Corporate Objectives in Sports Sponsorship

This article considers corporate objectives in sports sponsorship. The important question is to determine why companies sponsor sport when there are other promotion techniques available to them. Reasons for sponsoring sport in the first place are discussed, as well as broad corporate objectives in becoming involved in sponsorships. This study involved a sample of 45 sponsors who received media exposure in South Africa between November 1984 and March 1985. Results show that the most important reasons for sponsoring sport include potential TV coverage, promoting the corporate image and the potential of spectators as customers. Anonymous sponsorship, even philanthropic, is rare.     

Drivers of brand image improvement in sports-event sponsorship

This stock-taking article re-examines 20 years of research on conditions that influence the magnitude of brand image improvement through sports-event sponsorship. The study suggests a procedure to adequately measure sponsor image change in field sponsorships and investigates potential factors related to the sponsored property, the sponsorship relationship, the sponsor, and the individual sports spectator that may affect the magnitude of sponsor image improvement. An empirical analysis in the context of a large sponsored sports event shows that some drivers influence sponsor image improvement directly in a multiple regression analysis (spectators’ perceived event image, event–sponsor fit, sponsor familiarity, and product category importance), while other drivers are related to sponsor image in bivariate analyses only (spectators’ event interest, sport interest, event exposure, and demographic characteristics). Reasons for these findings (e.g., interrelationship between drivers of sponsor image improvement), managerial implications, and consequences for the development of a comprehensive model of sponsor image formation are discussed.     

Newspapers' Content Policy and the Effect of Paywalls on Pageviews

This paper examines the impact of newspaper paywalls on daily pageviews, and how their impact varies across newspapers as a function of their content provisioning strategies. Our data consist of daily pageviews of 42 newspapers that introduced a paywall during the eight-year analysis period from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2017. We find that a paywall has a negative impact on daily pageviews for most newspapers, but that the impact varies significantly across them. Newspapers that publish proportionately more articles on politics, business/economics, sports, and general social news tend to perform better with a paywall than newspapers that publish proportionately fewer articles on those topics. Interestingly, the effectiveness varies substantially across news topics. For example, increasing the proportion of business/economics news by 1% is nearly 1.4 times more effective than increasing the proportion of general social news by the same percentage in mitigating the negative impact of a paywall. We also find that newspapers with proportionately more unique content and papers with a more liberal slant experience a smaller drop in pageviews. These results have important managerial implications for newspapers—especially pure-play online news publishers (for whom online advertising is the primary revenue source)—regarding how to develop and manage their content policy with paywall adoptions.     

Retweet if you please! Do news factors explain engagement?

Stakeholders’ engagement with corporate messages is crucial for companies that want to increase their social media coverage. However, our understanding of the content-related factors that drive stakeholders’ engagement is still poor. Drawing from the literature on news selection and distribution, this paper explores whether the relevant news values that are already found in corporate messages could also explain greater engagement in social media. In particular, six news factors were examined in a sample of 2331 tweets that were posted by the Euro Stoxx 50 companies. The results show that four news factors (in particular, Prominence, Entertainment, Immediacy, and to a lesser extent Human interest) play a role in the drive of content sharing through retweets and favorites. Additionally, the inclusion of hashtags and media content helps increase retweets and favorites. Finally, we observe differences among industries. In particular, firms operating in business-to-business industries obtain less reach through sharing. The implications of these results are relevant for social media strategists as they suggest avenues to increase followers’ engagement with company-produced content.     

基于品牌推广的企业体育营销策略分析

体育营销作为现在一种重要的营销手段,对公司产品的品牌推广有着无与伦比的作用。重大体育赛事具有高度的关注度,媒体参与报道的力度也是空前的,品牌曝光率往往因此发挥到最大化。部分企业在新产品的品牌推广时会借助体育营销来搭建一个高效率的载体,但同时这也是一个风险承担的过程。体育营销战略的制定是否契合企业的品牌推广和企业的整体营销模式,则需要我们进一步的分析和思考     

Translation Strategies of Sports Headlines from English to Chinese

Headlines are indispensable components in news reports. The translation of headlines is a vital to the whole. However, so far it failed to attract enough attention of domestic translators. Based on English sports news examples, this paper probes into the profiles of English sports headlines including the definition, characteristics and function. In particular, the paper proposes some approaches to proper translation of English sports headlines into Chinese. Translators should employ different strategies under specific circumstances.     

