Purpose

In 2017, the National Basketball Association (NBA) became the first major professional North American sport league to adopt jersey sponsorship. While professional leagues across the globe have allowed this practice for decades, the NBA's decision marked what may be the start of a new trend in North American sport sponsorship. With this in mind, the current study sought to assess the impact of fans' perceptions of these sponsorships on sponsor- and team-related outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

An online sample of 301 NBA fans across the United States was conducted through Amazon's MTurk.

Findings

Results exhibited the importance of sponsorship authenticity, which maintained the strongest influence on sponsor- and team-related outcomes. Brand–team fit, sponsorship familiarity and sponsorship identification were also assessed, with mixed results for each factor.

Originality/value

Results of these findings related to sponsorship authenticity and consequent practical and theoretical implications are discussed, and areas for future research are provided.

中文翻译：

---

新泽西：探索NBA球队球衣赞助对球队和赞助商的影响

目的

2017年，美国国家篮球协会（NBA）成为第一个采用球衣赞助的北美主要职业体育联盟。虽然全球职业联赛几十年来一直允许这种做法，但 NBA 的决定标志着北美体育赞助新趋势的开始。考虑到这一点，当前的研究试图评估球迷对这些赞助的看法对赞助商和团队相关结果的影响。

设计/方法/方法

美国 301 名 NBA 球迷的在线样本是通过亚马逊的 MTurk 进行的。

发现

结果显示了赞助真实性的重要性，它对赞助商和团队相关结果的影响最大。还评估了品牌与团队的契合度、赞助熟悉度和赞助识别，每个因素的结果好坏参半。

原创性/价值

讨论了与赞助真实性相关的这些发现的结果以及随之而来的实践和理论意义，并提供了未来研究的领域。