Over the past three decades, corporate sponsorship has evolved into a key element in the marketing communications mix. More recently, the concept of “sponsorship-linked internal marketing” has attracted interest among scholars who study how sponsorship can build corporate identity and increase employee involvement. However, existing knowledge about the effects of sponsorship on employees is still sparse, despite the prevalent rationale that an employer’s sponsorship activity may influence employees’ perceptions of their employer and their behavior within the organization. This research responds to calls to investigate the strategic application of sponsorship within the firm (Farrelly et al. in J Sport Manag 26(6):506–520, 2012). Grounded in signaling theory and prior sponsorship research, we develop and empirically test a sponsorship effectiveness model among employees of a Swiss retail company. Our findings demonstrate that a high level of sports, cultural, and ecological sponsorship quality, as well as a high level of sports and ecological sponsorship quantity, positively impacts employees’ brand commitment and brand behavior through their perception of the brand image and brand understanding. Furthermore, the effects of sponsorship quality are stronger than sponsorship quantity.

在过去的三年中，企业赞助已经发展成为营销传播组合中的一个关键要素。最近，“赞助相关的内部营销”的概念引起了研究赞助如何建立企业形象和增加员工参与度的学者的兴趣。然而，尽管普遍认为雇主的赞助活动可能会影响员工对雇主的看法以及他们在组织内的行为，但关于赞助对员工影响的现有知识仍然很少。这项研究响应了调查公司内部赞助战略应用的呼吁（Farrelly 等人在 J Sport Manag 26(6):506–520, 2012）。以信号理论和先前的赞助研究为基础，我们在一家瑞士零售公司的员工中开发并实证测试了一个赞助有效性模型。我们的研究结果表明，高水平的体育、文化和生态赞助质量，以及高水平的体育和生态赞助数量，通过员工对品牌形象的感知和品牌理解对品牌承诺和品牌行为产生积极影响。此外，赞助质量的影响要强于赞助数量。