Both esports sponsors and academia are not aware of how disreputable behavior in the esports scene can negatively affect their brands. Hence, this research aimed at identifying which types of ...disreputable behavior in competitive gaming present the biggest threats to esports sponsors. In this quantitative and exploratory research, a non-probability, purposive, and heterogeneous sampling method was employed to gather a sample of 1,592 esports fans who filled a closed-ended online survey. Results showed that illegal and unregulated gambling was a high-risk threat to esports sponsors; toxic behavior, match-fixing, and cheating were labeled as medium-risk threats; and sexism, cyberattacks, and doping were found to be low-risk threats. Besides being one of the first studies on esports sponsorships, which serves as a basis for future research in this market, the findings contribute to the sustainability of the esports industry and its sponsors. Managerial implications are also discussed.
Women and underrepresented in medicine and the health sciences (URiM) faculty face inequities in advancement. Career sponsorship may be a remedy. Few studies have described sponsorship in academic ...medicine and none across an institution.
To examine faculty awareness, experiences, and perceptions of sponsorship at a large academic health center.
Anonymous online survey.
Faculty with a ≥50% appointment.
The survey contained 31 Likert, multiple-choice, yes/no, and open-ended questions about familiarity with the concept of sponsorship; experience of having or being a sponsor; receipt of specific sponsorship activities; sponsorship impact and satisfaction; mentorship and sponsorship co-occurrence; and perception of inequities. Open-ended questions were analyzed using content analysis.
Thirty-one percent of the surveyed faculty (903/2900) responded of whom 53% (477/903) were women and 10% (95/903) were URiM. Familiarity with sponsorship was higher among assistant (91%, 269/894) and associate (182/894; 64%) professors versus full professors (38%, 329/894); women (67%, 319/488) versus men (62%, 169/488); and URiM (77%, 66/517) versus non-URiM faculty (55%, 451/517). A majority had a personal sponsor (528/691; 76%) during their career and were satisfied with their sponsorship (64%, 532/828). However, when responses from faculty of different professorial ranks were stratified by gender and URiM identity, we observed possible cohort effects. Furthermore, 55% (398/718) of respondents perceived that women received less sponsorship than men and 46% (312/672) that URiM faculty received less than their peers. We identified seven qualitative themes: sponsorship importance, growing awareness and change, institutional biases and deficiencies, groups getting less sponsorship, people with sponsorship power, conflation with mentorship, and potential for negative impact.
A majority of respondents at a large academic health center reported sponsorship familiarity, receipt, and satisfaction. Yet many perceived persistent institutional biases and the need for systematic change to improve sponsorship transparency, equity, and impact.
PurposeThis study investigated the potential negative effects of a sponsored team's losing performance on audiences' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand. Shedding light on the ...moderating role of sponsoring brand familiarity among audiences and audience team identification regarding such negative effects, the study establishes when sports sponsorship may incur risk to a sponsoring brand.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental designs (audience as stimulus of a team's losing vs control condition) were used to indicate whether and when losing performance influences participants' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand.FindingsThe participants in the losing condition report lower brand trust and purchase intention. Brand trust mediates the relationship between losing results and decreased purchase intention. The negative effects of losing on brand trust and purchase intention only appear when the sponsoring brand has low familiarity among audiences and only for audiences with low identification.Practical implicationsThe strategy of a brand with low familiarity sponsoring a team that frequently loses has risks and is not worth advocating. However, if an unknown brand has already sponsored a team that often loses, the efforts to cultivate audiences' identification with the team can reduce the potential risks.Originality/valueThe affirmed negative effects of losing performance on brand trust and purchase intention have value for firm sponsorship decisions. This study contributes to the sponsorship literature by revealing two boundary conditions (sponsoring brand familiarity and audiences' team identification) for those negative effects.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has profound socio-economic consequences. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, so this paper focuses on radical changes to accepted practice in project ...organizing in response. In particular, we focus on schedule compression to deliver outputs to mitigate the immediate impact of the pandemic on health. In the spirit of engaged scholarship, which is problem-driven rather than theory-driven, we address directly the evidence of what happened in two empirical vignettes and one more substantial case study – the CoronavirusUY app; emergency field hospitals; and vaccine development. We then suggest the implications for project management theory in discussion.
•Radical changes to accepted practices in project organizing in response to COVID-19 Pandemic.•Selectionism, agile, sponsorship, schedule compression.•Implications for project management theory.
