ABSTRACT

Research question: While cross-border sport sponsorships are widespread, such partnerships introduce a notable complication – consumers in one country may dislike the sponsor’s country of origin (COO). This raises the question as to whether animosity towards a sponsor’s COO negatively affects sponsorship outcomes, and if so, how it can be addressed. For the latter, we examine holistic sponsor-object fit as well as a set of its constituent elements.

Research methods: Data collection pertained to a brand engaged in a hypothetical sponsorship. Study 1 involves a Serbian brand sponsoring the Croatia national football team and for Study 2 German sponsors of the England national football team. Survey data are analyzed using a latent modeling approach.

Results and findings: Study 1 shows that animosity reduces consumers’ attitude towards the sponsorship. However, higher perceived sponsor-object fit weakens this effect. Study 2 replicates this finding, and on a more granular level establishes the moderating properties of several sub-dimensions of fit. Congruence in color, personality and status ameliorate animosity.

Implications: We outline implications for sponsors operating in environments where their COO invokes animosity and how sponsor-object fit may mitigate this.

摘要

研究问题：虽然跨境体育赞助很普遍，但这种合作伙伴关系带来了显着的复杂性——一个国家的消费者可能不喜欢赞助商的原籍国 (COO)。这就提出了一个问题，即对赞助商首席运营官的敌意是否会对赞助结果产生负面影响，如果是，如何解决。对于后者，我们研究了整体的赞助商-对象匹配以及它的一组组成元素。

研究方法：数据收集与参与假设赞助的品牌有关。研究 1 涉及赞助克罗地亚国家足球队的塞尔维亚品牌，以及研究 2 赞助英格兰国家足球队的德国品牌。使用潜在建模方法分析调查数据。

结果和发现：研究 1 表明，敌意会降低消费者对赞助的态度。然而，更高的感知赞助商对象契合度削弱了这种效果。研究 2 重复了这一发现，并在更细粒度的水平上建立了几个子维度的拟合特性。颜色、个性和地位的一致性可以减轻敌意。

影响：我们概述了对在其首席运营官引发敌意的环境中运营的赞助商的影响，以及赞助商对象匹配如何缓解这种情况。