An exploratory investigation into the effectiveness of team kit sponsorship: Fans' perspectives of new sponsorship in the German Bundesliga

Out with the old and in with the new: a study of new kit sponsorship and brand associations in the Barclays Premier League

“…Significantly, the literature posits that "sport is a natural area for sponsorship" (Gwinner and Swanson, 2005, p. 275), given that a "sports brand" can elicit "greater emotional resonance and therefore engender greater loyalty than other commercial brands" (Abosag et al, 2012, p. 1,236). This position has generated a sizable body of literature (Gijsenberg, 2014;Cornwell and Humphreys, 2013;Renard and Sitz, 2011;Abosag et al, 2012;Ngan et al, 2011;Cornwell, 2008;Cornwell et al, 2006;Cornwell et al, 2005;Carrillat et al, 2005;Chadwick and Thwaites, 2004;Fahy et al, 2004;Clark et al, 2002), with emphasis placed on the proposition that loyal consumers (Dick and Basu, 1994) or fans (Thomas and Roeseler, 2013) are essential to the creation of brand equity (Kunkel et al, 2013;Kaynak et al, 2007;James, 2001, 2004;Kolbe and James, 2000). Recent research in the field has seen a broad range of investigations including evaluations of "spectator" and fan involvement (Biscaia et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2011;Ngan et al, 2011), the impact of COO (country of origin) on sponsor evaluations (Meng-Lewis et al, 2013), shirt sponsors (Jensen et al, 2013(Jensen et al, , 2012, niche sports (Greenhalgh and Greenwell, 2013), brand extensions (Abosag et al, 2012), fan rivalry (Bergkvist, 2012), schadenfreude (the pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others) amongst fans (Dalakas and Melancon, 2012), individual athletes (Antil et al, 2012), forays into the FIFA World Cup (Woisetschläger and Michaelis, 2012), and, more recently, stadium naming and fan resistance…”

“…However, little is known about new entrants into Europe's elite football leagues, with only one paper to date directly evaluating kit sponsorship in Germany's Fußball-Bundesliga (Thomas and Roeseler, 2013). Subsequently, it is apparent that there is an empirical dearth when it comes to fans and new sponsorship, despite Kaynak et al (2007, p. 337) stating that it is "essential for clubs or teams [and sponsors] to better understand their fans" and Renard and Sitz (2011, p. 125) advocating that a brand becomes defined "by the consumers it targets".…”

Exploring children’s reactions to sponsorship transition: a study of interpersonal and pro-social demands

“…Fans, then, are “the supreme authority” (Dionísio et al , 2008, p. 18), and without them, games, leagues, sports and, indeed, sponsors potentially perish. However, Doyle et al (2013) advocated that that fan behaviour and fan identification are not fixed entities and work by Thomas and Roeseler (2013) found fans to be fickle, capricious entities, wary of sponsors and reticent in relation to loyalty and commitment. This echoes work by Thomas (2018), who suggested that sponsorship does not always deepen bonds with fans, and we posit that these behaviours need to be explored in the context of children, as children make their own knowledge of the world around them (Agante and Pascoal, 2019).…”

“…only Thomas and Roeseler (2013) and Thomas (2015) have explored this transition. Their studies incorporated the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga or Bundesliga and the EPL, incorporating leading clubs (Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur), and concluded that adult fans viewed this period with cynicism (Thomas, 2015), questioning the "overarching positivity associated with sponsorship" (Thomas and Roeseler, 2013, p. 188) and the notion that fans engage volitionally with transition.…”

An evaluation of the effectiveness of rugby event sponsorship: a study of Dove Men+Care and the Welsh Rugby Union

“…Much of the prevailing literature on sports sponsorship has stemmed from the need to test consumer attitudes within a hypo-deductive framework (Bergkvist, 2012;Dalakas and Melancon, 2012;Dees et al, 2008;Fawzi, 2010;Ngan et al, 2011;Pettinga and DeGaris, 2011;Tribou, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2012), rather than trying to understand the consumer, their experience and their intrinsic attitude. Therefore, given the current state of the literature, this paper builds on the approach taken by Alexander (2007) and Motion et al (2003) in relation to rugby and acknowledges the work of Thomas and Roeseler (2013), who have called for additional qualitative contributions to fully explore the true interaction between fan, brand, perception and receptiveness.…”