While much of the sponsorship literature has focused on analyzing the effects of sponsorship on consumers (e.g., Gwinner, 1997; Madrigal, 2001; Rajaretnam, 1994), research on the internal effects of sponsorship on a sponsor company's workforce has been rare (Grimes & Meenaghan, 1998; Hickman, Lawrence, & Ward, 2005). At the same time, both, sponsorship and internal marketing researchers have recommended further investigation of the use of external marketing tools such as sponsorship for internal marketing purposes (Cornwell & Maignan, 1995; Dolphin, 2003; Lings & Greenley, 2005). The purpose of this study was to assess how sponsorship as a marketing communications tool affects employees' perceptions of an organization's corporate image, their person-organization fit, and organizational identification. Data were collected from employees of a quick service restaurant chain (N=231). After establishing the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument, multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between four different sponsorship factors and the outcome variables. Sponsor-property fit perceptions as well as the perceived sponsor goodwill were most influential on all the outcome factors, while a personal interest in the sport by employees appeared to foster organizational identification. Overall, the study results suggested that attitudes towards sponsorship activities rub off on employees in a similar way as they do on consumers, and supported its use as a potential internal marketing tool. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sport and Recreation Management in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008. / Date of Defense: April 22, 2008. / Sponsorship, Marketing, Strategic Management, Sport sponsorship, Internal Marketing, Marketing Communications / Includes bibliographical references. / Aubrey Kent, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joe Cronin, Outside Committee Member; Jeffrey James, Committee Member; Michael Mondello, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168697 |
| Contributors | Zepf, Birgit (authoraut), Kent, Aubrey (professor directing dissertation), Cronin, Joe (outside committee member), James, Jeffrey (committee member), Mondello, Michael (committee member), Department of Sport Management (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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