What to address and with whom to partner: examining the interactive effects of perceived fit in team – corporate social partnerships
研究消费者如何评估职业体育团队与多家企业合作的社会倡议，发现消费者感知的匹配度独立影响其评价，且球队赛场表现不调节这一关系。
Research question Professional team sport organizations (PTSOs) often partner with several different sectors to address social causes. Despite the prevalence of this strategy, little is known about how consumers process the complexity of social partnerships involving multiple sectors. This study addresses this knowledge gap by examining multi-company social partnerships, with a particular focus on team – corporate partnerships, which consist of three cognitive elements: PTSOs, partner companies, and causes.Research methods Building on associative network theory, this study investigated how consumers’ perceived fit among team – corporate social partnerships influences their evaluations of partnership initiatives. We conducted two cross-sectional studies with customer data collected from a Japanese professional basketball team (Study 1: n = 352, Study 2: n = 585).Results and Findings The results showed that perceived fit was independently associated with consumers’ evaluations of social partnerships. Furthermore, PTSOs’ on-field performance did not moderate the relationship between perceived fit and partnership evaluations.Implications These findings provide valuable insights into how consumers evaluate the social initiatives of PTSOs and are useful for organizations, not only PTSOs but also commercial companies and non-profit organizations, seeking to address social issues.