Putting sport into organizations: The role of the accountant

This paper examines how organizations can promote in their employees similarly high levels of interest, motivation, and fun that participants in sports commonly experience. Particular emphasis is placed on the role accountants can play in using what this paper terms hygiene and elevating factors. Hygiene factors ensure the fair and transparent recording of financial events; without them, the sport of work cannot occur. Elevating factors allow employees to experience their work as fun and enjoyable, and ultimately provide the basis for a high-quality game of work. In helping to put sport into work, accountants will find themselves creating systems that go well beyond what they have done in the past, and dismantling some of the systems they once worked so hard to construct and oversee.     

The impact of title event sponsorship announcements on shareholder wealth

Title sponsorships are often considered the crown jewels of sports sponsorship programs. Garnering top media coverage, title sponsorships are prized for both generating brand/product awareness and building image for their sponsors. Not surprisingly, the rising cost of title sponsorships has led some managers to question their underlying value. Accordingly, this study presents an analysis of the impact of 114 title sponsorship announcements of professional tennis and golf tournaments (both men’s and women’s), auto racing (NASCAR), and college bowl games on the stock prices of sponsoring firms. Overall, the results of the study suggest that title sponsorships are generally signed at market-clearing prices. Thus, companies undertaking title sponsorships typically receive exactly what they pay for—except in the case of NASCAR races (which show evidence of increases in share prices). Splitting the sample into new and renewing sponsorships generates results which differ dramatically by sport. Finally, a cross-sectional regression finds congruence of sport and sponsor, sponsorship by high tech firms and sponsorships by large firms all correlated with perceived sponsorship success.     

Do Web Users Care About Banner Ads Anymore? The Effects of Frequency and Clutter in Web Advertising

This study investigates the effects of frequency of exposure to banner ads and ad clutter in web pages upon online users’ psychological responses. In a 7 (frequency 1 through 7) × 2 (clutter vs. non-clutter) between-participants factorial experiment, participants (N = 250) were randomly assigned to one of fourteen news websites, each with 20 separate pages of news stories and animated banner ads downloaded from various websites. Results indicated that frequency of exposure is a powerful psychological cue affecting users’ memory, attitudes, and behavior. However, contrary to expectation, banner clutter does not lead to negative effects on recall, attitudes, and behavior. Negative impact of banner clutter was significant only on ad recognition.     

安徽皖籍大学生体育旅游行为调查研究

对安徽皖籍大学生体育旅游选择的认知度、出游方式、消费能力等体育旅游行为进行调查研究,并根据数据分析得出安徽皖籍大学生绝大多数对体育旅游是既喜欢又不了解,最感兴趣的项目是健康型,出游时间相对集中在暑假和周末,喜欢选择夏、秋两季出行,出行多数选择火车和汽车,多数月生活费在500元到800元之间,体育旅游消费能力随着金额的增加呈递减的消费趋势。因此,相关部门应加强对安徽皖籍大学生体育旅游知识的宣传,努力开发针对安徽皖籍大学生的中低档健康型体育旅游项目。     

Are sports sponsorship announcements good news for shareholders? A meta-analysis

The number of studies on the marketing–finance interface has escalated in response to increased interest in the value of marketing investments, such as sports sponsorship. This study integrates current research findings and establishes empirical generalizations on how sports sponsorship announcements impact firm value. The empirical literature finds contradicting results on the value shareholders place on these marketing investments. This paper addresses this issue by undertaking a meta-analysis on stock reactions to sport sponsorship announcements, using 3192 of these announcements taken from 36 studies (41 samples). On aggregate, these announcements drew the attention of shareholders since there was a positive and significant cumulative abnormal return (CAR). However, this positive effect was mostly observed in the 1990s and became negative in the 2000s. Overall, shareholders viewed sports sponsorship investments favorably when there was a functional and geographical congruence between sponsors and sponsees. This paper also shows that the differences in the CAR can be explained by controlling for confounding events and host country. The paper concludes by providing potential avenues for further research in sports sponsorship, using the event study method.     

对我国体育服装企业原料采购趋势的研究

随着我国体育服装业的发展,体育服装已不再限于体育活动、从事运动训练和运动竞赛使用,更成为休闲、时尚的代表,被大众普遍接受和使用。本文根据体育服装制造行业的特性,对体育服装原料采购中的几点问题进行了分析、探讨。     

Bump,Set, Spike: An Analysis of Commentary and Camera Angles of Women's Beach Volleyball During the 2004 Summer Olympics

SUMMARY

Content analysis was employed to examine the commentary and camera angles of six beach volleyball games from the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Based on previous research in the area of gender and sport commentary, and based on pre-coverage of the Olympics, it was expected that a high level of sexualized talk and concentration on the athletes' body parts would be prevalent. While sexuality and sex difference were not found in audio coverage of the games, they were highly evident in the video coverage of the games. More than 20% of the camera shots were found to be tight shots of the players' chests and just over 17% of the shots were coded as buttock shots, which, it is argued, leaves viewers with lasting memories of players' bodies rather than of memories of athleticism. Such analysis of the visual coverage of the games confirms that sex and sexuality were used to not only promote the athletes but to sell the sport to viewers around the world.     

