Understanding consumer attitudes in cause-brand alliances in sports: the role of sport entity attitudes

This study examines the effects of congruence and reliability on cause-brand alliance (CBA) program attitudes—exploring how CBA program attitudes and sport entity attitudes affect attitudes toward a sport-related and sport-unrelated brand in a single CBA.

About 240 survey participants answered questions before and after being exposed to information about the NFL Play 60 program. Consistent partial least squares structural equation modeling is utilized to test the hypotheses.

Results suggest both congruence and reliability positively influence CBA program success; and both sport-related and sport-unrelated brands positively affect consumer attitudes when they participate in a CBA with a high-profile sport entity. This occurs directly through CBA program attitudes for a sport-unrelated brand and indirectly through sport entity attitudes for a sport-related brand.

This study extends the CBA literature in sports by showing (1) the role of reliability on CBA program attitudes, (2) the role of sport entity attitudes on other cause partner attitudes and (3) different paths for sport-related versus sport-unrelated brands that are partnered with a premium sport entity to achieve CBA program brand enhancements.