, so the marketing strategy should have impacts on sales. Promotion in the form of sponsorship has just been conducted by PT. SKF Indonesia since 2010-2011. This study aims to analyze the development of bearing products in PT. SKF Indonesia and to test the effectiveness of promotional strategies in the form of motor racing team sponsorship based on average sales of the bearing racing products data. Anova test results showed that the average sales prior to sponsorship were smaller than the average sales after sponsorship. Thus, sponsorship strategy is efective to raise the average of bearing racing product sales in SKF Indonesia with α = 0.05 and 0.01.

Quantifying the positive effects of sponsor level, length, prominence and relatedness on recall and residual recall rates over time

This study is the first multi-year examination of the relative influence of the four main variables said to influence sponsorship recall. Sponsor recall data were collected from season ticket holders (STHs) of 10 professional sports teams, over periods ranging from 3 to 5 years per team. Across those teams and over that time, 309 sponsor–team relationships were examined, and sponsor recall data from over 117,000 individual STHs were collected. Sponsorship length and level were shown to have the strongest impact on recall, followed by relatedness and prominence. These variables affected both the recall of current sponsors and the decay rates of residual recall following the end of a sponsorship. The average rates of sponsor recall growth and decline have been derived from these data, giving managers a tool by which to benchmark sport sponsorship recall performance.

The Effect of Team Attractiveness on Team Identification, Sponsor Identification, and Team Loyalty of Korea-Japan Professional Baseball Spectator

The Effect of Team Attractiveness on Team Identification, Sponsor Identification, and Team Loyalty of Korea-Japan Professional Baseball Spectator

대학농구팀 스폰서십의 설득의도성이 스폰서태도, 이벤트 - 스폰서 일치성 및 졸업 후 모교후원의도에 미치는 영향

대학농구팀 스폰서십의 설득의도성이 스폰서태도, 이벤트 - 스폰서 일치성 및 졸업 후 모교후원의도에 미치는 영향

Fan identification, Schadenfreude toward hated rivals, and the mediating effects of Importance of Winning Index (IWIN)

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore potential negative outcomes of high fan identification as well as to identify the causal mechanism or mediator by which high identification may result in such negative responses.Design/methodology/approachA scale development process was used to develop a new mediating construct for the fan identification literature, the Importance of Winning Index (IWIN). Structural equations modeling was used to analyze the surveys.FindingsThe IWIN construct represents a new and distinct construct from fan identification. Additionally, IWIN mediates the relationship between fan identification and negative outcome behaviors, thus serving as an explanatory mechanism of when fan identification can produce negative behaviors (in this study Schadenfreude, or wishing ill/harm on rivals).Research limitations/implicationsA student sample and limitation to one context of negative outcomes leaves opportunities for future research to assess the generalizability of these results across various populations and contexts.Practical implicationsSchadenfreude is manifested toward a variety of targets associated with a rival team, including the team's sponsors. Companies should be cautious when selecting what teams they sponsor so that they do not alienate potential consumers who are fans of rival teams. Moreover, the study raises important ethical and social responsibility issues with broader implications suggesting that sports organizations need to promote strong identification among their fans in a responsible manner.Originality/valueThis article is one of few studies that addresses the adverse effects of a highly identified fan/customer base and extends the identification literature by introducing a new variable (IWIN) that mediates the relationship between identification and negative outcomes.

The Determinants of the Sports Team Sponsor's Brand Equity

This research attempts to investigate the determinants of a sports team sponsor's brand equity and whether the proposed structural relationships vary across countries. Field data are collected from sports team fans in two Asian economies/countries, i.e. Taiwan and Indonesia. According to the findings, in general, team identification and perceived congruence between the sponsor and the sponsored sports team affect the sponsor's credibility, which in turn has an impact on the sponsor's brand equity. ‘Country’ moderates the above structural relationships. However, the effects of team identification and perceived congruence on the sponsor's credibility do not receive supportive evidence in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively.

