This article explores the significance of sports sponsorships by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to limited resources, and the high-intensity competition among sponsors for the recipient’s attention, SMEs have to look for alternative ways to exploit the potential of their sponsorships. With the help of an experimental research design, two studies examine the effects of integrating existing sporting rivalries between sports teams into the leveraging of sponsorships. Among both fans (study 1) and local residents (study 2), the reference to a sporting rivalry in sponsorship leveraging has positive effects on sponsorship-fit, attitudes towards sponsorship and brand attitudes towards the sponsor. Negative attitudes of rival fans on this type of sponsorship leveraging are mostly irrelevant for SME sponsors due to their limited market scope. This type of sponsorship leveraging offers SMEs the opportunity to differentiate themselves as sponsors in contrast to large enterprises with a supra regional, national or international sponsorship scope.

本文探讨了中小企业赞助体育赞助的重要性。由于资源有限，赞助商之间的激烈竞争引起了接收者的注意，中小型企业必须寻找其他方法来挖掘其赞助潜力。在一项实验研究设计的帮助下，两项研究检验了将运动队之间现有的运动竞赛整合到利用赞助中的影响。在球迷（研究1）和当地居民（研究2）中，提及利用体育运动进行赞助的竞争对赞助适合度，对赞助的态度和对赞助者的品牌态度都有积极的影响。由于中小型企业的市场范围有限，因此竞争对手对这种类型的赞助杠杆持消极态度几乎是无关紧要的。与具有以上区域，国家或国际赞助范围的大型企业相比，这种利用赞助的方式为中小型企业提供了使自己有区别于赞助商的机会。