Modelling Emotional and Attitudinal Evaluations of Major Sponsors

The paper reports findings from a larger study of sponsors and their relationship to sponsoredparties. In the present reporting, the focus is on sponsors. Rather than evaluating suchsponsorships in traditional effect hierarchical terms, a conceptual Sponsor Value Model isspecified as a structural equation model where the drivers are attitudes towards thesponsorship and emotions towards the sponsorship. It is found that the two classes ofvariables describe different aspects of the perception of sponsorships, and that they bothcontribute significantly to the overall value of sponsoring for a particular company. In thepresent paper, two cases are shown for two major sponsors. The specified Sponsor ValueModel is estimated by a partial least squares (PLS) method. It is found that the two sponsorsare perceived differently, both in terms of emotional and attitudinal responses. It is also foundthat the emotional responses aroused by the sponsorships are at least as important as thoseascribable to attitudinal elements.Key words: Sponsorship, emotional response, attitudes towards sponsorship, structuralequation model