Mark D. Groza

Managing a Sponsored Brand: The Importance of Sponsorship Portfolio Congruence

The congruence or fit between a sponsored brand and sponsoring firm is a central tenet of sponsorship research. The influence of such congruence on the sponsored brand however, has received scant attention. This question is important because the strength of a sponsored organisation’s brand equity is the basis for many sponsorship alliances. The two experiments undertaken in this paper empirically evaluate the dynamic effect sponsor portfolio congruence has on perceptions of the sponsored organisation’s brand equity. The results of Study 1 indicate sponsor incongruence is particularly detrimental to the brand equity of the sponsored organisation at the title sponsor level. Study 2 shows this adverse effect can be attenuated by increasing the number of congruent sponsors at the presenting level. The second study also provides support for nationality as a salient congruence dimension in an international sporting context. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The Role of Belief in Making a Difference in Enhancing Attachment to a Charity Sport Event

Charity sport events provide charitable organizations with a mechanism to communicate the mission of the charity to a large participant base, while fostering a meaningful event experience for event participants. This research examines the relationship among motives for charity sport event participation, participant belief in making a difference, and attachment to the event. In making this examination, an online questionnaire was administered to participants in the 2007 Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) LIVESTRONG Challenge (N = 568). Through structural equation modeling, the results demonstrate that belief in making a difference mediates the relationship between social and charity motives and attachment. Suggestions are made for marketing communication, highlighting belief in making a difference via rituals, symbols, and social media to assist in attracting and retaining participants.

The Niche Portfolio Strategy to Global Expansion: The Influence of Market Resources on Demand for Formula One Racing

ABSTRACT International products can achieve mass adoption in some countries, while languishing outside the mainstream in other countries. Theoretically, global organizations can manage market entry and divergent demand by practicing a niche portfolio strategy that requires marketers to appropriately prioritize and cultivate key resources in underdeveloped niches while maintaining dominant status in traditional markets. The authors use the international context of Formula One Racing to examine how market resources influence demand for the sport in 19 different geographically defined niches across four continents. Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrates positive incremental demand effects for participant, spectator, and sponsor-based resources, while media-based resources were nonsignificant.

The Role of Pride in Retaining Sport Event Volunteers—An Abstract

Many large and small scale sport events worldwide are successful thanks in large part to volunteers. These unsung, unpaid heroes are essential to the survival of such events. However, event organizers are challenged with recruiting and retaining volunteers in an increasingly competitive environment. Research suggests individuals’ perceptions of their work while volunteering (i.e., task attributes) has a significant effect on their satisfaction (Galindo-Kuhn and Guzely 2001). Additionally, volunteers who are able to utilize their skills fully and contribute to the ultimate success of the organization are more satisfied and committed to the organization (Jamison 2003). Other research indicates organizational-level evaluations (e.g., organizational reputation) play an important role attracting human capital (Cable and Turban 2003; O’Reilly and Chatman 1986). In the current study these research streams are linked to examine the effect volunteers’ task and organizational attributes have on their commitment to the volunteer organization. Importantly, pride—a volunteer’s assessment of others’ perceptions of the image of the volunteer organization (Lievens et al. 2007)—is predicted to play a mediating role in this relationship.

Corporate Sponsorship Effects in Business-to-Business Markets

Despite the prominence of B2B sponsorship in practice and scholars’ recognition of the importance of B2B sponsorship objectives, studies evaluating business-to-consumer (B2C) sponsorship objectives and execution still dominate published research on the topic. While the line between industrial and consumer marketing has been somewhat blurred (Wind 2006), stark distinctions remain between the nature of B2B customer and supplier relationships and the concentrated structure of the B2B marketplace compared to consumer markets. A standardized consumer-centric approach to understanding a marketing tool as versatile as sponsorship is therefore inadequate (Crowley 1991).

A Preliminary Examination into the Motivating Factors of Crowdfunding Backers

Crowdfunding is a phenomenon in which entrepreneurs are able to garner financial backing for ideas from a nontraditional source. Entrepreneurs are no longer confined to seeking financing from large banks and (or) angel investors (i.e., venture capitalists). Rather, individuals with innovative ideas can now seek financial resources directly from the public through the practice of crowdfunding. Scholarly research in this emerging area has not kept pace with its growth in practice. Since crowdfunding cannot exist without the willingness of individuals to invest in projects, it is important to clearly understand the motivating factors of the investors. This research analyzes an important group of crowdfunding stakeholders—the backers or investors of the project. Understanding what motivates these individuals to support an entrepreneur is the guiding question of our research. The purpose of this chapter then is to provide insight into the phenomenon of crowdfunding by examining the factors that lead individuals to support projects developed by entrepreneurs.

Construal Level Effects in Sponsorship Announcements

Corporate financial contributions fund many events and organizations, such as art exhibits, concerts, and sports teams. Often corporations make such contributions in exchange for the right to affiliate with the sponsored event or organization. Sponsorship is thus regarded as a marketing communication instrument. Besides communicating via sponsorship, sponsors and sponsored entities also communicate about a sponsorship. Such “sponsorship-linked marketing” is especially common when announcing the initiation of a sponsorship. In this context, one challenge is how best to communicate the relationship created via corporate sponsorships. However, research on the influence of sponsorship announcements has uncovered mixed results and suffers from two shortcomings. First, previous studies have only considered the announcement of sponsorships at a generic level, while ignoring the potential for variation in how a sponsorship is publicly announced (i.e., the composition of announcements). Second, scholars have emphasized investors’ reaction to announcements while overlooking any potential effects on consumers, who are a more likely target for sponsorship communication. In the present study, we therefore investigate how different types of sponsorship announcements influence consumers’ perceptions of the sponsoring firm. Specifically, based on Construal Level Theory (CLT), we conducted the first of a series of experiments to investigate how the concreteness of the information contained in an announcement influences consumers’ responses to the sponsorship.

Global Growth in International Sport: A Niche Portfolio Strategy

As described by Porter (1980), a niche marketing strategy concentrates on serving a particular market niche – defined by geographic boundaries, type of customer, segment of the product line, or a combination of these three elements. Yet focus on a single niche can entail risks of instability and collapse, which can be countered by the market flexibility offered by a niche portfolio that includes multiple targeted niches (Hamlin et al. 2012). Where firms define targeted niches geographically, building a diversified niche portfolio involves difficult decisions concerning international market expansion. Our study addresses this challenge empirically by utilizing the context of Formula One (F1) motor racing to advance the study of a niche-based growth strategy. Specifically, we develop and test a model that examines the importance of native resources to the success of an international expansion strategy featuring a portfolio of geographically-defined niches.

The Influence of Sponsorship on Brand and Event Attitudes: Understanding the Role of Emotions

Event sponsorship in sport has become one of the most prominent nontraditional components of the marketing communication mix for many companies across the globe (IEG 2011). Since many companies use sporting events to promote their brands, studying the effects of event sponsorships on both sponsoring brands and sponsored events has become increasingly relevant to marketing theory and practice (Sneath et al. 2005, Chien et al. 2011). Sponsoring events which have a global audience (e.g. FIFA World Cup, Olympics, Wimbledon) offers historically unprecedented reach for corporations and other organizations seeking to communicate messages worldwide (Farelly et al. 1997).

A Portfolio Approach to Sponsorship Alliances: Challenging Unilateral Brand Spillover Effects

Despite the global economic slowdown and an increased scrutiny of marketing expenditures, corporate spending on commercial sponsorship in North America increased by 11.4 percent in 2008 to US