Sport Sponsorship and its Effect on the Employees of Sponsor

This research has been primarily performed with the aim of developing and analyzing a model of sponsorship effect on sponsor’s employees. First, the previous research in sponsorship was reviewed. Afterwards, a model was formulated within it, Team identification defines three sponsorship outcomes: perceived external prestige, organizational identification and organizational commitment. For testing the model, a questionnaire with 26 questions was designed and distributed among 360 employees of two major sponsors of a football team in Iran. Results of data analysis showed that team identification as one of the sponsorship antecedents, has an important effect on organizational image improvement among employees, their commitment and existing organizational identification. In addition, it was specified that team identification in turn, is influenced by the team social prestige. Moreover, in this research the moderating role of social contagion on the relationship between team identification and sponsorship outcomes was approved for the first time. While these variables have been used in the sponsorship literature before, they have not been empirically tested in an integrated model.