The effect of simultaneous sponsorship of rival football teams

The present study investigated the impact of team identification and team-sponsor fit on the sponsor's brand equity. The study's main theoretical references are (a) the Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979); (b) the Schema Theory (Singer, 1968) and (c) the Associative Network Theories (Collins & Loftus, 1975), both about the functioning of the human memory; and (d) customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993). Research was conducted in Porto Alegre, RS, a Brazilian city where rival football (soccer) teams Grêmio and Internacional share their main sponsors, Banrisul and Unimed, since 2001 and 2002, respectively, a rare context that was previously studied only once before (Davies, Veloutsou, & Costa, 2006). The valid sample comprised 2,000 fans of both teams. The sample was non-probabilistic with equal gender and team quotas. Data analysis was performed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA); and the reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity of the constructs were verified. To test the substantive hypotheses, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using the ADF technique was applied. The empirical results suggest that, in the studied context, the sponsor's brand equity is more influenced by team-sponsor fit than by team identification, which is different from a non-rivalry sponsorship context.

本研究探讨了团队认同与团队-赞助商匹配度对赞助商品牌资产的影响。本研究的主要理论依据包括：(a) 社会认同理论（Social Identity Theory，Tajfel & Turner, 1979）；(b) 图式理论（Schema Theory，Singer, 1968）；(c) 聚焦人类记忆运作的联想网络理论（Associative Network Theories，Collins & Loftus, 1975）；以及(d) 基于顾客的品牌资产（customer-based brand equity，Keller, 1993）。研究在巴西南里奥格兰德州阿雷格里港开展，该市的两大宿敌足球俱乐部格雷米奥（Grêmio）与国际体育会（Internacional）自2001年、2002年起，分别共享主赞助商Banrisul与Unimed，这种罕见的研究场景此前仅被Davies、Veloutsou及Costa（2006）研究过一次。有效样本涵盖两队共计2000名球迷，样本采用非概率抽样，且性别与球队配额均等。数据分析采用探索性因子分析（Exploratory Factor Analysis, EFA）与验证性因子分析（Confirmatory Factor Analysis, CFA），检验了各构念的信度、收敛效度、区分效度与法则效度；为检验实质性研究假设，本研究采用基于ADF技术的结构方程模型（Structural Equation Modeling, SEM）开展分析。实证结果表明，在本研究场景中，赞助商品牌资产受团队-赞助商匹配度的影响程度大于团队认同，这与非宿敌赞助场景的研究结论存在差异。