Despite the growing relevance of influencer marketing, recent research suggests that consumers have negative reactions to social media ads. Our research investigates how different types of disclosure ...(paid partnership vs. in-text disclosure) and post content (experiential vs. material) mitigate consumers’ negative reactions to social media advertisements. Four preregistered studies, drawing on the social exchange theory, reveal how the post content shapes the sponsorship disclosure effects. In particular, we show that a paid partnership (vs. in-text) disclosure has a positive impact on consumers’ responses (engagement and purchase intent) and that persuasion resistance mediates the effects. Furthermore, Study 3 reveals that the type of content (experiential vs. material) moderates the effect, such that consumers’ negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure are mitigated with experiential (vs. material) content. Overall, our results provide actionable implications for tourism marketers on how to create advertisements in social media, minimizing negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure.
The aim of the article is to explain attitudes towards the sponsors of a sporting event from brand management, especially considering the perceptions of congruence with the sponsor, quality, value, ...and two less common variables of innovation and popularity. The analysis has been carried out using two methodological approaches: a Partial Least Squares (PLS) model and a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). PLS results indicate that congruence, innovation and popularity significantly predict attitudes towards the sponsor, explaining up to 61% of it. On the other hand, QCA analysis shows nine interactions capable of producing the expected result, where congruence, quality innovation and popularity have shown a relevant role. This study has implications at a theoretical and practical level, contributing to understanding consumer behaviour in the context of sporting events and providing marketing managers with valuable information to help improve the performance of their sponsorships.
This article, with the benefit of hindsight, analyzes the accuracy (and inaccuracy) of my February 2001 article in the American Behavioral Scientist seeking to answer, “what is the future of ...terrorism?” I discovered that Shakespeare had it right, “The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, But in ourselves if we are underlings.” There are two major factors that produce and sustain international terrorism—state sponsorship of individuals and groups that carry out terrorist acts and the actions of nation states that create an aggrieved class that is inspired to use violence to try to achieve political objectives or simply to avenge a perceived wrong. The conclusion reached in 2001 remains valid—Prevention and preparation can pay important dividends in deterring terrorism. But a government’s response must be tempered with reason and prudence. Security and law enforcement policies must reflect the values and the vision that protect and uphold freedom.
Existing research provides contradictory insights regarding the effect of public sponsorship on the market performance of organizations. We develop the nascent theory on sponsorship by highlighting ...the dual and contingent nature of the relationship between public sponsorship and market performance. By arguing that sponsorship differentially affects resource accumulation and allocation mechanisms, we suggest two opposing firm-level effects, leading to an inverted U-shaped relationship between the amount of public sponsorship received and the market performance of sponsored organizations. This nonlinear relationship, we argue, is moderated by the breadth, depth, and focus of the focal organization's resource accumulation and allocation patterns. While horizontal scope (i.e., increased breadth) and an externally oriented resource profile (i.e., reduced depth) strengthen the relationship, market orientation (i.e., increased focus) attenuates it. We test and find strong support for our hypotheses using population data on French film productions firms from 1998 to 2008. Our work highlights the performance trade-offs associated with public sponsorship, and carries important managerial and policy implications.
This article develops a theoretical model on the role of sponsorship in organizations as a double-edged sword. We highlight the political nature of sponsorship that is entrenched in formal authority ...relations, as it signals employee allegiance and affects career advancement through strategic appointments. We further distinguish the effect of sponsorship from that of sponsorship loss, highlighting the precariousness of sponsorship contingency in the face of leadership successions. The negative effect of sponsorship loss is mitigated by diverse networks, however, which dilute the loyalty affiliation to a particular sponsor and provide “robust action.” The theoretical model is empirically tested in a study of mobility patterns in a large, multi-layered Chinese bureaucracy of over 32,000 officials during a 19-year period, from 1990 to 2008.
Purpose
Drawing on the corporate association framework and attribution theory, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the shield effects of CSR-linked sport sponsorship on consumer ...attitudes toward a sponsor, attribution patterns in a sponsor’s service failure and repurchase intentions and second, to investigate the halo effect of CSR-linked sport sponsorship on corporate ability (CA) associations and the relationship between CA associations and consequential variables in the context of service failure.
Design/methodology/approach
A scenario-based two-factor (sponsorship types: baseline vs sport sponsorship vs CSR-linked sport sponsorship × service failure types: flight delay vs cancellation) experimental design was employed.
Findings
The results indicate that CSR-linked sport sponsorship outperforms non-CSR sport sponsorship in forming CSR association and developing CA association. Both CSR and CA associations are found to positively influence the consumer’s attitude toward a service provider. Consumers with positive attitudes attribute the sponsor’s service failure to external factors, leading to repurchase intention after a service failure.
Originality/value
This study connects two fields of research, service failure and sport sponsorship, thereby providing evidence on how CSR-linked sport sponsorship can play a shield role in the context of service failure and whether CSR-linked sport sponsorship can be a proactive strategy for service providers in industries where service failures are inevitable. Additionally, this study provides empirical evidence on whether CSR-linked sponsorship can lead consumers to perceive service quality as “doing right leads to doing well” by creating a halo effect.
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