Are sponsors blamed for edging off? Consumer reactions to sponsorship terminations

Oliver Schnittka (), Alexander Himme (), Dominik Papies () and David Pellenwessel ()
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Oliver Schnittka: University of Southern Denmark (Esbjerg)
Alexander Himme: Kühne Logistics University
Dominik Papies: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
David Pellenwessel: University of Hamburg

Journal of Business Economics, 2017, vol. 87, issue 7, No 4, 943-984

Abstract: Abstract Firms regularly terminate sponsorships, even without publicly known misconduct by the sponsee such as athlete doping. Consumer reactions to these sponsorship terminations by firms have not been studied despite being a regular occurrence. Using a set of experimental studies, this paper analyzes consumer reactions to these sponsorship terminations (i.e., early and non-renewal) that were not caused by a sponsee’s misconduct, the underlying process that causes the reactions, and the role of several moderating factors (trust, power balance, and locus of control). Our findings reveal that sponsorship terminations have a negative effect on sponsors’ brand images—particularly early terminations that occur before the end of a contract—because consumers perceive these sponsorship terminations as unfair. The results also suggest that a termination is particularly harmful for the sponsor’s perceived fairness if the sponsor is powerful and if the termination decision is under the sponsor’s control. Further, the termination effect is particularly strong for firms that consumers trust.

Keywords: Sponsorship; Sponsorship termination; Fairness; Trust; Power balance; Locus of control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M30 M31 M39 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1007/s11573-017-0859-3

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