The nature and effectiveness of sponsorship performance measurement systems

• We examine the nature and effectiveness of sponsorship performance measurement systems (PMS).
• We found that senior management value formal systems in evaluating sponsorship performance.
• We found that non-financial performance measures are still widely used.
• We show that formal measurement directs attention to sponsorship investments.
• Sponsorships contribution is undermined by the inability to account for performance.

Sponsorship represents a unique component of an organisation's integrated marketing strategy. There is increasing pressure from senior management to account for the contribution made by sponsorship to firm performance. This study examines the nature of sponsorship performance measurement systems (PMS) and antecedents' factors that may contribute to its effectiveness. An empirical study is conducted using survey data collected from 57 public companies in Australia. The results show that senior management support the adoption of formal sponsorship performance measurement systems comprising financial and non-financial performance measures but that “intuition” and “trust” were used in 98% of organisations. The antecedent variables of relational marketing strategy and size were found to have a relationship with the sponsorship performance measurement system. This underscores the importance of directing attention to sponsorship investment via the formalisation of the measurement process and the value of sponsorship PMSs in the eyes of senior management.

Chinese abstract赞助是组织整体营销策略中十分特殊的一部分。如今，高级管理层越来越想要了解赞助活动对公司业绩的贡献。本研究将探讨赞助效果评估系统（PMS）的性质和有助于提高其效力的影响因素。本文还利用从57家澳大利亚上市公司收集到的调查数据进行了实证研究。结果表明，高级管理层支持采用正式的赞助绩效评估系统，包括财务绩效评估和非财务绩效评估，但98%的组织都是凭直觉和感觉进行评估。研究发现，赞助绩效评估系统与相关市场营销策略的影响变因和规模有关。本文旨在强调通过规范的测量流程让公司更关注赞助投资的重要性，并从高级管理层的视角看待赞助绩效评估系统的价值。