Understanding relationship fading in cultural sponsorships

Purpose – To describe, analyse, and understand relationship fading between a business sponsor and a sponsored museum in the context of cultural sponsorships.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study uses a longitudinal and a dyadic approach to analyse the temporal development of a three‐year cultural‐sponsorship relationship.Findings – This study tackles the phenomenon of relationship fading in cultural sponsorships. The triggers of relationship fading are first elaborated into structural and situational triggers. These triggers are further categorised into structural predisposing triggers, situational precipitating triggers, situational attenuating, and structural attenuating triggers.Research limitations/implications – Most of the triggers of relationship fading are passive and indirect. Consequently, the triggers of fading affect the development of the relationship by gradually reducing the sponsor's motivations to invest and develop the cultural‐sponsorship relationship.Practical implications ...

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