The Effect of Media Coverage on the Pricing of Seasoned Equity Offerings

This paper examines the role of media coverage and investor attention on the outcomes of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). I use an archive of Thomson Reuters news articles to proxy for firm visibility and investor attention. I find that the volumes of news articles prior to the offerings are positively associated with the offer price discounts of SEOs. Furthermore, the volumes of news articles are negatively associated with the cumulative abnormal returns three days around the SEOs. I conclude that the costs of equity increase with media coverage prior to SEOs. Overall, the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that media coverage affects investors' information processing in SEOs. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Access to Major Events on Television under European Law

Technological developments within the broadcasting sector, the emergence of more commercially minded sports governing bodies, and an insatiable popular appetite to consume sport on television have resulted in a growing number of major sporting events being broadcast on pay-TV rather than on a free-to-air basis. The paper explores attempts to secure public access on free-to-air television through the provisions of Article 3a of the European Union’s Television Without Frontiers Directive and the changes introduced by the Audiovisual Media Services Directive. In doing so it assesses the consequences of the legislation on consumers, broadcasters, sports governing bodies, and other interested stakeholders. The regime appears to have wide support yet has attracted critical comment from those unable to identify clarity and justification in the choices made by the Community legislature. The paper broadly agrees with these concerns but focuses the attention on the reasons for choosing the regime. It argues that regulation is sustained by two contradictory arguments. First, it is defended on the grounds that the EU’s sports policy subsystem has become infected with single market and commercial norms which have undermined the socio-cultural basis of sport and contributed to a juridification of sport. In these terms, the access rules represent a defence of these traditional values. Second, they are defended on the grounds that, due to its specificity and public character, sport has been afforded a wide margin of appreciation by the EU and that the type of regulation allowed for is a down payment on this immunity and a reflection of the state’s stake in sport. Clearly both arguments cannot be simultaneously sustained. The paper explores these arguments by locating the analysis within the context of Sabatier’s advocacy coalition framework. The paper’s focus is limited to the impact on sporting events rather than other “major events” and it only briefly considers the issue of short reporting.

Neue Ordnung,neues Glück?

The German sports betting market has traditionally been characterised by highly controversial regulation that includes a strong role for public actors and strict limitations for public companies. This paper explores recent developments in the regulation of sports betting in Germany and provides a simple theoretical analysis of its legitimacy. The paper then focuses on the taxation of sport betting, one of the most disputed matters, and provides an overview of the consequences of the new taxation regime introduced in 2012 as well as a comparison of the German situation with that of other European countries.     

The Shaping of a Society’s Economic Ethos: A Longitudinal Study of Individuals’ Morality of Profit-Making Worldview

This study investigates the processes involved in the shaping of a society’s economic ethos. The discussion of ethics and economics has a very long history across multiple disciplines. The founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, likewise had a keen interest in this topic. However, with the development of economic science, scholarly assessment has shifted toward positive analysis while normative analysis has been left mainly to philosophers. By utilizing the newly developed morality of profit-making scale (MPM), the authors sought to understand how respondents’ economic ethical worldview shifts over time. Specifically, we theorized that the news media’s copious negative coverage of the gasoline price crisis of 2006 would significantly impact individuals’ MPM worldview. The results show that respondents’ explicit attitudes toward MPM were significantly impacted. However, respondents’ more deeply held, implicit economic ethical worldview was only slightly impacted. The authors argue that only patient, long-term explanation and argumentation can permanently affect a society’s economic ethos. Implications and future research directions for business researchers are outlined.     

Media Coverage and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns: The Chinese Evidence

Using hand‐collected news headlines for a large sample of listed firms in China over a period of 2000–2015, we investigate the cross‐sectional relation between media coverage and stock returns. Our results document that no‐media coverage stocks earn 55 basis points a month higher than stocks that are featured in the media. This result is robust after controlling for common risk factors and is not driven by short‐run return reversals. Further analysis provides evidence to support the investor recognition hypothesis, suggesting that mass media may play an incremental role in providing a supplement to traditional channels of information dissemination. Therefore, results in this paper are of interests to both investors and regulators on drivers of stock returns.