The dynamics of relationship marketing in international sponsorship networks

PurposeWhile various scholars have identified relationship marketing objectives as a rationale for sports sponsorship engagement, analytic investigations of the implications of a relational approach to the corporate sponsorship network have been slow to materialize. The purpose of this paper is to advance the discussion of sponsorship as a means of industrial sports marketing towards a network conceptualization, which can be dissected from both the perspective of the sponsoring firms and that of the sponsored enterprise.Design/methodology/approachThis paper employs an illustrative case‐based approach to the application of network analysis tools as a means of exploring the relationship marketing dynamics of corporate sponsorship portfolios.FindingsSeveral research propositions and applicable network analytics are presented within the context of Formula One racing team sponsorship portfolios. The concepts of network range, density, power, growth, and social capital are explored in regards to their influence on network actors and prospective actors.Practical implicationsThough often neglected in sponsorship research, B2B relational objectives are the focus of this paper, where various evaluative methods are suggested and their dynamic implications illustrated.Originality/valueBy utilizing an international contextual case and explicating several analytic network measures, this research extends the investigation of sports sponsorship beyond the image and awareness‐based objectives that have dominated this area of research. This application of social network analysis to the study of inter‐organizational networks in sport builds on the discussion of sponsorship as a bilateral relationship and advances the dialog towards a broader exploration of corporate sponsors and sport enterprises as network partners.

배드민턴 용품소비자의 관여도에 따른 국가대표 스폰서십 효과분석

배드민턴 용품소비자의 관여도에 따른 국가대표 스폰서십 효과분석

Examining effective and ineffective transformational project leadership

Purpose – Aims to examine effective and ineffective leader behaviors from direct participant observations in several cases of a large multiyear cross-industry international research project to prove the hypothesis that effective team performance management requires strong transformational leadership. Design/methodology/approach – Transformational and charismatic leadership theories are briefly discussed from management science to explain how their principles can apply to and be analyzed in the project domain and other fields. Several popular and proven group leader behavior measurement constructs are discussed to show how they can be applied for assessing group leader behavior in any field. Two flexible taxonomies are built for assisting in quantitatively and qualitatively explaining stakeholder perceptions of group leader behaviors and team performance. Four theoretically sampled case studies are analyzed. The taxonomies are analyzed quantitatively and the results are qualitatively evaluated. Findings – The structured research illuminated that both effective and absent transformational leadership behaviors were practiced (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation), which can go unnoticed and un-reflected in the everyday pandemonium of busy project schedules, competing values, and organizational crises, yet in retrospect, these results show that passive or absent leadership is noticed by the team members and sponsors; moreover it negatively impacts on both project effectiveness and stakeholder satisfaction! Research limitations/implications – Leaders, team members, stakeholders, and managers benefit from understanding transformational leadership, since it supports better human relations and organizational change. These cases show that effective team performance can result in minimal application of transformational leadership behaviors as long as they are not absent when required, and positive (not negative such as micro-management). Originality/value – This research suggests that leader behavior is complex since it is situational, supported by multiple and concurrent leadership and trait theories, as well as partly driven by dominant personality.

Is bad news always bad? The impact of Floyd Landis's rise and fall on Phonak

In the space of one week, cyclist Floyd Landis went from hero to villain when his remarkable comeback to win the 2006 Tour de France was nullified by a positive drug test. I use event study techniques to analyse the impact of Landis's rise and fall on the profitability of Phonak, his team's sponsor. I find that neither his spectacular win nor his rapid fall had an immediate impact on Phonak but that there was a significant cumulative abnormal return to Phonak stock in the wake of these events. I conclude that Phonak benefited from both the good and bad news about Landis.

Negative sponsor behaviour, team response and how this impacts fan attitudes

This research examines the fan-team-sponsor relationship. It focuses on how the sports team's response to negative sponsor behaviour affects fan/spectator attitudes towards the sponsor. Results indicate that highly identified fans have significantly more positive attitudes towards the team sponsor than fans who are lower in identification. Highly identified fans informed of a negative action by a team sponsor felt more favourably towards the sponsor if the team continued, rather than terminated, their relationship with the sponsor.

Delineating the outcomes of sponsorship

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which fans' team attachment is the determinant of three sponsorship outcomes: sponsor image, purchase intentions, and word of mouth. Furthermore, following the sponsorship literature, the role of sport fans' involvement on the development of team attachment was examined.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were collected from fans of a professional basketball team in Greece (n=354). Structural equation modeling was employed in order to test the model fit and estimate the model coefficients.FindingsThe findings supported the premise that highly attached fans are more likely to develop positive image for their team sponsor, exhibit higher intentions for purchasing and recommending the sponsor's products.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed model on sport sponsorship outcomes was supported. The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the role of team attachment and sponsor image in predicting sponsorship outcomes.Practical implicationsThe findings from this research have practical implications for both sport team marketers and sponsors. Both parties need to have a good understanding of how and when sponsorship works to maximize its value.Originality/valueThe main contribution of this paper is the incorporation of sport involvement, team attachment, sponsor image, purchase intentions, and word of mouth within an integrated sponsorship model, and the testing of their interrelations. While these variables have been used in the sponsorship literature before, they have not been empirically tested in an integrated model.

