The Relevance of the Fit in Leveraging Sponsorships with Corporate Social Responsibility

Previous research suggests that sport sponsors successfully leverage sponsorships with corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives (Close Scheinbaum et al., 2017; Uhrich et al., 2014). These CSR-activities focus predominantly on social initiatives and merely use sport as a vehicle for demonstrating corporate social commitment, classified as CSR through sport (Smith & Westerbeek, 2007). This study aims to analyse how sport consumers perceive the sponsor’s brand when sponsors leverage their sports sponsorship with CSR activities and to what extent different fit-dimensions between the CSR-activity and the sports sponsorship influence the sponsorship outcomes.
The concepts of CSR and sports sponsorship have in common that both aim to enhance the corporate brand (Djaballah et al., 2017; Plewa et al., 2016). The sponsorship-fit, defined as the perceived degree of similarity between the sponsor and the sponsee (Olson & Thjømøe, 2011; Speed & Thompson, 2000), is one of the most powerful predictors of sponsorship outcomes (Kim et al., 2015; Pappu & Cornwell, 2014; Rifon et al., 2004). Extensive research on the fit construct in the sponsorship context has revealed a number of additional fit-dimensions, such as the sponsor-event-fit (Lorgnier et al., 2022) or the sponsor-sponsored-cause-fit (Pappu & Cornwell, 2014). We wonder whether the fit of the CSR-activity with the sponsorship – sponsorship-CSR-fit – influences the sponsorship outcomes. We define sponsorship-CSR-fit as the perceived degree of similarity between the CSR-activity and the sponsorship. We assume that a high sponsorship-CSR-fit leads to more favourable ATSB.
We run an experimental study in a between-subjects design with one experimental factor, leveraging the sponsorship with CSR in sport [ExpG 1]; CSR through sport [ExpG 2]) and one control group. The stimulus was presented to the respondents in the way of a classic advert. We conducted an online survey in Germany via a panel provider, quota stratified based on gender, age and place of living in Germany. We used the established scales and items and measured the sponsorship-CSR-fit as a new construct based on the CSR-fit items by Speed et al. (2000).
The ANCOVA analyses indicated a statistically significant positive influence of the type of CSR leveraging on the sponsorship-CSR-fit (F(1,514) = 19.62, p < .001, η2 = .04). Furthermore, we tested the mediation by applying Hayes process model (#6) with sponsorship-CSR-fit and sponsorship-fit as mediators. The results indicated that the type of leveraging the sponsorship with CSR had a significant indirect influence on the sponsor’s brand attitude via sponsorship-CSR-fit (B = -.08, [CI: -.13–-.03]) and via sponsorship-CSR-fit and sponsorship-fit (B = -.12, [CI: -.18–-.06]).
The empirical results revealed that the sponsorship-CSR-fit is a highly relevant construct, which significantly mediates the attitude towards the sponsor’s brand and the overall sponsorship-fit. This finding is a direct response to calls for more research on the topic of congruence in the sponsorship context by Cornwell and Kwon (2020) and Kim et al. (2015).