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This paper identifies factors that support and hinder image transfer in sports sponsorships. It develops a framework of drivers of image transfer and tests the proposed hypotheses empirically at a large sporting event with a number of different sponsors. The results suggest that event-sponsor fit has a positive impact and is the main driver of the strength of image transfer. Event involvement also positively affects image transfer, but the magnitude of this effect is lower. Sponsorship exposure does not have a significant influence. However, there is an interaction between event-sponsor fit and sponsorship exposure, indicating that higher exposure leads to an increased image transfer if the fit between event and sponsor is high. Implications of results for the choice and design of sport sponsorships are discussed and further areas of research identified.

The purpose of this study is to understand the occurrence, formation and magnitude of negative effects for sponsors of rival sports teams and to identify means to counteract negative sponsorship effects.

Surveys measure fans’ identification with their team as well as attitudes toward rival teams and their sponsors in a soccer context. An experiment introduces sponsorship communication activities that aim at mitigating negative sponsorship effects by shifting the focus of the sponsorship.

Results from surveys and experiments demonstrate that identification with a sports team negatively affects perceptions of a rival team, negative perceptions of a rival team negatively affect perceptions of its sponsors, this effect is stronger for fans with higher levels of team identification, companies can improve perceptions of rival team sponsors by shifting the focus of sponsorship-linked communication activities, but attenuating negative sponsorship effects is more difficult to achieve for fans with higher levels of identification with their team.

Further studies need to disentangle mitigating effects of framing sponsorship communication and investigate in greater depth conditions under which sponsorship leverage can emphasize specific social identities of sports fans and enhance the inclusiveness of fans’ self-categorization.

Companies can learn from this study how they can frame, design and use sponsorship communication activities to mitigate negative sponsorship effects in the context of rival-team sponsorship.

The study is one of the few studies addressing negative effects of sponsorship. In particular, the study provides first insights into how social identity theory, social categorization theory and framing theory work together with theories of image transfer in both the formation and the attenuation of negative sponsorship outcomes.

This study investigated whether the 2008 summer Olympic Games improved the country image of China among foreign consumers. It examined the extent to which the changed country image contributed to its product image. A quasi-experimental research design was used, with surveys taken two months before and two months after the event. The results showed that hosting the Olympics significantly improved the country image of China but did not affect the image of its products in a positive way.