دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی ایجاد حقوق صاحبان سرمایه از طریق شخصیت برند: درک طرفداران و رقبا - امرالد 2018

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of perceived fit and brand personality as means of building the brand equity of the sponsor in a basketball sponsorship setting both for team fans (fans) and fans of a rival team (rivals). Design/methodology/approach – The sponsorship deal between Microsoft (X-BOX), a global software company, and Panathinaikos BC, a popular basketball team located in Athens, Greece, was selected for this examination. Empirical data were collected through self-administered questionnaires from 222 fans and 271 rivals. Structural equation modeling was run to test the research hypotheses. Findings – Results provided evidence that brand personality mediates the effect of fans’ perceived fit evaluations on brand equity variables. No mediation of brand personality was found for rivals, as perceived fit did not significantly affect either positively or negatively any of the brand equity variables for those study participants. Research limitations/implications – The timing of data collection, which took place a short period after the sponsorship deal was announced, the low degree of rivalry reported as well as the fact that sponsorship activation initiatives were not taken into consideration are seen as limitations of this study. Suggestions for future research that would address each of these limitations are offered. Practical implications – The study contributed theoretically to sport sponsorship literature by introducing the concept of brand personality as a means to enhance sponsors’ brand equity in a basketball sponsorship setting for both team fans and rivals. Interesting managerial implications have emerged for marketing managers of both sponsors and sponsees. Originality/value – This is one of the very few studies that propose a process by which sponsors can deal with rivals’ negative associations, uncovering opportunities that may exist for companies in sponsoring competing teams.

Limitations and future research

Despite efforts to eliminate limitations from the present study, there are still some points that should be taken into consideration when reading the results. Specifically, the rival team fans were asked to express the degree of their dislike toward the rival team. Results showed a low degree of rivalry that may be attributed to the particular scale used, which expressed the extent to which fans feel joy with everything bad happening in their rival team environment. Thus, more research is highly encouraged which will test other scales measuring rivalry (e.g. Grohs et al., 2015, based on Schweitzer et al., 2005) and compare results. Moreover, data collection was carried out a short period of time after the sponsorship deal was announced, which may not have been long enough to affect the perceptions of both fans and rivals. A repeat data collection after a longer period of time may improve our understanding of the role that brand personality plays in strengthening sponsor outcomes.

Future research can apply this research design and methodology to different sport sponsorship settings, including other teams or events and other type of sponsors’ products. For example, it is worth testing the mediating role of brand personality of less popular brands. Finally, an important aspect that was not taken into consideration in the present study was sponsorship activation or leveraging. Previous research suggests that active sponsors were able to gain from sponsorship the opportunity to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, something that was not feasible for the less active sponsors (Papadimitriou and Apostolopoulou, 2009). Given the importance of leveraging activities for sponsorship effectiveness, we propose that this factor is included in the model in a future research effort.