The changing game of sponsorship

The phenomenon of sponsorship developed into a complex ecosystem with interactions among profit and non-profit organizations involved in local, regional, national, and international communities. Sponsorship became increasingly important in the marketing domain to leverage engagement and conversations with stakeholders through meaningful content. The academic field of sponsorship has grown with various contributions to discover its patterns and challenges. Nevertheless, there is a knowledge gap regarding the longitudinal perspectives and developments of the phenomenon of sponsorship. For most part, research has not considered the influence of the overall ecosystem as an interconnected network, with the developments over time of the impact and context moderators for the dynamics of sponsorship.

The general introduction of this PhD study provided insights on these dynamics of sponsorship by the fundamental aspects of corporate community involvement. The changing game of sponsorship has been introduced. Furthermore, the context of international football and the structure of this PhD study has been defined in the general introduction. Building on previous corporate community involvement research and literature reviews on sponsorship, three stages of corporate community involvement were identified, including the philanthropic, transactional, and integrative stage. The types of relationships between sponsors and sponsees in these stages differed in terms of powerbalances, the related approaches to create impact, and the intentions of the value creation processes. This staging of corporate community involvement and the related characteristics enabled to clarify the phenomenon of sponsorship as starting point to define the changing game of sponsorship.

This PhD study has been structured as three parts with multiple studies within each part. This applied trilogy contributed to the influence and overall developments of the ecosystem from a longitudinal approach. Consequently, the conducted studies in this PhD trilogy aimed to provide valuable insights to understand the developments that have changed the game of sponsorship over the past decades, how the impact of sponsorship developed over time, and what developments emerge as game changers for the sponsorship ecosystem.

The changed game of sponsorship
The first part of the trilogy examined the developments in the international ecosystem of football that have changed the game of sponsorship over the past decades. This first part includes three chapters that aimed to clarify the developments from a historical perspective. What developments in the international ecosystem of football have changed the game of sponsorship over the past decades?

In chapter 1, the parallels of football’s global progress and globalization processes were examined to define the changing rules in global football. The developments into a global world affected the dynamics of sponsorship in the context of international football. Four stages of globalization in the context of international football were defined, including geographical, commercial, digital, and social globalization. This historical approach to the global development of football is used as a backbone to understand the challenges ahead. The chapter concluded by projecting future dynamics of global football, featuring the challenges and dilemmas that are rooted in the industry.

The second chapter explored the variety of industries and origins of the sponsors in the English Premier League (EPL) since its rebranding in 1992. The companies involved in professional football sponsorships represented a variety of industries and origins. Based on a systematic and longitudinal review of all 1404 shirts sponsors within the EPL between 1992 and 2021, the developments enabled to define an interconnected periodization of five sponsorship industry eras and four sponsorship globalization eras. This study clarified the changing playing field, indicated a periodization of sponsorship eras, and defined the current state of play of sponsorships in English football.

In the third chapter, the evolution of video simulation games in football has been studied from a historical perspective. Building on the external factors that have changed the game of sponsorship, the dynamics of the gaming and esports communities have been examined in more detail. The virtual equivalents of the traditional sports games radically transformed the sports ecosystem and the related business perspectives. Similarities and differences were drawn between football and football esports in the perspective of globalization processes to understand the rise of the phenomenon of sports esports and the intertwining of the communities within the ecosystem of international football.

The changing impact of sponsorship
In the second part of the trilogy, the developments of the changing impact of sponsorship have been investigated within the context of international football. This part includes three chapters that contributed to the unexplored areas related to the effects in sponsorship using longitudinal study designs and an ecosystem approach. How has the impact of sponsorship developed over time within the context of international football?

In chapter 4, the impact of sponsorship has been explored on the sponsors’ brand equity among different fan profiles. Within the context of the UEFA Champions League (UCL), the prestigious international professional football competition of European clubs, the sponsorship impact within three long-term sponsorships were studied for 17 years in 5 different countries. The analyses of over 111,000 respondents generated valuable patterns on sponsorship awareness, brand awareness, brand image, and purchase behaviours. The findings indicated how the impact of sponsorship on consumer-based brand equity developed over the years and how this was significantly different among fan segments.

Chapter 5 contributed to these findings by investigating the dynamics of sponsorship outcomes with its growth, stabilization, and decline patterns. A longitudinal study design was used to analyse the sponsorship awareness of all 32 official UCL sponsors during the 35 measurements in 5 different countries between 2003 and 2020. The dynamics followed the logic of a life cycle with distinctive phases, resulting in the development of a sponsorship life cycle. This seven-phase model include the introduction (announcement and launch of sponsorship), growth (first and second growth phase), maturity (stabilization and third growth phase), and decline (downturn and decrease) phase with different characteristics.

