Associating the Corporation with a Charitable Event Through Sponsorship: Measuring the Effects on Corporate Community Relations

Abstract On the basis of balance theory, corporate sponsorship of a well-liked charitable event is hypothesized to result in significant enhancement of consumer-perceived corporate community relations. However, on the basis of attribution theory, it is proposed that subjects would employ negative attributions (i.e., corporate self-interest) to explain the sponsorship. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that a structural equation model of charitable event sponsorship will show a significant negative path leading from the negative attributions construct to the outcome construct. As predicted, event sponsorship resulted in a significant enhancement of corporate community relations. However, the hypothesized path was not significant. The effects of sponsorship linkage on the outcome variable were largely mediated through the positive attributions construct.

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