Guilty by Association: Image ‘Spill-over’ in Corporate Co-branding

This paper reports a case study that investigates corporate image transfer and bad image management in a corporate co-branded sports team. A literature review covers image in sports, corporate co-branding and image transfer. The extent and management of potential bad image transfer is explored through a case study based on the 2007 Formula One spying scandal involving the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team. There is some evidence of bad image transfer, but the management of the crisis, led by the team's management, and supported by the silence of key team sponsors has largely averted the bad image crisis and deflected media attention.

Expressing Identity and Shaping Image: The Relationship between Corporate Mission and Corporate Sponsorship

Despite the popularity of sponsorship-linked marketing programs, we know little about how firms form sponsorship policies. This article describes a corporate identity-sponsorship policy link and offers empirical support for it via a mixed method research design. Content analysis of 146 Fortune 500 companies’ online sponsorship policies and mission statements is followed by cluster, factor and multinomial regression techniques. Results show that corporate identity, as reflected in mission statements, matters to sponsorship policy. Specifically, companies emphasizing financial success in their mission statements prefer to sponsor individual athletes, education, the environment and health-related activities. Alternatively, companies stressing the importance of employees demonstrate a propensity to sponsor team sports, entertainment, religious, community, charity and business related activities. Reasons for these strategic differences are discussed.

Interview with Jim O'Connell Vice President Corporate Marketing, NASCAR

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing Inc (NASCAR), celebrating 60 years in 2008, is the sanctioning body for one of North America's premier sports. NASCAR is the number one spectator sport--holding 17 of the top 20 highest-attended sporting events in the US--and it is the number two rated regular season sport on television. NASCAR races are broadcast in more than 150 countries and in more than 30 languages. NASCAR fans are the most brand-loyal in all of sport, and as a result more Fortune 500 companies participate in NASCAR than in any other sport. NASCAR consists of three national series (the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series), four regional series, one local grassroots series and two international series. NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races at 100 tracks in more than 30 US states, Canada and Mexico. Based in Daytona Beach, Florida, NASCAR has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Charlotte (NC), Concord (NC), Conover (NC), Bentonville (Ark.), Mexico City and Toronto. SR: NASCAR is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Can you tell me how it is has developed over the years and why it has reached the position it holds today? J O'C: We are fortunate to be racing in our 60th season from a start in Daytona Beach, Florida, where we literally raced on the beach. Through the great vision of Bill France Senior, NASCAR grew from a beach race to what has become a huge international business with the participation of more Fortune 500 companies than any other sport. I think what's important to talk about is that it's been built on values, and the values today are the same as those of 60 years ago. That is: great racing, a great experience for the fans and making sure that NASCAR maintains those core values. SR: You have more than 30 official partners whereas Formula One, for example, has no top-tier partners, although plenty of team sponsors. It is, in many ways, an alternative model to many other major global events, where partnership numbers are limited, often to less than 10. If you add the teams' sponsors, NASCAR as a whole has literally hundreds of partners. Does this cause brand clutter? J O'C: I think the number of official partners is between 35 and 40 and that is down from a couple of years ago when it was closer to 50. What we've been trying to do is to make sure we are creating opportunities that offer the most value for sponsors. We do that in a couple of ways. First through making sure that the sponsors we have are all good companies. They say 'you learn a lot about someone by the company they keep' and that's very true with sponsorship. So we want to ensure that the types of companies and executives are types that the other partners are proud to be associated with. As far as clutter is concerned, we look for best-in-class partners, those that are either international or national in nature, that activate and advertise nationally. NASCAR started as a regional sport. Today we are very much a national sport so we need to ensure that both our fan base and our sponsor base represent that national outlook that we have. SR: What is your long-term commercial strategy in terms of the types of sponsors and the relationships you wish to forge? J O'C: Long-term strategy is very similar. We want to make sure that we are providing great value for our sponsors. The sponsors help us race and there's nothing more important than well funded teams and a well funded industry to make sure we have great racing on the track each week and that fans go to tracks that provide a wonderful experience for the race day. The model means that our sponsors are providing great value for fans. SR: But would you be looking to have a smaller, more high-profile family of partners? J O'C: We wouldn't put a target number on this. We've reduced the number in the past couple of years and there may be further reductions down the road; its a natural attrition to make sure that we are with the best-in-class partners out there. …