Not All Desirable Companies are Good Sponsors: Consumers' Perceptions of the Transfer of Sponsorship of Their Sports Team

Abstract

This study aims to identify the adverse effects of undesirable sports sponsorships. It specifies and empirically tests the impact of the main sponsor by attribute type (original/undesirable/pro-social) on consumers’ team perceptions and purchase intentions for the team jersey. The moderating role of fan identification (high versus low) with the team and value congruence (high versus low) between consumers and the sponsor are also investigated. Using a sample of undergraduate students (n = 185) from the Republic of Korea, we found that the sponsor’s attribute type influences participants’ attitudes toward the sports team and purchase intentions for the team jersey. More specifically, participants scored their attitudes toward the team (Moriginal sponsor = 4.672, Mpro-social sponsor = 3.325, Mundesirable sponsor = 2.015, F = 73.491, p = .000) and purchase intentions for the jersey (Moriginal sponsor = 3.471, Mpro-social sponsor = 2.786, Mundesirable sponsor = 1.918, F = 16.100, p = .000). The results show that fan identification moderates the main effects of sponsor attributes on consumers’ attitudes toward the team (F = 4.571, p = .011) and purchase intentions team (F = 8.454, p = .000). They further reveal that value congruence moderates the effects of sponsor attributes on consumers’ attitudes toward the team (F = 6.132, p = .002). However, no significant interaction on the effects of sponsor attributes on consumers’ purchase intentions for the team jersey is found (F = .344, p = .853). The findings of the comprehensive analysis conducted in this study have several implications for practitioners of sports sponsorship communication. In addition, this study suggests focus areas for academic discussion and outlines future research directions.