In chapter 6, the relationship between sponsorship loyalty and sportive success was explored. This longitudinal study has been conducted among 49 EPL clubs, 1404 sponsorship years and 450 sponsoring companies between 1992 and 2021. Most of the relationships between sportive success, stability of sportive performances, and sponsorship origins on sponsorship loyalty were highly significant. These patterns enabled to further understand the contextual moderators in the sponsoring process and the relationship with the duration of sponsorships in the complex ecosystem. These findings supported long-term sponsorships as the favourite approach to obtain sustainable impact compared to short term sponsorships.

Game changers for sponsorship
In the third part of the trilogy, the game changers for sponsorship were examined to understand the new roles of corporate community involvement and related social engagement. What developments emerge as game changers for the sponsorship ecosystem in international football? Four chapters contributed to this investigation with a focus on two crucial aspects that further change the game of sponsorship. First, the changing playing field of sports, gaming, and esports has been explored in chapter 7, 8, and 9. Second, the sponsorship approaches and engagement patterns in social and environmental issues as part of the sponsorship ecosystem were examined in chapter 10.

Chapter 7 explored the impact of the developments of football esports on brands, partnerships, and business opportunities of the international football industry. The commercial playing field of international football has radically changed due to the professionalization of football simulation games into football esports. These developments accelerated and stimulated new challenges and opportunities for all actors involved. Since the ecosystem of football esports substantially differed from the traditional football ecosystem, various actors were defined resulting in eighteen brand categories. These brand categories were characterized and illustrated with international cases.

Chapter 8 contributed to the understanding of the various ways of interplay between sports and gaming. Using a multi-case study design, the value co-creation processes of these communities were identified, categorized, and clarified to understand the emerging patterns of the connecting spaces and to redefine the modern sportscape. Thirteen dimensions in the conducted virtual sportscape have been identified as categorization of the complementary dynamics between sporting and gaming communities. The related activities and interactions that happen in inclusive and exclusive places and more in particular the spaces (e.g., information, mental, social spaces) that affect the wider social accessibility, exclusions and inequalities of sports and leisure practices.

In chapter 9, the interdependence of the traditional sports and esports were clarified by the simulation of professional sports reality and by the reality of sports simulation. The simulation of professional sports reality became increasingly part of the sports ecosystem by the realistic simulation of (a) in-game reality, (b) management reality, and (c) community reality in the professional sports simulation video games. The reality of sports simulation encompasses (a) esports of sports, (b) esports in sports, and (c) sport in esports. The dynamics were supported by examples of cases in the context of international football.

Chapter 10 contributed to another game changer for sponsorship. Contextual changes in communications, social activism, and perceptions of commercialization have changed the dynamics in sponsorship. Sponsors were increasingly challenged to support, reject, or dissociate themselves from social and environmental issues. The patterns on sponsorship and social justice were investigated among twelve official sponsors within the context of the European Football Championships. During UEFA EURO 2020, five official sponsors changed their sponsorship activations. The analyses of over 90,000 press photos and 51 official match videos enabled to identify factors affecting the different strategies of brand positioning on diversity and inclusion.

The finite and infinite game of sponsorship
This PhD trilogy has provided valuable patterns, conceptualizations, and insights into the developments of the changed game of sponsorship, the changing impact of sponsorship, and the game changers of sponsorship. The discovered dynamics in this changing game of sponsorship reflected the conceptualization of the finite and infinite game. In the general discussion of this PhD, the principles and characteristics of the finite and infinite game were defined and applied to the changing game of sponsorship.

The findings of the conducted studies in this PhD trilogy contributed to further understand the paradigm shift and stages of corporate community involvement as suggested by scholars and practitioners. In the general discussion, the findings of the conducted studies in this PhD were combined to define the characteristics of the philanthropic, transactional, and integrative stages of corporate community involvement. The characteristics of the paradigm shift from the sponsorship buyer to a partnership investor with a hierarchy to a whyerarchy approach, reflects the finite mindset for short- term benefits compared to the infinite mindset with long-term commitment for cocreating value and meaningful experiences. Legacy thinking of sponsorship is required to continue the play within the changing game of sponsorship.
The findings of this PhD support scholars, practitioners, and eudcators in the challenges and opportunities ahead and to bridge the gaps between science and practice. The last chapter of this PhD included the reflections on the played game in this trilogy which were outlined as theoretical contributions, practical implications, educational implications, limitations and future research, generalisability of the research, methodological reflections, and personal reflections.