Are firms like fair-weathered fans? Examining decision-making in B2B relationships
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 14 July 2020
Issue publication date: 8 February 2021
Abstract
Purpose
While numerous studies have investigated the returns firms receive for their investments in sponsorship, no study to date has examined the potential for organizational performance to contribute to the continuance of business to business (B2B) relationships. Thus, this study aims to illuminate B2B sponsorship relationships in isolating whether firm decision-makers are like fair-weathered fans, in that they are more likely to stick with successful organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
An advanced quantitative modeling approach, survival analysis, is applied to a data set of more than 350 sponsorships to isolate the impact of performance on B2B decision-making.
Findings
Even after controlling for several potentially confounding variables, results indicate that every point per game earned by English football clubs decreases the probability of the sponsoring firm exiting the agreement by 54.4%.
Originality/value
These findings provide empirical evidence of the impact of the sponsored organization’s performance to influence B2B firm decision-making, a novel finding yet to be confirmed in the sponsorship-linked marketing literature.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by an IBM Junior Faculty Development Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Appreciation goes to the attendees of the 2019 American Marketing Association (AMA) Summer Academic Conference for their helpful feedback on this research. Sincere thanks go to Mara Averick, Akash Mishra, Moreau Mo, George Schmitt and Jeremy Vlacancich for their work on the compilation of the data set analyzed in this study.
Citation
Jensen, J.A. (2021), "Are firms like fair-weathered fans? Examining decision-making in B2B relationships", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 281-291. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-04-2020-0187
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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