TY - JOUR

T1 - Improving service-center employees’ performance by means of a sport sponsorship

AU - Wagner, Ulrik

AU - Hansen, Kristian Rune

AU - Kristensen, Mette Lund

AU - Josty, Malene

N1 - (Ekstern)

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Purpose: Sponsorships targeting an internal audience, e.g. employees, are still under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees perceive and evaluate a sponsorship that is designed with the purpose of improving customer services and explore how the company may benefit from the sponsorship. Design/methodology/approach: The study is anchored in critical realism and based on a single case study using multiple methods. The authors survey the impact of the sponsorship on employees’ (n=653) perceptions of their ability to communicate with customers, to perform their personal best, to engage in teamwork, as well as employee retention. The authors use individual and group interviews to qualify the analysis and the access to company data on customer satisfaction rates to provide an indication of the effect of the sponsorship.Findings: Results indicate that close to half the employees respond that the campaign positively impacted their ability to communicate, improve personal performance and to engage in teamwork. The analysis also reveals that the commitment of the direct leader has an impact on employees’ interest and commitment to the campaign. Data on customer satisfaction show that reducing the number of dissatisfied customers and increasing the number of customers willing to recommend the company to others has been accomplished, thus indicating that the sponsorship has had a positive impact on company performance. Originality/value: By combining sponsorship research with insights from the HRM literature, the study provides empirically based knowledge to the hitherto limited research on the internal audience of sponsorships. The study provides a plausible indication of a positive relation between a sponsorship design and company performance.

AB - Purpose: Sponsorships targeting an internal audience, e.g. employees, are still under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees perceive and evaluate a sponsorship that is designed with the purpose of improving customer services and explore how the company may benefit from the sponsorship. Design/methodology/approach: The study is anchored in critical realism and based on a single case study using multiple methods. The authors survey the impact of the sponsorship on employees’ (n=653) perceptions of their ability to communicate with customers, to perform their personal best, to engage in teamwork, as well as employee retention. The authors use individual and group interviews to qualify the analysis and the access to company data on customer satisfaction rates to provide an indication of the effect of the sponsorship.Findings: Results indicate that close to half the employees respond that the campaign positively impacted their ability to communicate, improve personal performance and to engage in teamwork. The analysis also reveals that the commitment of the direct leader has an impact on employees’ interest and commitment to the campaign. Data on customer satisfaction show that reducing the number of dissatisfied customers and increasing the number of customers willing to recommend the company to others has been accomplished, thus indicating that the sponsorship has had a positive impact on company performance. Originality/value: By combining sponsorship research with insights from the HRM literature, the study provides empirically based knowledge to the hitherto limited research on the internal audience of sponsorships. The study provides a plausible indication of a positive relation between a sponsorship design and company performance.

KW - Critical realism

KW - Human resource management

KW - Internal audience

KW - Middle managers

KW - Olympic rowing

KW - Service-center employees

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049521363&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1108/IJSMS-10-2017-0109

DO - 10.1108/IJSMS-10-2017-0109

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85049521363

VL - 20

SP - 43

EP - 60

JO - International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

JF - International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship

SN - 1464-6668

IS - 1

ER -