دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی حمایت مالی به عنوان ابزار برند داخلی و اثرات آن بر شناسایی کارکنان با برند - اشپرینگر 2018

Abstract

Recent research has acknowledged that a firm’s external advertising targeted at consumers can also be used for internal branding activities. The present study extends this research stream and investigates the role of a firm’s sponsorships directed towards consumers in achieving internal branding goals. Specifically, this study examines how employees’ perceptions of sponsorship characteristics impact their identification with the brand. Results from an empirical study with the employees of backaldrin, an Austrian producer of baking ingredients sponsoring the Austrian national biathlon team, indicate that employees with better general attitude towards sponsorship show higher brand identification. Employees’ attitudes towards the sponsored property and perceived fit between the sponsor and the sponsored property have no direct effect on brand identification, but are positively related with employees’ general attitude towards sponsorship. The study concludes with managerial implications how companies can implement sponsorship as an effective internal branding tool.

Limitations and further research

This study is an important building block of a comprehensive framework that can explain secondary effects of communication activities targeted at external audiences, like advertising or sponsorship, on internal employees. Yet, much remains to be explored.

First, the current study investigated the sponsorship of a national sport team by a single company. Further research should extend this study by exploring different sport sponsorships (e.g. athletes, organizations, leagues, club teams) of different companies (e.g. in terms of size or industry), and different kinds of sponsorship (e.g. arts, social causes). Future studies could then integrate existing work to illuminate how employee-oriented firms can use CSR and sport sponsorship in combination to conform to the trend of increased socially responsible practices and at the same time exercise effective internal marketing and branding (Cunningham et al. 2009). Of particular interest would be a deeper understanding of the role of the perceived fit between the sponsored property and the sponsor for internal audiences, which may work differently for employees who are formally part of the sponsor compared with consumers who are not formally part of the sponsor.